administration officials today who say a couple of things, first of all, all of these issues about whether or not to set transition phase deadline, set a withdrawal date for removing the surge forces was debated and the president made a decision, and, every stake holder in the conversation leading up to the decision is carrying out and believes it is the right policy and as you said at the introduction, the administration believes if you don t set a deadline in afghanistan, things will continue to linger and linger and linger and this afghan forces will not have a sense of immediacy about getting trained and preparing to step into the breach that will be left by the u.s. military and the nato forces and thirdly, administration officials say, look, the debate gets circular after a while and i don t need to tell you, our audience, gregg, the last couple of months, in afghanistan have been extremely dangerous and deadly for u.s. and nato forces. the casualty numbers are increasing. the a
a lot of attention as you would match, brand new hour of america s newsroom starting now, i m martha maccallum. gregg: i m gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer. the president says a deadline is essential to spark a sense of urgency with this afghan governments but the commander says it tells taliban rebels to wait out the allied forces. major garrett is traveling with the president, he s live in martha s vineyard, mainljor, wh did he say. reporter: the sound bite from yesterday, jack conway, the marine general said that, about what affect the july 2011 dead fine to begin withdrawing combat surge forces from afghanistan is having on the battlefield. the president talked to several audiences at the same time when he made mist his comments on july, 2011 and in some ways we think now it is probably giving our enemy sus tenancy and we think
sustenance and, we have intercepted communications that say, hey, we only have to hold out for so long. and the general went onto say in that session with reporters, that he was marines are going to stay in afghanistan, for many, many years, beyond the 2011, july, 2011 deadline, for that transition phase, set by the president. so, it wasn t as if the general was signalling, that this is going to be an immediate and rapid and possibly dangerous pullout for u.s. forces, come july 2011, he was saying, in fact, there is some sense a of of battlefield commanders, al qaeda fighters are hunkering down, waiting for that and marines will be there after the deadline and possibly and probably for many years thereafter. gregg: this is a military officer who is saying the president s remarks, are aiding the enemy in some way, so what is the reaction to this? reporter: the white house will not react publicly, so far, to general conway. i talked to a couple of