war in afghanistan, but why are we in libya? >> i don't want to get into the others. i want to get into afghanistan because that's what the president is talking. why did the president hawk up? why is he keeping more soldiers in there for the long haul? i wonder if bush would have been staying this long. who knows. >> i think bush would have stayed this long. i think there a path dependency. >> obama came up with about 30,000 troops, now up to a hundred. >> yeah. >> and he is going the other way. >> one reason i think he might be staying in there is, across the border from afghanistan is pakistan. i think the signaling is very important. >> this is troubling. thank you. coming up, we are going hear from president obama at the top of the hour. of course we are waiting for that right now. getting ready. when we return, let's get into the politics of getting out of afghanistan, very troubling. very troubling night. this is "hardball" only on msnbc. ugh, my feet are killin' me.