Page 25 - Tom Ricks News Today

corporation change the he is sense of what made the liberal sense so popular. keith olbermann becomes the program officer, is this a step down for the liberal lion? gawker runs e-mails from a shirtless congressman and before the rest of the media can agree its news, the lawmaker resigns, im howard kurts and this is reliable sources. the street protest had been remarkable to watch but the ki otic nature of the story left journalists scrambling for information and sometimes getting ahe...

strike again with the united states hes making this direct connection. its so argumentative. its such a hype. you can have enough troops there. you could keep people there to keep al qaeda off balance i dont think al qaeda is going to strike again like it did before and i think anybody who makes that argue system overselling this war. >> the most likely scenario is you get to july of 2011 and theres some progress but not enough to warrant a rapid deescalation. what do you do then? do y...

states hes making this direct connection. its so argumentative. its such a hype. you can have enough troops there. you could keep people there to keep al qaeda off balance i dont think al qaeda is going to strike again like it did before and i think anybody who makes that argue system overselling this war. >> the most likely scenario is you get to july of 2011 and theres some progress but not enough to warrant a rapid deescalation. what do you do then? do you deescalate anyway and name...

strike again with the united states hes making this direct connection. its so argumentative. its such a hype. you can have enough troops there. you could keep people there to keep al qaeda off balance i dont think al qaeda is going to strike again like it did before and i think anybody who makes that argue system overselling this war. >> the most likely scenario is you get to july of 2011 and theres some progress but not enough to warrant a rapid deescalation. what do you do then? do y...

>> to remind people, 46,000 killed or wounded in one of the smallest armies since 1939. i just gave an award to a dad whose son got the silver star. he wasnt there to receive it himself because he was back in afghanistan on his sixth combat tour, so at the end of the day tom ricks superb article this morning in "the washington post" captured a lot of this. our way out is build afghan security forces. lieutenant general build caldwell is on the ground. petraeus is going to go in. hes got to build...

Afghanistan and begin to look at how we ensure our national security. >> 20 seconds, tom. how does it end? >> i dont think it does. i think we have landed in the middle of the middle east for better or worse in a way that none of us expected us to. i think the war in afghanistan was made much worse by the distracting war in iraq which never should have happened. but we are dealing with the middle east that is crucial to our well-being so we need to come up with alternatives. >> amen. >> well lea...

Here. al qaeda was in afghanistan when they attacked on 9/11. they are in pakistan right now because were in afghanistan. if we pulled out, what they have is what they had before 9/11. they have -- i mean, when they are in pakistan they are in the tribal territories. its not an area thats connected very well to the rest of the world, and in afghanistan they had an airport. they had an economy, and they had a failed state that had no extradition treaties with the rest of the world so they can do ...

And women home. >> lets remember some history here. al qaeda was in afghanistan when they attacked on 9/11. they are in pakistan right now because were in afghanistan. if we pulled out, what they have is what they had before 9/11. they have -- i mean, when they are in pakistan they are in the tribal territories. its not an area thats connected very well to the rest of the world, and in afghanistan they had an airport. they had an economy, and they had a failed state that had no extradition treat...

Over a minute left and congresswoman, too. how does this end? >> to remind people, 46,000 killed or wounded in one of the smallest armies since 1939. i just gave an award to a dad whose son got the silver star. he wasnt there to receive it himself because he was back in afghanistan on his sixth combat tour, so at the end of the day tom ricks superb article this morning in "the washington post" captured a lot of this. our way out is build afghan security forces. lieutenant general build caldwell ...

>> this sunday, a special edition. afghanistan, the fight ahead. it is the longest war in u.s. history. one year from now troops are supposed to start coming home. after the presidents dramatic firing of general stanley mcchrystal what now. should the strategy change? will the withdraw timetable hold? is the mission possible and how will it end? with us, senator john mccain john mccain, republican of arizona. democratic congresswoman barbara lee of the foreign affairs committee. journalist sebas...