Page 45 - Afg News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

And he has another marine son either deploying or about to be deployed. >> that human connection for some of the key decision makers here is absolutely key. andrea mitchell, pleasure and honor to have you hear with us tonight. joining us now in studio is a veteran of the war in afghanistan. he was an adviser to stanley mcchrystal. it's great to have you here. let me ask your top line reaction to the speech tonight. >> you hit it. it's not a big policy change. the big shift is where the president has been. now he is the president and has to confront a series of really bad options in afghanist...

But the real question is what difference does that make in terms of achieving war objectives? if at the end of the day what we really want to do is to have a central government in kabul that can actually control afghanistan, the taliban is not a factor anymore. the people in afghanistan can defend themselves, the afghan army is at top condition. if that's what we are looking to do, then none of of the things that he said are actually going to contribute to that. including even to the point of building a -- a big wall an impen trabl wall between afghanistan and pakistan on the other, the real p...

He said that pakistan needs to demonstrate that it is committed to civilization, order and peace telling a country they are not committed to civilization is calling them barbarians. then he immediately followed it by saying and we would like more direct involvement in afghanistan from india which will raise hackles in the pakistani government because of the relationship between those two countries. that seems to me the biggest change in diplomatic relations tonight. >> that's what leaped out at me. american diplomats and presidents have made a pact, you don't go to pakistan without going to in...

Doing. but no, i think you're right. it sounds like we are going to be involved in extricating -- releasing mineral welt -- can and there is substantial mineral wealth i don't think whether or not it can be taken out in an efficient way -- we're going to take that out of afghanistan. you know the chinese are already there doing that. and i think that that the united states is concerned that we're not getting our share but i think that's what it means. >> under the circumstances this is an ongoing war obviously. you know we're well over year 15 in afghanistan. this is not something the presiden...

But i also have to see exactly what this is. if i look at the policy that the obama administration had toward the war in afghanistan it's not that much different from what we heard tonight. so i think we have to figure out, you know, what the president said is going to be really significant and what is going to be a change and what's going to be different. i think you were right to highlight the way in which the president called out india and wanting india to play a larger role in afghanistan. this of course is the -- will trigger all of the gravest fears in the pakistani military and the paki...