of supporting u.s. aims in afghanistan. and the u.s. military, i think, has already come to the conclusion that whatever they have valiantly tried to achieve on the ground is not going to have lasting political support inside afghanistan. the gop candidates have been pretty blunt about this and are very critical of the president for apologizing on the koran burning. newt gingrich told the atlanta journal and constitution, i m quoting him, there are some problems when you have to say, you know, you re going to have to figure out how to live your own miserable life. do they pay attention to what s being said here over there? let me get your reaction to that, ambassador. clearly, the afghani government is hedginging its bets based on what they perceive happening here because after all, we are their mare joy lifeline. we are karzai s lifeline at this point in time, but the fact of the matter is that the good speaker is way off base. he is inappropriately unfair to