after 20 years of knowing senator sessions, i have not seen the slightest evidence of racism because it does not exist. i know a racist when i see one and i ve seen more than one, but jeff sessions is not one. former republican attorney general micah mukasie praised him as modest and dedicated to the rule of law. overseas, a u.s. military investigation that s concluded that 33 civilians were killed during a november fight with the taliban in kunduz afghanistan. american troops were acting in self-defense but the general in charge of forces in afghanistan says regardless i deeply regret the loss of innocent lives. joining us now live from london, nbc news correspondent, lucy cavanaugh. what more can you tell us? this was a very controversial incident in afghanistan. this attack took place in early
war was at hand and he was bringing it to a responsible end. he says he will leave 9800 troops on the ground through the end of 2016 and a smaller force beyond that. what does it all mean? major general bob scales is a fox news military analyst. when you heard the president s words, as a military man, general scales, what comes to mind? obviously the president made the right decision here and for three reasons. first of all was the marginal performance of the afghan forces in northern province in kunduz trying to take back that city. second as tony said, surprising appearance of isis in seven provinces. this was never foreseen until about a year ago. the other thing from a soldier s perspective, jon, remember, in afghanistan the campaign season, the fighting season goes from april till october. it literally just ended. starts in april when the mountain passes open.
forces, pushes them back. it s interesting here. the president calls this a counterterror operation against al qaeda particularly. remember, when kunduz fell, you had u.s. troops there helping to call in air strikes. in fact, as you remember, you had an american air strike that hit the msf hospital there. it is not just a counterterror operation. you still have u.s. troops doing combat support for afghan forces because afghan forces on their own haven t been able to fight back taliban. there s fudging there. the president said all major combat operations have stopped. that s true, major has stopped but combat has not stopped because afghan troops need support. the president said, that s vital not only to the security of the country but also preventing afghanistan being used as a base for terror strikes against the u.s., as they did during 9/11. the concern he didn t mention it, but it is true, it s not just al qaeda they re concerned
so far in those efforts been successful enough to want to invest and continue them? well, first of all, jenna, thanks for having me on. i agree with the colonel. i think there were a lot of good things we heard from president obama today. the policy, i think, that he announced is generally correct. i thought it was an excellent speech. 5,500 troops a year from now may, indeed, be too small, but i m more encouraged by the fact that we re not going to rush down to that number, and we re going to preserve a physical infrastructure with the three key bases the president talked about; bagram, jalalabad which is in the east, these are some of the areas the colonel may have been fighting a decade ago, and kandahar in the south. this gives us a lot of capability across the full spectrum of intelligence, training, counterterrorism. and there also is one more mission. the president didn t mention this, but it s obvious from the recent activity in kunduz including the bombing of the hospital, w
afghan forces continue to hold most urban areas, and when the taliban has made gains as in kunduz afghan forces, backed by coalition support, have been able to push them back. this has come at a very heavy price. this year alone thousands of afghan troops and police have lost their lives as have many afghan civilians. at the same time, afghan forces are still not as strong as they need to be. they are developing critical capabilities; intelligence, logistics, aviation, command and control. and meanwhile, the taliban has made gains, particularly in rural areas, and still launch deadly attacks in cities including kabul. much of this was predictable. we understood that as we transitioned that the taliban would try to exploit some of our movements out of particular