even general petraeus has basically said very overtly, negotiating with the taliban and reaching an understanding with them is the only way to end this successfully. >> this is a very important point. eliot, this is a very important point you are making. there's no question and i talked to commanders when i was in afghanistan about this that there were -- the taliban is a network itself. and there are elements within the taliban that are probably not that ideological. and if they see the taliban over all losing, they will defect to our side. but when you are talking about somebody like mullah omar who is the head of the afghan taliban, he is somebody you are not going to be able to negotiate with and general petraeus doesn't think so. i'm not going to argue that we necessarily have the best strategy in afghanistan. i will argue that we have the best american general who is heading up that strategy, general petraeus. his full complement of troops has arrived only this fall. we sharks lou him time to do what he wants to do. we all want to play arm chair general but we should be supporting this general and, by the way, this president in what is a very well considered if very complicated and difficult