Page 4 - Force Levels News Today

>> i think they were both ill advised. id describe them both as wars of choice. just to be clear, the iraq war, the second iraq war was a war of choice from the get-go. we didnt have to go at that point. we had other options. afghanistan after 9/11 began as a war of necessity. after the bombings, we had to make sure that al qaeda wouldnt continue to use afghanistan to kill americans. but then particularly under the obama administration, when we tripled force levels, when we decided now we were g...

Theyll work with us sometimes. our motto will be we will work with you when we can and you act responsibly and we will work around you and work against you when you force us to, a new kind of relationship? >> whats our leverage? >> acting independently is a piece of leverage because it humiliates them as we saw with the bin laden raid or india, why dont we bring india into the afghan negotiations? and also to stop using the pakistanis as our go between. if we reduced our force levels in afghanis...

The specific outcome or to the. >> jamie: it seems that it is important that this election take place without the u.s. involvement of maybe the first election. that not necessarily a total hands-off approach, because we still have troops there. but, as we look forward to pulling out more of our troops, bringing our boys and girls home, how important is it to keep some military presence there? of the u.s.? particularly, because of iran? >> well, i think it is very important. i think the level and...

It. so he clearly bypassed in a big way the intelligence community in order to green light it himself. >> this is not the first time, according to others, that the president has ig in order advice from top military brass. jack cain on this network says that the president has routinely not listened to top military brass when making big intelligence decisions like this. listen to the general. >> heres the issue. general mcchrystal, general petraeus, general alston, general allen now general dunfor...

Should be respected. >> i want to get to the guys that have been released. the senior defense official says the president was warned not to do that and the former defense secretary saying i was against this when i was defense secretary. i believed i had an obligation not to release the soldiers, these taliban soldiers given the on going war and i assumed this would never happen. >> well, that doesnt surprise me because, you know, ive been around penetta for a number of years. hes a straight shoo...

Problems. >> when you cut from a 600-ship navy we had just a few years ago under president reagan to one that is fast approaching 300 and 200, i really question that. so i think that what were trying to do is solve our financial problems on the backs of our military. >> congressional sources focused on national security point out potential enemies study u.s. military weaknesses. those sources expect force levels and compensation cuts will take a lot of heat on capitol hill with members concerned...