the official arrival of britain s prime minister david cameron at the white house was bathed in sunshine and the very best of american ceremony. both the president and the prime minister took the opportunity to reiterate their commitment to the mission in afghanistan despite this week s rampage by a u.s. soldier that left 16 civilians is dead. i don t anticipate at this stage that we re going to be making any sudden additional changes to the plan that we currently have. we will not give up on this mission because afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for al qaeda to launch attacks against us. and there, too, was our own kristen welker who joins us now at the white house. kristin, amongst some warm-hearted jokes about the president improving his table tennis which of course they
to say coming out. afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for al qaeda to launch attacks against us. what s undeniable and what we can never forget is our forces are making very real progress. the fastest way to end the killing which is what we want to see is for assad to go. tehran must understand that it cannot escape or evade the choice before it. meet your international obligations or face the consequences. so some vague war threats there from the president with iran. meet your obligations or face the consequences. interesting from a man who says that loose talk of war is not that was loose talk of war but again the broadness with these things leaves a lot of room for opportunity. and then the other statement statement from prime minister cameron saying we must secure afghanistan so the taliban can never again launch an attack against us. meanwhile, when you talk, you joe to joe sestack and walk through our congress. these men in afghanistan regardless of what o
but we will not give up on this mission because afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for al qaeda to launch attacks against us. we won t build a perfect afghanistan. let s be clear we are making some tangible progress with more markets open, more health send subpoena terse working, more centers working and children going to school and people achieving a more basic standard of living a and security. we can help assure afghanistan is capable of give delivering its own security without need of large numbers of foreign troops. we are no the final stages much our military mission. that means completing training of the afghan forces so they can take over the tasks of maintaining security themselves. that transition to afghan control as agreed in lisbon is well underway and next year the president said in 2013, this includes shifting to a support role as afghans take the lead. this is and in advance of after fwan forces taking
wrapped up a major joint news conference at the white house where they presented a united front over afghanistan. the president and the prime minister said thetd are committed to the transition plan they agreed to. i don t anticipate at this stage that we re going to be making any sudden additional changes to the plan that we currently have. we will not give up on this mission because afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for al qaeda to launch attacks against us. now, that news conference comes amid tense moments today on the tarmac where defense secretary leon panetta made a surprise visit into afghanistan. a man driving a stolen pickup truck drove on to that runway as panetta s plane was touching down. joining us now from kabul, nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel. tell me more details what we know regarding this incident on the runway.
we remember each and every one of them. we will not give up on the mission. because afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for al qaeda to launch attacks against us. we will not build a perfect afghanistan, although let s be clear we are making progress with more markets open and more health centers working and more children going to school and more people able to achieve a basic standard of living and security. we can help ensure that afghanistan is capable of delivering its own security without the need for large numbers of foreign troops. we are now in the final phases of our military mission. that means completing the training of the afghan forces so that they can take over the tasks of maintaining security themselves. that transition to afghan control has agreed is liz ban is now under way. and next year, as the president said in 2013, this includes shifting to a support role as afghans take the lead. this is an advance of afghan