afghanistan particularly the northwestern authorities or the tribal areas of pakistan remain nonetheless the concern. al qaeda is there and they re beyond the reach of any legal authority, really. even at 30,000, the surge groups were to leave afghanistan, it would be close to 70,000 american me and women on the ground there. what kind of commitment are we looking at to prevent afghanistan from once again becoming a terrorist haven? oh. you touch upon a critical issue and huge debate although mute in the public for years and years. what s the national interest of the united states in afghanistan and what strategy should we pursue? we often have a confused counterinsurgency with counterterrorism actions and what our strategic interests are. you don t need 70,000 soldiers. you might need them to maintain the regime and power in kabul. that s not the same objective.
other you are imitating you did vote for him, i know you did. that did not happen. your chance, bob. well, listen, if all republicans have been as loyal to michael as michael is to them, he d still be head of the rnc. the fact is that if this had gone to congress, we would ve had rand paul filibustering while benghazi burned. we actually do have a vital interest in libya, five american presidents have said this guy has to go. if he stays in power, he s going to be a terrorist haven, he s going to do everything he can to disrupt the arab world. and it s utterly simplistic to say we re going to intervene in bahrain if we re going to intervene in libya, because it s a balance of your ideals and interests. we have vital interests in libya, we can t let iran expand the influence there. obviously we re not going to intervene there. in libya, our ideals and interests coincide. it s time for regime change there. i think it will happen. how do you rationalize the
did. that did not happen. your chance, bob. well, listen, if all republicans have been as loyal to michael as michael is to them, he d still be head of the rnc. the fact is that if this had gone to congress, we would ve had rand paul filibustering while benghazi burned. we actually do have a vital interest in libya, five american presidents have said this guy has to go. if he stays in power, he s going to be a terrorist haven, he s going to do everything he can to disrupt the arab world. and it s utterly simplistic to say we re going to intervene in bahrain if we re going to intervene in libya, because it s a balance of your ideals and interests. we have vital interests in libya, we can t let iran expand the influence there. obviously we re not going to
here. jon: a candidate and a president should be consistent in your messages shouldn t they. i don t know, george bush promised a humble policy, i don t think that s what we got. presidents have to react to the circumstances. at the end of o of the day herel though the president can t say it, we want regime change. the audience for that message is overseas. we pushed this coalition together so we re not going to say regime change. that s what we want. most members of the coalition understand that s what we want. if we don t get it that it will be very bad for this country, because libya will be a terrorist haven. jenna: warships enforce an arm s embargo off libya s coast. what role should the u.s. play in libya as far as our military? we are going to talk to former chairman of the joints chief of
overseas he needs to wind down the unpopular war in afghanistan while maintaining enough stability in the region to keep it from falling back into a terrorist haven. progress comes slowly, and at a very high price in the lives of our men and women in uniform. in many places the gains we ve made are still fragile and reversible. and in the political arena, the president needs to gear up for a tough re-election campaign, shore up his rest dresless restless base and all the while delivering on promises of a kinder, gentler political arena. only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation. easier said than done. two weeks after the tucson shootings, the only noticeable change in the theater of politics, republicans and democrats are promising to sit beside one another for tuesday night s speech. is that the best we can do?