units and logistics unitsl and all those assets. there will be an increasing at number of trainers that will be required in support of the nato training mission in the coming year. you ve been back in afghanistan now foour abt a year. what is your understanding of what the july, 2011 date meanse withdraw from afghanistan? because there s some confusion what that july, 2011 date means. what the president has said and the secretary of defense has said too, it s the beginning of a procitess. based on the conditions on the ground, they re going to make an assessment of how many more fighting forces or combat formations are able to be here inside of afghanistan to help th srte rity forces. the start of awi withdraw wi develop d what the situation on the ground really is. i want you to listen to what the commandant of the marine corps general conway said because it s causing some heart burn over at
how many war fighting forces are still required to be he. i interviewed the former u.n. special envoy to afghanistan last week. and he had some strong words. listen to what t he said to me d then we ll discuss two points he makes. listen to this.ll it s really immoral to be sending troops to fight in a mission that they can t succeed at. because, again, you don t have that credible partner. what i would say is to reduce to change the mission to something that is achievable, namely protecting the nonpashtun parts of the country where the taliban is not present and kabul. and that you could do with 10,000 troops instead of 1 hirks,000. do you believe, general caldwell, thnat the u.s. troops the nato troops in afghanistan ha a credible partner in afghanistan. well, i do. and each and every day, i deal with the ministers of defense and the ministers of interior. they re my partners. and i am in constant dialogue