To more effectively address emerging threats from the middle east and north africa. It has been our willingness to work through multilateral channels that kept the world on our side. President obama told graduates at the u. S. Military academy at west point that our reduced presence in afghanistan allows washington to redirect resources towards the changing face of global terrorism. The commander in chief laid out plans for a 5 billion Counterterrorism Partnership. Its intended to help train other nations in coordination with the state department. We will work with lebanon, with turkey, with iraq, with jordan, with others in order to do a better job of being able to counter a rise of increasing numbers of terrorist groups. The rollout comes just days after the president announced his plan to end the war in afghanistan by the time he leaves office and just days before he leaves for another overseas trip. This time to europe. That trip is all about Foreign Policy. The president is traying to convince nato allies he will stand by them in the face of any possible aggression from russia. He will also meet with the g7 for the First Time Since exiting russia from a from the group. Before he leaves, the president is under intense pressure here at home to use a heavy hand. None of us who will worry about Americans National security and have lived through these crisises for many, many years want to send americans into harms way, but we do want to have a strong and steadfast america. It not that were weak. Were not. Its a matter of our reliability, and around the world they believe we are unreliable. Lets start with todays commencement speech with retired u. S. Army colonel medal of honor recipient and west point professor colonel jack jacobs. Colonel, the president is talking about the end of combat operations in afghanistan, but he is also talking about nearly 10,000 u. S. Troops staying there after the end of the year. What does it mean to say the war is over if were leaving 10,000 troops in the country . Well, its a very good question indeed. Weve been there for a long, long time, and in actual fact, havent accomplished a great deal. Weve gotten ourselves to the point where we decided that the only way were going to satisfy ourselves with the mission is to leave. In actual fact, if you look at it in the military standpoint, you are going to need somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 people if you want to accomplish what the president and the National CommandAuthority German joint chiefs of staff really expect to do, and that is to train the afghans so theyll be able to protect themselves, be able to feed themselves, be able to take care of all the logistical requirements and so on, and were not going to do that. The country is warweary. Were going to take 30,000 out right away and leave a relatively small number of people where its not going to accomplish the Mission Everybody says it is. When we get out in 2016 my guess is, and everybody elses guess is that the country wont be any better off. It may be actually much worse off. Colonel, stay with us, please. Lets bring in howard fineman, editorial director of the Huffington Post media group. The usual suspects. The overall reaction from republicans has been pretty muted. Senator bob corker, the republican Ranking Member on Senate Foreign relations, issued a statement saying, i applaud the president s announcement today that he will support the size of the residual Security Forces requested by u. S. Commanders. Howard, has the bipartisan consensus in washington come around to getting away from an indefinite commencement to afghanistan . I think for the most part, yes. Its the longest war in american history. As colonel jack said, its a murky story with no definitive conclusion. Not the kind of war americans like to fight. While we may be at risk of allowing afghanistan after 2016 to not really fulfill our hopes for civility, i think the political consensus here is pretty clearly with regard to afghanistan enough is enough, and the president , dont forget, got elected back in 2008 offering a different take overall on the use of massive military force in places like iraq. He did support the surge in afghanistan for sure, but i think he and most of the american people, and most of the republicans have had enough with afghanistan. Colonel jack, he was a rather strong and stirring speech about the value and importance of sometimes not fighting. Lets learn a little bit of it. Since world war ii some of the most costly mistakes came not from our restraint, but from our willingness to rush into military adventures without thinking through the consequences. U. S. Military action cannot be the only or even primary component of our leadership in every instance. Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail. How do you feel as a military man how do you feel about the commander in chief being so fervently in belief that we need to be restrained . Military people have been saying that for a long time. The military instrument of policy has been, but should not be the default instrument of policy. One of the reasons we have used the military to the exclusion of Everything Else is quite frankly weve not been very good at use saysing other instruments of policy. Diplomacy, the economic instrument, and we certainly havent integrated all three of those into some sort of coherent exercise of our national power. One of the reasons for this and not the only one is that there is not yet any real coherent mission of what our strategic objectives ought to be if you talk to people inside the belt way, people who are operators in the military and other establishments. Theyll tell you the same thing. We need some guidance. What is it were trying to accomplish and then well tell you what we can do to do it . I want to hit on that point, actually, because there has been real criticism. Around obamas foreign and National Security policies and not just from republicans, but from both sides of the aisle. Criticism on his inability to really define what exactly our role is on the world stage, but also on hits his reluctance to intervene and whether thats dealing with syria or his most limited response. How much is this addressed today is political . If you read through the lines, this plan would allow president obama to claim that he was the one, he was the one who ebbed the wars in both iraq and afghanistan. Is this more about obama trying to define his presidency than anything else . Well, yeah. Go ahead, howard. I think its partly that. I think its in some respects its less a Foreign Policy immediate Foreign Policy speech with all kinds of new policy directions than it is a sort of legal document like kind of an argument saying i do, in fact, have a Foreign Policy. What he has done is kind of looked at the last several years and put a shape on it almost retroactively and come up with his doctrine of every just because we have a big hammer, doesnt mean we need the nail that every event, situation is not a nail. Thats obviously the takeaway line from this. I think much of the speech is actually pretty unobjectionable. If you read it carefully, it allows the full range of everything. We can go it alone if we have to. Every conceivable oping is included 234 there. The overall theme that we are sort of the conveners in chief, and that america is now the sort of convening power for training, for alliances, for international consensus, and stressing that at the west point i think is as good as a definition that president obama is what he has been about as president. Colonel jack, to that point, you know, you just mentioned that we havent always been very effective, to put it diplomatically, at using other instruments of policy than military force. The president announces specific michigan tiff in the speech today. A 5 billion Counterterrorism Partnership fund to work specifically with middle east and north african countries. It would help train partner countries. It would help enable allies Counter Terror efforts. Is this the sort of step in the right direction that would enable us to have some of those more effective policy opings where we are not the lead actor, but were empowering the actors in the region . Well, certainly one of the things that we need to do in order to keep ourselves safe and our allies safe and prevent the spread of terrorism and all the president was doing was, you know, were already doing that. We have lots and lots of people in africa doing the kinds of things that already the president was talking about. All he did was say what the initial tag was going to be. Those arent the only things we need to do. We need to do a better job certainly to be able to counter the economic perceptions and motivations of our european allies, for example, when we say we want to squeeze russia, lets assume we really want to do that. We want to skis russia over ukraine to have the europeans effectively say, no, were not buying into any of that stuff. Well do some things to sort of paper over it, but were want in this with you because we have huge economic relationships with russia, and were not going to squash them. Our ability to exercise our will, forget about the military instrument of policy. Our ability to exercise our influence is greatly reduce and we need to do something about it in all areas, not just africa. Colonel jack jacobs, howard fineman, thank you. Up next, his own words with nbcs Brian Williams. The cycle rolls on for wednesday, may 28th. Way to get your fiber. Try phillips fiber good gummies. Theyre delicious, and an excellent source of fiber to help support regularity. Wife mmmm husband these are good marge the tasty side of fiber. From phillips. So when my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis them. Was also on display, id had it. I finally had a serious talk with my dermatologist. This time, he prescribed humiraadalimumab. Humira helps to clear the surface of my skin by actually working inside my body. In clinical trials, most adults with moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis saw 75 skin clearance. And the majority of people were clear or almost clear in just 4 months. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer have happened. Blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening Heart Failure have occurred. Before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. Ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. Tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. You should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. Make the most of every moment. Ask your dermatologist about humira, today. Clearer skin is possible. We are back with some breaking news. A new call this afternoon for veterans fairs secretary Eric Shinseki to resign after a pretty damaging initial report from the d. A. Inspector general about patient care at their facilities. The report identified some 1,700 vets who were simply left off appointment waiting lists. Also, allegations of Sexual Harassment and bullying by mid and senior level managers. It specifically deals with the v. A. s phoenix facility which has been at the center of the scandal. The report also calls the problem systemic throughout the agency. Theres certainly much more to come where this story is concerned, and we will, of course, be following all of it for you. Now on to the spin. Nearly one year ago Edward Snowden became a household name when he released classified documents on secret surveillance programs. He exposed the nsa mass surveillance operation and how it worked. He is a wanted man. He searched for a safe haven. For ms. He has been in exile in russia. The u. S. Has insisted snowden was a lowlevel analyst, but in an exclusive interview with nbc Brian Williams snowden lamz his role was much larger than that. I have wourpd worked undercover overseas. I have worked for the National Security agency undercover yo seas, and i have worked for the Defense Agency as a lecturer where i developed sources and methods for keeping our information and people secure in the most hostile and dangerous environments around the world, so when they say im a low level systems administrator, that i dont know what im talking about, i say its somewhat misleading. Be sure to catch the full interview tonight at 10 00 eastern on your local nbc station. Even with the advanced clips, we have seen theres already plenty to talk about here. Guys, i watched i jetted home last night to make sure i caught this because this is really the third time ive heard Edward Snowden this week. I know he did something with the guardian earlier, but for many people this is the first time people are getting a sense of who he is and how he talks. What really struck me was how wicked smart this guy is. This is not just some computer geek that was on the low totem pole working for the government, as the administration has led us to believe. I think president obama called him a systems administrator, and i guess it makes sense for them to make him sound the least legitimate as possible to make themselves feel better. Its incredibly misleading to the american people, and its also very dishonest in my opinion, but heres my take on snowden. I think he is putting selfpreservation before his cause. If his goal is to protect the american people, then act like a hero and be courageous and come back to the United States. I mean, what he is doing is simply pulling on the lions tail and running away. I mean, thats the way i look at it. If you really want to make a difference here, then face the consequences and come talk about it here at home. We are already having a debate, and i think he has ignite thissed debate. Have some courage. What he has done is coward esby running away. I think he needs to be here talking about it, and this is something that secretary john kerry has spoken about a lot. Most recently, lets take a listen. If mr. Snowden wants to come back to the United States today, well have him on a flight today. We would be delighted for him to come back. He should come back and thats what a patriot would do. A patriot would not run away and look for refuge in russia, cube yashgs or some other country. A patriot would stand up in the United States and make his case to the american people, but he has refused to do that. I think secretary kerry makes a credible point here. I think he is right. I dont really care whether snowden comes back to the United States or not. I think, you know, the story we talk about it like its a story about Edward Snowden, but really its about a story about the information that Edward Snowden released. It led to policy changes. We got Congress Acting with prohibiting certain collection practices that he revealed. Some of the information he released, in my view, was damaging to u. S. Policy interests without any clear policy reason why that information should have been made available to the public. Information about specific operations, the way that we were spying on, you know, the russian Prime Minister and such. I think his record is mixed. We dont i dont think he is going to come back. Were probably never going to punish him. Thats too bad. We should just deal with the information that he brought us. We should react to the things that we learned that were unnerve and change them. We talk about him like he is a hero. He cant come and face it. If we kept fewer secrets, we wouldnt need so many Edward Snowdens, so many people that arent trustworthy. We have five Million People with security clearances, in part because our surveillance state is so large. I think youre right. Theres two Edward Snowden conversation that is we need to have, and the discussion that he brings up in terms of what weve been doing collecting information on americans is very valuable. We could make the argument that he was patriotic in that, but the other revelations in terms of what we were doing overseas, that is traitorous behavior. That is immature maifr. It is unconscionable. Theres no reason why we shouldnt be spying on foreign leaders. We need to know what they are doing. Especially since we leave american soil. Theres two sort of conversations. I think what he did in terms of wreck whatting we do in terms of seas are very difficult to deal with. I also think i immediate to see him come back. I dont really see why he would kwoom back and go to jail. Then he couldnt be able to talk at all. Definitely our facebook relationship status with Edward Snowden is complicated. I mean, part of the conversation is interesting to me too because i feel like we have this american urge to, like, put him in which box does he go in . Is he a patriot or a traitor . He has to be one or the other. There cant be any mixture. To your point both of your points, he created this dialogue that i think has been incredibly important, and i also agree with everything he released but because there has been such an encroachment post9 11, such an erring on the side of everything secret and everything collected by the government, i think that Edward Snowden was necessary. He has been allowed to be used by putin. Putin put him on his web cast. Edward snowden asked him some pat questions about his about the surveillance there and, of course, putin says, oh, everything is above board. We