understand that we have a clear and focused goal, to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future. that is a cause that could not be more just. a just cause, complete with a new strategy and a new commander, general stanley mcchrystal. he didn t talk in that mission statement much about if afghanistan is unstable and ungovernable but al qaeda is gone, is that good enough? is that success? so it became an implied requirement that says you ve got to create a sovereign afghanistan which can defend its own borders, which can prevent the re-emergence of an al qaeda safe haven inside. mcchrystal s predecessor, general david mckiernan, had
al-qaeda and afghanistan and prevent their return to either country in the future. that s a cause that could not be more just. a just cause complete with a new strategy and a new commander. general stanley mccrystal. he didn t talk in that mission statement much about if afghanistan is unstable and ungovernmentable and all. al-qaeda is not good enough of that success. so it became an implied requirement that says you got to create a sovereign afghanistan which could defend its own border and prevent the reemergence of al-qaeda safe haven inside. we have a new strategy, a new
those attacks, i think they re supported by the pakistanis. they have a safe haven inside of pakistan, the united states policy is trying to push back on the pakistani. this is likely something of a reaction to that before the spending offensive begins. in other words, it puts you back on u.s. policy. lea: i recently spoke with a source at centcom who told me that a lot of the air assets that were working on syria have moved over to take the same strategy in afghanistan. in syria they were going after the oil, and in afghanistan now they ll go after the drugs that s creating revenue. what do you think of this. i overall agree with the trump strategy on afghanistan, they made a decision to stay and that s totally different than the previous administration. secondly, they ve decided to increase the resources as you indicated, more lethal resources and also, a policy change. you know, afghanistan s the
state department. good morning, jon, the strategy in afghanistan is such a key part of this trip for rex tillerson as he traveled to the middle east and asia. arriving at the airbase this morning, an unannounced visit, there he met with afghan president ashraf ghani. in afghanistan, the taliban has killed more than 200 innotech stressed over the past week. much of the meetings and discussions were about stabilizing the country in the region. the secretary has pressured afghanistan s neighbor pakistan to address terrorist organizations within its borders. pakistan needs to take a clear eyed view of the situation that they are confronted with in the number of terrorist organizations that find safe haven inside of pakistan. we went to work closer with pakistan to create a stable and secure pakistan as well. secretary tillerson said he was concerned about the future of stability of pakistan as he is in many respects about the
to how they re dealing with the numerous terrorist organizations that find safe haven inside of pakistan. it s in pakistan s interest to take those actions when we say no preconditions on the talks. we re saying, the government of afghanistan and the taliban representatives need to sit down and sort this out. it s not for the u.s. to tell them, it must be this particular model, it must be under these condition conditions i think that s what the president means when he says we re no longer nation building. we ve taken certain principles and forms around the world. we re going to be there to encourage others, but it s going to be up to the afghan government and the representatives of the taliban to work through a reconciliation process of what will serve their needs and achieve the american people s objectives, which is security, no safe haven for