that in itself is almost too late to be debating this issue. cameron said something very important yesterday when he said he wanted to see progress this year. so the december review that president obama does on afghanistan and how things are going with the war is going to matter a lot to the closest ally and the only other country that has a true significant amount of troops in afghanistan and that s great britain. thank you, chuck todd. they can watch you on the daily run down 9:00 a.m. eastern with savannah guthrie on msnbc. a massive cleanup effort along florida s pensacola beach right now after thick pools of oil washed ashore last week. as crews continue their work, more oil has been sighted off the coast. live to pensacola beach where mark potter s standing by. good sunday morning to you. looking at nor onslaught of oil to hit the beaches and, if so,
behind us. president obama today talking about the policy in afghanistan after his decision to put general david petraeus at the helm there, on the ground. now here is how defense secretary robert gates described the change. he said that general petraeus is absolutely behind the president s strategy. he agrees with the december review and he also agrees with the timeline to begin a drawdown, gate said, in july of 2011, that is conditions-based. that is a word that you did not hear from president obama today. what about all of this? bring in the panel. stephen hayes for weekly standard. a.b. stoddard, the hill. and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. okay, steve, did you detect nuance here and how it was phrased about the july 2011 drawdown? yeah. there was some. you still didn t have the president say it s all off. everything we talked about before, the recommendation that came from the political team to have the july 2011
afghanistan in the kandahar and helmand region. that s what he s been telling the white house for the last several weeks. that s what he s expected to tell them in this december review of the war. but the real question of course is there may be progress right now but has the back of the insurgency really been broken or are we just in another phase where the insurgency retreats a little bit, they regroup and come the springtime they re right back in the fight with new weapons, new training, new personnel? it may not really be until the spring that the u.s. can make a final assessment about this period of time and whether they are seeing real progress. still, general petraeus believes he is making headway, brooke. you mentioned that war report. just quickly, do we know when we should expect that? when this month? reporter: by the end of this month, no later than that. general petraeus, ambassador eikenberry, the cia, the entire
is an exit strategy from afghanistan as well as iraq? well, i think, from all i know about the administration, the issue of beginning the troop withdrawal has been very much a part of the issue of putting in troops in the first place. so i think the time lines can be met and obviously this december review is really going to be quite critical to this process. but, yes, i think it can be done. christopher hill, former ambassador to iraq, thank you very much. joining us from denver. coming up here next democrats facing voter anger on the economy. is it time to retool their message? democratic national chairman tim kaine joining us. plus, will meg witman s record-shattering spending spree deliver votes? you re watching andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. today, there will be 15,920 accidents.