the worst fear right now is of course that the taliban may have some of these afghan officials being held as hostages. and the taliban in recent months have started a campaign trying to target afghan officials, generals, police officers and governors in the last few months. bret: thank you. jennifer, the timing of this is interesting. u.s. officials have been saying this they have seen a stepped-up effort by the taliban as connor was mentioning. reporter: that is right. it comes one week after the president announced that all 33,000 surge troops would be out by next september. 10,000 out by the end of this year. we also have new stat about the number of the u.s. forces killed in june, about 30 have been killed so far this month. as well as 537 wounded, bret. bret: okay, jennifer, connor, thank you very much e i ll go back for any breaking details. the marine general who will carry out president obama s troop withdrawal planned from afghanistan told the senate hearing today the pl
obama gave them something in the middle, was that worth it? was that a compromise that didn t pan out? they aren t clear that this is been the last two years of having extra troops there has been something that won them very much. if president obama had gone with the biden strategy and not added surge troops, we could have ended up in the same position that we re in today. would that have been a more effective use of american resources? you have the thought that the president was caught back then between the surge and his generals and the white house said don t push too far. went for middle path and has that gained very much. apply this to the ceiling talks. the gain right now, the president is willing to give on medicare some, how big that some is matters. and would that create some space for republicans to get something, not on tax but on revenues, to get some sort of grand bargain. now it s time for the president to lead this charge? i think the problem here is they re probabl
didn t pan out? they aren t clear that this is been the last two years of having extra troops there has been something that won them very much. if president obama had gone with the biden strategy and not added surge troops, we could have ended up in the same position that we re in today. would that have been a more effective use of american resources? you have the thought that the president was caught back then between the surge and his generals and the white house said don t push too far. went for middle path and has that gained very much. apply this to the ceiling talks. the gain right now, the president is willing to give on medicare some, how big that some is matters. and would that create some space for republicans to get something, not on tax but on revenues, to get some sort of grand bargain. now it s time for the president to lead this charge? i think the problem here is they re probably going to get a deal. the problem here is it hasn t been in public.
we are back, joined by two military veterans and members of the senate armed services committee. jack reed and democrat from virginia, jack webb. the debate on afghanistan continues. this is what the president announced this week in his speech. i ll put it on our screen so our viewers can see in terms of the drawdown. nearly 100,000 there now. due to be withdrawn by the end of this year is 10,000. the surge troops in total will be out by the end of next summer. public opinion certainly on the side of a faster withdraw. the latest pew poll shows that clearly, 56% say remove troops as soon as possible. senator reed, did the president simply make a political decision here and say it s time to get out? no, i don t think so. he made a very difficult decision in 2009 at a speech at west point about strategy, taking down al qaeda, building
in warfare. in this case, history will probably judge that mr. obama probably took out too many soldiers too early. if you ask the white house whether the surge in itself was another form of compromise. the generals asked for more and obama gave them something in the middle, was that worth it? was that a compromise that didn t pan out? they aren t clear that this has been the last two years of having extra troops there has been something that won them very much. if president obama had gone with the biden strategy and not added surge troops, we could have ended up in the same position that we re in today. would that have been a more effective use of american resources? you have the thought that the president was caught back then between the surge and his generals and the white house said don t push too far. went for middle path and has that gained very much. apply this to the ceiling talks. the gain right now, the president is willing to give on medicare some, how big that some is m