Across kabul years before. It just simply was too dangerous. It is still a dangerous place, by the way. I dont want to sound pollyannish here. Things havent is changed for the better in afghanistan and the American People, sadly, dont know it. Relative to the american by way ofy itself part of the story, of course, is the growth in the number of students. When it opened i think it with 53 students. There is now 1,000 students there. 300 of them are women. And they have a broad number of courses. I wont go into all those. On ann a a newd campus an International Campus womens economic. Defense dollars to open up a womens Economic Development school, a. I. D. . t that why is it d. O. D. . Significantly to the security of the country, but i think basically the answer is because the d. O. D. Did a number of things including some of the commanders expenditures which helped the development of that is so essential to its security and this is part of it. At thee story we got American University at a town meeting we had there is one hisdent we talked about life experience. When the taliban was there, he took refuge with his family. A younger boy at that time. For safety. O iran taliban wereheas th driven out, he came back and was accepted at the American University. Taught himself as a matter of fact, how to read and how to right. He is now interviewing for a job as a Sales Manager at seimens and applying for a scholarship. There are four fullbright scholars at the American University in kabul. Wanted me to say thanks to the American People. So this is as close as i will be able to come. Ine Education System afghanistan, not just higher education. Universities, the number that was given to me is so i donttuitive use it. In terms of the lower grades before you get to colleges and universities, before the taliban was driven out to the been, 900,000ave boys in afghan schools ten or so. Ago now 8 Million Students in schools. About 3 million of those are girls. None of whom could have been educated before we got there allies. R in 2001, under the taliban were 20,000 teachers, all male. Now 200,000 teachers. 60,000 of whom are women. Healthcare many improved. Significantlyty down. Refugeeslion afghan who fled to pakistan have returned home. That 67 of the a mostan people in recent survey think that the afghan war was not worth fighting . How did that happen . The picture is much, number. Tter than that i just dont believe that the American People have had a fair or fuller picture of the events in afghanistan. That the press has story. A good it hasnt missed the problems. It has missed the progress. Our peoplesion that either. Snt come from it comes from what they read or hear or see and what they have sort of a steady diet of all of the problems, which is fair game. And they should be brought into the light and disclosed and written about and talked about. But what has been missing, i believe, is the part of the afghan story which represents Real Progress so that the American People have been the sense ofnied partial or at least success which i believe they the entitled to because of loss of blood and treasure by our people. I think it is a sad it is that our people dont have that sense that hey, we have progress in afghanistan. The picture basically has just onesided focused just too much on failure and on discord. Now have to decide what we are going to do, what the next steps in afghanistan . We need a Security Agreement a socalled bilateral Security Agreement for our troops to be able to stay. Reached and will be reached soon because i think we relationshipnuing to doafghanistan to try everything that we can within reason to keep the progress moving in the right direction not to see a fallback to taliban control or taliban rule. In terms of the security on the the taliban has not accomplished their strategic goals. They have not been able to hold any additional territory. Were 4,000there overs that had been turned to the control of the Afghan Forces and there were thoseks against 3,000 of sites. In 100 cases of the 4,000, there was temporary success by taliban attackers. Temporary. Them was it any kind of permanent success. Temporary and then turned back. So that the security situation military perspective has significantly improved. This isough and critical and i will stop here, we turned over the entire basically to the afghans. Been a huges success story. We our commanders have been surprised by how well the Afghan Security forces have done. Now this is not perfect. There are places where the security is not quite as good with the Afghan Forces there on their own. Are now basically on their own. Quick. It doesnt seem quick. A ten year war seems like forever but in terms of the transfer of responsibility to the Afghan Forces this has been couple of years essentially. I remember now much time and and effort we spent just a few years ago trying to get data on how many of the Afghan Forces were being partnered with us. Were being led by us. How many were on their own. Basically they are on their own. Supportingwe have troops still there. On their way out. Endy will all be out by the of next year except for perhaps a force that will remain. We dont know the number but a total Coalition Force of 10,000 who will remain logistics onlp on perhaps on intelligence and training,dditional perhaps on the helicopters and air force. Some special activities which will be theaged in by whatever residual force is, and ha that decided yet. Nonetheless, they are basically country onng this their own. They have done a better job than i think most of our expected. S have we need to be continually engaged in afghanistan. We need for that to happen. To have a bilateral agreement. President karzai is always a challenge. Diplomatic when i say that. This is a place of diplomacy. Want to be diplomatic. Rhetoric has been timesingly bad at inaccurate at times. Said things that i cant figure out why he is saying them, what the motive is. Like one of the things that he says is that nato has not successd any security in afghanistan or he will say that we have at time be in lee with the taliban. And i asked him directly. I said what possible motive have to be in league minutehe taliban for one when they are killing our men and women and your men and women . What could possibly be our motive . He has been well, trying to figure that out himself. [ laughter ] and then he i said well, hurts, it hurts. The American People hear you is almoste way, he alone in terms of the leadership of that country that doesnt makegh it much difference whether we come or stay. He is almost alone. You talk to the ministers you talk to the educators there, they want us to stay. We cant stay. Can have a residual force but we cant stay. And so finally he says well, he said there has been a western of divided rule. And conquer here in afghanistan. That is the best he could do. Or 100e what happened 50 years ago. Or when the brits or russians or whoever. Alex and. Alexander. Than i do. K further anyway, that is it. And i just told him, i said you it just is you are undermining a goal which you obviously want, which is for there to be com some kind of a residual presence and your people clearly want by any any conversation. Good healthyd a withersation, not my first karzai but perhaps my last, i dont know. Anyway, thanks for the invitation and we would be happy to engage in conversation. You. K [ applause ] so i want to ask you there a lot i want to ask you about afghanistan. But i want to start with the dustup over the n. S. A. Allegedr our, you know, espionage of friends and allies around the world. Still alleged . Pretty muchit is acknowledged. I tried to get an explicit acknowledgement out of the and they havent gone that far. What was the apology for if havent acknowledged it . Anyway. About angelament merkel is that the United States is not and will not be in on her phone conversations. There was never any statement about the past tense. Was always current, future. Did you know this was going on . You got all of the security specifically. I think the most that i would have known would have been the would have been the intelligence assessments. Saying specifically where they came from. In other words, it could be say, well, that the source of assessment would be high level officials, for instance, in a country. But you dont know that was one on one or transferred anonymously in conversation. Whether it was overheard. The source is they dont describe in the reports that we get that so and sos phone was conversation was tapped. That is not the way the reports. Assumed say that people that there were conversations were overheard but i dont it wasnt as though a reporte to us with saying we want you all to know earliesenning in on are listening in to conversations of leaders. Not going to believe with merkel just said. Yes. It didnt shock you when you report . E it didnt shock me. Startles us when we look at or we hear of something wrong. Ounds to me so i dont think we ought to be tapping the phone conversations the phoneing in on conversations of our allies leaders. Period . Period. Question is who are our allies. If there is a list. There is a list. Major nonnato allys. I cant confirm that here. But allegedly now nine leaders according to some of the reports. I dont believe all of the i hear or read. Even from you. Present company excepted. Depends on your source. Right. And sometimes you guys say anonymous. Right. Just maybe no more than once a day. Frequently in the media an anonymous white house source. We dont know who the heck that source is. And there is times with some investigative reporters, you, who will try to get information from us. It happens all the time on the hill. Up and say will come planning aat you are trip to the moon. Or i better make it more logical. Planning a trip to north korea. Okay. Kind of like the moon. And that reporter never heard that. Hopingsaying i heard, because i did go to north korea ten years ago that maybe i got plans now. And what or there is a rumor that he heard. So, you know, some very aggressive investigative are able to get anonymous statements and use get confirmations. I mean it is a wellknown thing. But back to i mean the here though is we have our nato allies, we have the allies. Onnato that list includes afghanistan. Includes pakistan. It be smart for the states to foreswear any listening in on the leaders of those two countries . The test for me is whether leaders have a reasonable expectation that we are not going to try to listen expectations. That to me would be a test. And if there is a reasonable we would notthat be trying to listen to their conversations then i think we some kind of an understanding with other countries about protecting our listening in from being listened in to. Kind of a using it as kind of a privacy test, what do what is their reasonable expectation as to whether or not their Business Records are going to be opened to more than the telephone companies,. Right. Kind of that issue. What is the reasonable expectation about privacy . Think that our friends and leaders ought to have do have or should have, even if they dont and they are so cynical now up believing that they wont be tapped by their best friends, i think we are better of trust because we need the trust of our allies leaders. We need that trust and i think is better that there be a reasonable expectation if there theeady isnt one that conversations that are intended friends p. Ate of our leaders are not going to be intervened by us. Is my test. Are you concerned that we the pendulum swing back. Talked to officials that are concerned that we are going to overcorrect this. Even if it went a little bit far. Why are we listening to chancellor merkel, that there a move to really constrain what the n. S. A. And agencies intelligence do and we could have something like, you know, i mean much of talks about how we went too far after the and all ofmission that. I havent seen evidence of yet. Sure, it can go too far. Wet from what i have seen, are not anywhere near going too too even though we could go far. The pendulum could go too far n. S. A. Metadata issue. A fascinating issue. The question so i wont take the time to give my views on it. I havent seen the pendulum swing too far yet. Back to afghanistan. The meeting with karzai. He said all of the things you said, talked to some u. S. Officials, some offtherecord. We will talk about him as if he a little bit unstable. I dont think he is unstable. Be in thes it like to room with him . He is a a very friendly bynversation, first of all, the way. He was very direct. I talked to him about the things that he says and the impact that that has on us and that i donte and understand his politics, by the way. Presenceeople want a an ongoing presence why is he make itthings that either unlikely, less likely, or that he doesnt care that much . What is the politics . I dont get it. Im a politician. While you willt see politicians say things for public consumption. I know it is rare. Whilence in a great politicians will Say Something for their publics that they dont exactly believe themselves or they would stay differently. Why is he saying these things . Totallyit is inconsistent with where his public is. That. t get the conversation i want to emphasize are very friendly, very direct. Question was about n. S. A. Onu know, trying to put me the trying to put me on the defensive. Said why are he says i presume you are tapping and i go why are you doing that to me . I said we are we tap everybody. Discriminate. [ laughter ] not quite true, but it but i decided lets go on to afghanistan rather than right, right, right. Now, he obviously you have a president ial election going on in afghanistan. Signs of that when you were there . A lot of evidence of it actually. When i say evidence, a lot of about it. N not evidence. The signs, the answer is we didnt see visible signs. Discussion about it and a lot of confidence that it is going to happen. What,heduled for april 10 . I dont know the exact date but it is in april. The military there are pretty confident that they are going to be able to prevent the taliban from disrupting it. Taliban goal would be to make it so that the Afghan People dont have outcome . Ce in the scout afterat does karzai do all that . Go and establish a president ial library . No, he has got he is building a modest little apartment for himself. 10,000 or 20,000 square feet or whatever it is. On the grounds. That he will he is going to stick around. A you think we will have genuine transition. There are how many candidates . 11 left or 10 was it . Heard there were 10 out there. And do we i thought my staff would me. P ten, thank you, bill. And do we what do we happens postkarzai afghanistan . I mean we got war lords running i mean what is obviously more optimistic than perhaps the is given theican information that has been given to them. I just see evidence of progress. If we can maintain and if we can work out a bilateral for us and our allies that allow us to have a small effectivebut an presence there i just think do. Now what they want to they dont like the taliban and they like their army. Confidence in the government in terms of it being corruptionfree or anywhere near that. The corruption problem remains there. Remainsk of services there. This isnt like the Afghan People have great confidence in government, they dont. But they do have confidence in the army and they have for a long time and a few years ago they didnt have a lot of confidence in the national police. They seem now from everything we can gather to have more confidence in the national police. And the local police which i is at about 25,000 and they are trying to increase to 40,000. And to have it in more places. Confidencey have because that is their own elders that basically are and connected to that. They are defending their own they are protecting their own villages. That heart, the security part emma i believe will continue to give the taliban problems. They will continue to be a force particularly in rural areas. I dont want to underestimate that. In some places, afghanistan a slightly less secure now than it was two years ago, in some places. Other measures weve seen is sort of a difference between the Intelligence Community and the measures that the military use, it is significantly more secure. , Security Agreement, lets be clear. All u. S. Forces are going to leave afghanistan, just like iraq. If there is no Security Agreement, we cannot stay. We will not put our troops in a situation where they are at risk because of how they might be tried in a court order we dont have confidence, for instance. How really possibility is it that there is a deadlock and no agreement . What happens if we just take up and leave 100 cent . I think it is likely we will get a bilateral Security Agreement but there are a few issues that may remain unresolved i still call him senator john kerry, but secretary john kerry did a terrific job and working on a couple of successful solutions. Does he get along with karzai . He is directed his hands on, so i think people respect that. He does not just read from talking points come a which he makes good use of, but he also has his own knowledge and experience which he brings to bear and his own background working out problems with people, being direct. People like him. He is a big plus there are. If it does not happen and we pull out, theres a greater chance that they will fall back into a society which they dont want. Before you get to other questions, just a few more quick ones on this. Should we be negotiating this agreement with karzai along with his successor . Is it essential to get it done before he leaves . It is. Why . You dont want it to be an issue in their campaign. All of the candidates basically want an ongoing relationship, not just with us but with the coalition. Whatever that number is, 8000 12,000 number range that you sometimes read about which has not been decided upon by the president. Let me ask you about that. Before general