if you're caught in the middle of a war. >> do you think when you hear the president talk about what this war was about. one of the confusions of this 14-year war has been was the war against al qaeda or was it against the taliban? the taliban was harboring al qaeda. and when he said decisive blows issued to our enemy, that will is probably true about al qaeda. but it's unclear if that is true of the taliban who still have big swaths of the country. >> that's right. the taliban have not been defeated. they're still entrenched in the countryside. that doesn't mean they're going to march into the cities and take over the country when the u.s. troops lead. but it also means the afghan government isn't likely to go and kick them out of the villages. what we're really looking at the status quo is two sides fighting each other, basically in perpetuity. >> what is the status quo? i don't feel like have i my hands uab around that. what does it mean? >> imagine the afghan government and the u.s. viadvisers concentrated in the city. and large parts of the country controlled by the taliban or war