And a woman who went from shoplifting anticapitalist to founder and ceo of a major retailer. This selfpro claimed girl boss has great advice to help you succeed. But first heres my take. Let me read you something from a wellknown analyst of American Foreign policy. He wrote, because of unsure and indecisive leadership in the field of Foreign Policy, questions have been raised on all sides. The right added that the administration is plagued by a ham letlike psychosis which seems to paralyze it every time Decisive Action is required. Is this one of the many recent critiques of Barack ObamasForeign Policy . Actually, it is Richard Nixon writing about president john f. Kennedy in 1961. Criticizing president s for weakness is a standard trope in washington because the world is a messy place, and when bad things happen, washington and the president can easily be blamed for them. But to determine what america and obama should be doing, lets first try to understand the nature of the world and the dangers within it. From 1947 until 1990, the United States faced a mortal threat, an enemy that was strategic, political, military and idealogical. Washington had to keep together an alliance that faced up to the foe and persuade countries in the middle not to give in. This meant that concerns about resolve and credibility were paramount. But the world today looks very different, far more peaceful and stable than at any point in several centuries. The United States faces no enemy anywhere on the scale of soviet russia. Americas military spending is about that of the next 14 countries combined, most of which are are treaty allies of washington. The countries that have been aggressive or acted as washingtons adversaries are facing a tough environment. Look at russia, china and iran. In this context, what is needed from washington is not another heroic exertion of American Military power but, rather, a sustained effort to engage with allies, isolate enemies, support free markets and Democratic Values and push these positive trends forward. The Obama Administration is, in fact, deeply internationalist, building on alliances in europe and asia, working with institutions like the imf and u. N. , isolating adversaries and strengthening the order that has been so beneficial to the United States and the world since 1945. The world has fought al qaeda and its allies ferociously. But a country that would intervene unilaterally would produce damage to its credibility that everybody is worried about. After all, just six years ago, americas closest allies were distancing themselves from washington because it was seen as aggressive, expansionist and militaristic. Obama is battling that anything that means anything is military force. Just because we have the best hammer does not mean every problem is a nail, he said in his speech at west point. President eyisenhower was a strong leader who refused to intervene in taiwan, confrontations and the hungarian uprising of 1926. Many times americans blasted the president and wished he would be more involved. They called him weak, v vascillating and tardy. But he held his ground and said, ill show you what leadership is. Its con sill yaciliation, educd its tough work. Its all i will believe in and practice. For more go to fareed and read my post column for this week. Lets get started. You heard my take on the president s Foreign Policy, now let me bring in my panel. David ignatius is a columnist for the Washington Post and a writer of a book called the director. It talks about his 25 years covering the cia. Nick is a columnist just back from burma. She is just back from ukraine. And dan ceno is a cofounder of the Foreign Policy initiative and was a key adviser to the romney campaign. So dan, let me give you first dibs, the case for the opposition. Tell me why obamas speech was terrible. First, i think he set up the straw man, the notion that anyone who is critical of his policy just wants to go to war. My response is, point me to that person. Critics have advocated a more muscular approach, more foreleaning approach to the president s policy have advocated for some form of air power. It worked in the balkans when clinton did it, it worked in afghanistan when president george w. Bush did it. And on afghanistan, the day before, what do you think of the twoday extension . I would personally leave 10,000 troops there beyond 2016, let the president s successor decide whether or not he or she wants to bring down those troop levels. I think going back to basically zero, with just enough forces to protect the embassy, leaves his successor with very few options. Also, he didnt really lay out what actually is changed . Why did he increase the troops and why is now the time to decrease them . Its not clear. Conditions on the ground have changed dramatically. The strategy wasnt clear. Nick, what do you think on afghanist afghanistan. If we stay until 2016, we would have been there 20 years. More than other wars. I worry about afghanistan if we pull out, i worry about the role of women, education, all kinds of things. But at the end of the day, i dont think our troops will be interested in advancing ourselves or the afghan people, and theyve been enormously expensive in every possible way, so i think it was probably the right call. David, one of the things he did talk about in his speech was counterterrorism and a new approach of a 5 billion fund, and the idea, as i understand it, is we have all these threats from around the world, but theyre smaller, diffuse, diverse, not all al qaeda central. So what im going to do is tell the cia and the military to help the countries in their battle. What does this mean for the United States . I thought that was one of the more creative parts of the speech. Hes recognizing that despite the rhetoric that the Obama Campaign used in 2012, al qaeda isnt dead. Core al qaeda and pakistan and afghanistan, maybe, but its morphed and these small offshoots are very dangerous. Al qaeda has embedded itself so deeply all the way to falujia. But its a big counterterrorism challenge to get them out. What was new in the speech was first this idea of creating a fund so youll have a resource to provide security services. All over theyre having al qaeda problems. Finally whats interesting in the speech, the president just hinted at t but talking to people you get more of a sense. The president would like to move the Counterterrorism Program away from the uniformed military and away from the cia. Why . Because first there is the idea that the ct mission has eaten the ira hole. Because the ccia is becoming too much of an armed these have been the corporate headquarters, but thats not their job. Nick, you spent a lot of time in these countries like mali and somalia. What do you think on the ground the effect of the cia being in ka hoo cahoots with the military . I think there are times we can train local authorities. One of the problems is if youre a local leader in a place like moritania, you can represent yourself as being antitore rorist, antial qaeda. You can make a lot of money and use it in ways to antagonize local population and make them more sympathetic to al qaeda. I think it has to be done on an ad hoc basis, listening to people, and it can be useful but has to be done really cautiously. Krista, 30 seconds on this and then ill come back to you after the break. Any thoughts . I was pretty much agreeing with nick. Happy families are all alike, unhappy families are unique in their unhappiness, and thats what the world is like today. Its not a monolithic threat, we have to learn about each country and whats going on. People found that hard. It was nicer in a lot of ways during the cold war when you could say, these are the good guys, these are the bad guys, this is how we do it. We actually have to engage, talk to people, figure out whats happening in either country. Now these are different circumstances and different countries. We have to take a break. When we come back, we have a lot to talk about, christa will give ace report from ukraine. I have to ask about Edward Snowden and dan is going to tell us why the republicans have to pay really close attention, when we come back. Verizon has always set out to provide you with the most powerful and Reliable Network experience. And now for the next advancement. Introducing verizon xlte. 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Zing we care about your loan as much as you do. Were not just number crunchers. Im your buddy. Im your team mate. I specialize in what i do, and i care about my clients call us for a mortgage experience thats engineered to amaze. We are back with our panel. Christa, you are just back from ukraine. There is so much reporting out there, what struck you when you were there . Three top takeaways. The first thing that was really striking is the people of ukraine, 90 of ukraine, are really united, really determined, united around building a democracy from the ground up around the western choice, around their new president. The second really big thing which weve talked about before is the idea that the kremlin was really pushing of there being this specter of a far right threat in ukraine. The election really demolished that. The two far right candidates got 1 each. Meanwhile, there was a jewish candidate, independent candidate, who leads one of the big jewish organizations in the country, he got 2 . So we really have to put that to bed and understand that was something the kremlin was pushing. Really not part of whats happening in ukraine right now. So it left you feeling quite optimistic. With the exception of donetsk where the fighting is happening right now. I was in donetsk before the big fighting broke out, and i was struck by the extent to which state power in 60 of that region has just melted away. In that area its hard to predict whats going to happen and really dangerous. Your colleague said putin blinked. That if you look at what happened, putin is no longer trying to take over eastern ukraine, hes accepted the new government, he realizes hes going to have to cut a deal . It would be nice if he ducked a little more, but indeed, its more promising than it looked a month ago. It looks like hes going to hang onto crimea, it doesnt look like its going to march into part of muldoa, for example, as it seemed he might. For now i would say and it looks like purishenko will be able to align the country more. Things are more encouraging now than they were before. What did you think of Edward Snowdens interview, and what did you make of it . You know the nsa, bookt hthe boa lot about the nsa. The director is about the collision of hacking and espionage which snowden has come to symbolize. I thought his interview with Brian Williams on nbc this week was fascinating. One way to read it is the opening of a plea negotiation in which hes saying, ill come home, im plead to lesser charges. Theres a suggestion he might even serve a shorter prison sentence, but the insistence i did nothing wrong, im a patriot, i was serving the discussion. A the constitution. And the vanity that he was a spy. Hes a person that really needs to show the world that hes important. Touting his spy credentials. It was almost as if, were more important and dangerous than you think. I use fake names. I was thinking to myself, youre world famous, what difference does it make what classification you had . Its now irrelevant, youre one of the most famous people in the world. The issue i struggled with in this book is how we and how u. S. Intelligence agencies are going to live in a world where this is a postsnowden novel. We live in a world now where these secrets that used to be the most precious secrets the United States government had have been exposed willynilly. Whats the damage of that . It can be another snowden. Whats the damage of that . We really dont know. European elections really startling even though this is not a particularly powerful body. You had between 20 and 40 in some cases of the electorate voting of antipro putin elements, and this is happening in france. This is big countries, not small, remote things. You say its very important. Im worried about it. If you look at the u. K. Independence party, they came in first, beat out labor and the tories. The second and Third Largest economies in the continent. If you look at the themes of their campaigns, its obviously deeply antiimmigrant, its antiglobalization and its antielite, which is brussels. There is a lot of that rhetoric in american policies on the right. Ive not seen the Republican Leadership in this country develop yet a real middleclass oriented populist agenda. If they dont do it now, im not saying there will abe crackup here like they have in europe, but they should Pay Attention. Parties throughout the u. S. Should Pay Attention to parties because there is a lot going on. You talk about inequality and globalization. I totally agree with dan. To me this is the hollowedout, mil middle class vote. Were seeing it in the states, were seeing it now in europe. I dont think its just a question for the right, i think ilts its a question for all political elites, and i think we have to be really thoughtful to the extent that people in the middle are really being hammered and we have to work really hard to put together first of all, to listen and be aware that far and sensitive to that, and second of all, to put together some policies that address it. Otherwise the dangers of extremism, i think, are just huge. On that note, we have to stop. When we come back, im going to delve deeper into the future of afghanistan. Is it possible that this country who has been at war for 30 years might actually have a future . Ill give you the evidence of optimism, when we come back. Od. Helping the world keep promises. And now for our what in the world segment. As u. S. Troops prepare to withdraw from afghanistan, afghans are preparing to usher in their own new era. Soon the nation could witness its first ever democratic handover of power. So what have i told you that afghanistan seems poised to effectively navigate this transition . In other words, what if i told you that afghanistan could actually work out . Almost two months ago, afghans headed to the polls in record numbers. The election went remarkably well. Afghan Security Forces performed better than anyone expected. There were few reports of ballot stuffing or corruption that had marred the 2009 election of karzai. Since no candidate secured more than 50 of the vote, there will abe runoff in june. And two frontrunners have emerged. Guess what . Theyre both great. Highly qualified, modern, conformist and articulate. Compare them to the thugs running iraq, and you will see a world of difference. Abdullah abdullah, a former leader in the antitaliban alliance and a trained ophthalmologist secured 45 of the vote. Ash ashraf ghani secured 32 of the vote. I was struck by how much they agreed on and how different they were from karzai. First lets consider the bilateral security agreement. It would allow forces to remain in afghanistan after 2014. Karzai first negotiated it, but ever since hes refused to sign it. Heres the front runner abdullah on the bsa. It has to be signed and it will be one of the priorities of the future government of afghanistan. And here is ghani. Im on record that i will sign the agreement within the first week of being elected. I have