taliban. the pentagon set a deadline to withdraw all of those surge troops by the end of this month. some 68,000 u.s. forces remain in afghanistan 7 the justice department inspector general testified that there must be more government oversight on law enforcement investigations such as the failed gun tracking operation fast and furious. that clearance must come from the highest levels. as you ll recall, it was designed to follow guns across the border and into the hands of drug cartels. the feds did not track some of those weapons and two of them later turned up at the murder scene of the border patrol agent, brian terry. yesterday, the inspector general released an internal report and related operation and it strongly criticized more than a dozen mid level and senior government officials. in the course of our review, we identified individuals ranging from line agents and prosecutors in arizona, to senior atf officials in washington, d.c. who bore a share of responsibility for
proclamation that the war will be over and everybody will be out by 2014? well, they aren t surprised because the president announced as much when he agreed reluctantly to send nearly 30,000 surge troops in 2010. behind the scenes there is a lot of hand wringing because 2014 has now effectively become 2013. the biggest challenge is a taliban that is resilient that is going to continue to fight even though they have been weakened. i think the levels of violence are down. theying going to continue to conduct attacks. and we are going to have to confront them. some top pentagon officials that they worry that the pace of withdrawal is too fast. serious risk for the troops as they pull out. shepard? jennifer griffin at the pentagon. thank you. the united states senate approving tough new economic punishments on iran. punishment aimed at stopping nuclear ambitions. those penalties are just days
responsible end. reporter: romney sees the withdrawal from afghanistan as something that should be based on the abilities of the and began army not on dates. he makes clear he will rethink plans to end the mission in 2014 if easy elected. i ll order a full review of our transition to the afghan military to secure that nation s sovereignty from the tyranny of the taliban. i ll speak with our generals in the field and receive the best recommendations of our military commander s. reporter: romney also sees politics in the president s promise to bring the additional troops he sent to afghanistan, the surge troops back home by the fall of this year. jen a. jenna: an important topic for november. thank you very much. wendell goler at the white house today. jon: senior citizens will be a key voting block in the november elections, both parties are working hard for their support and the voters will be looking very close low at where the candidates stand on policies that could have a big
open-ended. mr. obama announced in 2011 surge troops would be back by the fall of this year. romney blamed it on politics and promised a different course. i will order a review of the transition to military and secure sovereignty from the taliban. but poll showed dwindling support for longest war in history. in a surprise visit to afghanistan this month, mr. obama made clear he will stick with the timetable. this time of war began in afghanistan and this is where it will end. one of the foreign policy advisors says the agreement to bring home troops will be better based on bench mark than base. it would require trust that doesn t exist between the countries now. bret: thank you. first in the series. activist cheng says the chinese government quietly promise him it will investigate abuses he says he
president say we still got a long road to go and there is going to be some form of a military commitment in that country for years to come? well, i think what you did hear the president say is we are transitioning out. we are bringing our surge troops home. the afghans will be in the lead next year and by 2014 we will have largely transitioned out. and the long-term commitment is still to be determined in terms of what it means. but obviously we have an interest in continuing to attack al qaeda. the president has effectively knocked out a significant part of its leadership. 20 of the top 30 leaders have been killed. but that doesn t mean that they are out of the picture. they are still very much engaged. we have an interest in being able to position ourselves to use counter terrorism strikes in afghanistan.