Inspector general sopko, welcome to the Foreign Affairs committee. Forward to learning the lessons of afghanistan, but also getting some input to what we should do in the future. Afghanistanes in over the last six years have 10. Aged roughly we mourn those deaths and take them seriously. Compared to the other ,onflicts we are engaged in compared to the training deaths we suffer in our military, we cannot have the exhaustion of 10 years ago blind us to what is the operation now, and what is its cost. I know the chairman has an opening statement, but i will ,ecognize the Ranking Member then i will recognize our witness for his opening statement, and hopefully by then we will hear the chairmans statement. Thank you mr. Chairman pro tem, United States has been in afghanistan for almost 19 years, the longest war in the history of the United States. We sacrificed much on the battlefield, but we achieved a great deal. We decimated al qaeda and greatly weakened their global network. As a resul
Efforts in afghanistan. We will come to order. All members will have five days to submit statements to the record. Notice, we are here today to examine the lessons from americas war in afghanistan. , welcome general sopko to the Foreign Affairs committee. I look forward to learning the lessons of afghanistan, but also getting some input to what we should do in the future. Learning the lessons of afghanistan, but also getting some input to what we should do in the future. Afghanistanes in over the last six years have 10. Aged roughly we mourn those deaths and take them seriously. Compared to the other ,onflicts we are engaged in compared to the training deaths we suffer in our military, we cannot have the exhaustion of 10 years ago blind us to what is the operation now, and what is its cost. I know the chairman has an opening statement, but i will ,ecognize the Ranking Member then i will recognize our witness for his opening statement, and hopefully by then we will hear the chairmans st
Its a great pleasure to see this crowd. You will all get cspan so be on your best behavior. We are here to launch a very important book on the future of the u. S. China relationship called the struggle for power u. S. China relations in the 21st century. I want to say word about that but first i want to recognize some very distinguished guests. I want to recognize the cochair of our Organization Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice who was here with us. [applause] and youll be hearing from secretary rice in about half an hour. She will be one of our conversationalists. Our other cochair, harvard ever does professor, could not be here with his buddies very much part of this effort. I want to pay tribute to our former secretary of defense and a very good friend of mine, secretary bill cohen and mrs. Janet cohen. Welcome secretary. Janet, welcome. [applause] i want to pay tribute to one of i think one of the people who for me a bodies bipartisanship whos involved in every effort to
On which he was able to bestow his gifts by commenting originally and his words on those president s. Im mike nelson. Im the guy you had to put up with during the first panel. Fortunately, we have a new cast of people to add their voices to the wonderful voices you heard from the scholars that were on the first panel. Once again, we have Miller Center people here, and the Miller Center. One of the main emphasis is to study the presidency in depth, historical depth with objectivity. In other words, were all in the business of doing stuff that an editorial cartoonist is not in the business of doing which is reacting to events on a daytoday basis as oliphant did as a cartoonist and whereas we all strive to be as objective as we can and the job of the editorial cartoonists and pat oliphant as well as anyone has done it to provide comment, to provide opinion and to provide something to provoke discussion rather than perhaps aspire to settle discussion. The panel today, this afternoon that w
Those president s. Im mike nelson. Im the guy that you had to put up with the first panel. Fortunately, we have a new cast of people to add their voices to the wonderful voices that you heard from the scholars of the first panel. Once again, we have Miller Center people here. The Miller Center and one of the main emphases is to study the presidency in historical depths with objectivity and in other words, we are all in the business of doing stuff that an editorial cartoonist is not in the business of doing, and that is reacting to events on the daytoday basis as pat oliphant did in his 60plus years as a newspaper cartoonist, and whereas we all strive to be as objective as we can, the job of the editorial cartoonist, and pat oliphant as well as anybody has done it is to provide the comment, and to provide opinion and provoke discussion as opposed to aspire to settle the discussion. This panel today is going to cover the president s from george bush and i dont use the h. W. , but he was