agreement 10 years ago. looking at that poll, that s interesting, we talked about it on the set. last night, i did the graduation speech at kaine university. doctor fer arerahari is the onl afghan born professor in the united states. i said, what do you think about afghanistan, do you think we should be moving out? he turned to me long pause and said, i don t know what the objective is. that s the critical point. it was interesting seeing john kerry chairman of the senate foreign relations committee begin to address this in larger form. one of the seminal events of the 20th century was the fulbright hearings on vietnam in the 60s when finally more americans became aware of the fact we could not answer the question, what is our objective?
winning hearts and minds at this point with this vast array of person yell thatnel that s so cs in afghanistan now with a rather toxic marriage to the host government. the other story, to say, if the war can be fought in that hard way, and if killing enough people will traumatize their support base enough to exercise control over the terrain, that s another question. i don t know the answer to that. ten years later, here we are inside the battle for afghanistan with the new yorker s john leander son. thank you very much for being on the show. . coming up next, president obama s team, chicago bulls got a little chippy last night in a must win playoff game. do i sound like a sports anchor? i can do sports. do it again. i can do it. willie should let me. you re watching morning joe, brewed by starbucks. [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day.
marine corps rifle team. these people are much more lethal than a marine corps rifle team. when you know where troops are, there s less fear, i would imagine, in the minds of the enemy. the s.e.a.l. team 6, things like that, what about their effectiveness in terms of people in afghanistan, taliban, don t know where they are, when they re coming? they strike fear into the minds of the enemies. no doubt about it. incredibly precise and did an incredibly difficult job. you can see why they re being used. there s a sense general petraeus thought as general mcchrystal, the taliban were winning, we have to do something. great pressure to drawdown troops and they have to do something dramatic and one of the tactics they re using. it is fairly dramatic. 12,000 killed or captured, could be a third of the taliban population. if they re getting the right
agreed with kerry s assessment but both said they remain pds to a precipitous withdrawal. after u.s. forces killed bin laden, a poll said 59% think the mission in afghanistan is fulfilled and it s time to bring the troops home. 36% believe there is still more to do. it comes as former pakistani president pervez musharraf denies a report his administration struck a deal to let u.s. special forces conduct a unilateral operation against bin laden. it is very very difficult to find someone who can clearly state the objective in afghanistan. as i said last hour, i was at a unit? last night giving the graduation speech. the only afghan president of the university, we were talking about it, i asked what was the objective there and he trails off and didn t have an answer. a man who came here in 1973 and
this program, it would seem is, we re going to kill him tonight, think about that. it could be you tomorrow night. do grow your heroin, stop making ieds. you need someone to fill the space, the first roll of counter insurgency, you need a good partner in pakistan, afghanistan. you know, clear the space, do your operations, even if they re incredibly effective as many are, we have seen on the ground, time and again, they ll say, where s the afghan government? wheres the people who fill the gap of security? i think you put your pressure on it. the pressure of result, got to have results by november, got to have results by the election, petraeus under the gun before changing jobs, got to have results. this stuff is pretty short term, maybe you kill a lot of people and asure by that metric. i m not sure you re really remaking a stable place for safe america. frontline takes a fascinate