in iraq, the war plan is to hang on and to continue to draw down troop levels. june was the costliest month of the afghan war. 60 american troops were killed. now a new commander is in charge of u.s. forces in afghanistan. of course, general david petraeus tasked with securing victory in america s longest war. can the american military fight, fight and win both wars in afghanistan and iraq at the same time? is their exit strategy realistic for both theaters? over the weekend vice president biden invited u.s. troops and iraqi politicians and talked about the plans for iraq. so, this is not like in august we go, boom. we have now gone down to 50,000. joining us at msnbc headquarters retired arn are army colonel jack jacobs. good morning.
u.s. and their citizens. we need to maintain what general petraeus wants. the general admits and has admitted there does have to be an exit strategy. it cannot be an indefinite war. no. i don t think we want to look at it as indefinite war. when you look at the united states, we have made strategic investments in countries for decades. look at vermny, italy and japan following world war ii. we made commitment to those countries. we made need to partner with afghanistan and surrounding countries to have stability and ensure the rise of al qaeda or radical taliban elements don t enter the picture, interfere with the government and cause instability. you mentioned europe and asia. why weren t we get are more help from allies and do you think general petraeus needs to drum
troops to project power and clear out the taliban and create conditions for the government to have success. some have but more is better than less. when the vice president says we need an exit strategy do you think the troops here we re not in it for a long hall so in a year, what s a the point? i m concerned this administration continues to emphasize a 2011 exist strategy. that is interpreted as they re more concerned about the impact of an exit strategy on the 2010 and 2012 elections than the long range view that general petraeus has. he s unique in the fact he not only had command of surge in iraq and understands how it works but more importantly as a central command commander working directly with the president and secretary of defense, he has a national perspective so important that he
brian: vice president biden biden talking about pulling troops out of afghanistan by next july. new afghan head general david petraeus telling troops we re in this to win it. the guest says sounds like a mixed message and there s not good for anybody. commander, welcome to the program. do you think we re hearing mixed messages? what is they risk if we are? it s both a mixed message and how it s interpreted. while the president says we need an exit strategy in july of 2011, the reality is they re saying that for political purposes. general petraeus is looking at it from a national security perspective saying we need to continue to make and be prepared for a long-term strategy i can engage. with that country in order to best serve the security to the
means it makes it harder to bring the economy back. i want to give a shout out to rich pearlstein at the washington post. he said politicians are facing sort of the force of all political and economic choices. do we weaken it the concern being it will be harder to repair it in the long run. so, there is no good answer, it is a hard choice. and people on both sides of the debate have a great explanation. they re absolutely right. you know, richard, some people say we re kind of sewing the seeds for the next crisis by all the spending a debt crisis by all the spending to get us out of the last crisis, and this is the way that policy-makers operate. you bounce from one bad choice to the next and hope that you have minimized the pain for your citizens. that is true. the problem being, of course, everybody said there had to be an exit strategy from the huge