administration officials today who say a couple of things, first of all, all of these issues about whether or not to set' transition phase deadline, set a withdrawal date for removing the surge forces was debated and the president made a decision, and, every stake holder in the conversation leading up to the decision is carrying out and believes it is the right policy and as you said at the introduction, the administration believes if you don't set a deadline in afghanistan, things will continue to linger and linger and linger and this afghan forces will not have a sense of immediacy about getting trained and preparing to step into the breach that will be left by the u.s. military and the nato forces and thirdly, administration officials say, look, the debate gets circular after a while and i don't need to tell you, our audience, gregg, the last couple of months, in afghanistan have been extremely dangerous and deadly for u.s. and nato forces. the casualty numbers are increasing. the administration's perspective, our critics cannot have it both ways, either the taliban and al qaeda forces are fighting and that is why they are dying and u.s. and nato