Page 9 - Drawing Down News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

grounded as volcanic ash clouds a continent. and nato keeps up the pressure on moammar gadhafi. tripoli comes in for more bombing. we begin in london where the u.s. president is kicking off day two of his state visit to britain. right now barack obama is at 10 downing street for talks with british prime minister david cameron. they've got lot on their plates, the talks mark a shift in tone for the president. tuesday was mostly about pageantry, meeting the royal family and getting the vip treatment over at buckingham palace. today it is all about politics. and washington's close t...

On the defensive. if you look at southern afghanistan, candidates hard, where american troops could not -- kandahar, where american troops could not patrol free loorks they have a stronger footing. i think the broader question of whether we should be as committed militarily at the level we are in afghanistan is a good one. and i think you -- as you know, i am broadly speaking and feel we should be -- we should be drawing down, minimizing -- i think president obama has a very important decision to make in a few months which is will he have a genuine beginning of a troop reduction there or tell ...

Afghanistan, where american troops could not -- kandahar, where american troops could not patrol freely, they have a stronger footing. i think the broader question of whether we should be as committed militarily at the level we are in afghanistan is a good one. and i think you -- as you know, i am broadly speaking and feel we should be -- we should be drawing down, minimizing -- i think president obama has a very important decision to make in a few months which is will he have a genuine beginning of a troop reduction there or tell be cosmetic. i think there's a debate within the administration...

For what he's calling a tweak in our policy towards afghanistan, he's basically running away from the surge that he supported and saying that the significance -- that we have to start thinking about drawing down, that we can't keep moving ahead with our current policy in afghanistan. this is going to be a further challenge. i know you were very deally involve in the afghan review policy which led to the surge, so what do you think about that? >> i think we have to stay the course right now. >> what do you say to a john kerry? where are you seeing the kinds of improvements on the ground that ar...

Talked to a general yesterday in theater there, and what they're saying is the idea of drawing down, being out by 2014, that is doable. the mission will not be done by then. it won't happen in that time frame. there's too much to do. and from the -- winning hearts and minds is not up to the u.s. military. it is now up to the afghan government. that trust on the street does not exist. the government is seen as corrupt, full of dronyism. there's warlords for goodness sake in the government. last time i was there i was talking to eye policeman in kandahar. he gets people to put his papers in, the...