the white house, this is not easy for the white house. a little bit cagey on the time. robert gibbs says when the president tells me, i ll tell you guys. sonia sotomayor was nominated may 26th. and was confirmed before the session started, so i think they feel they have a little time. but if the president s made up his mind and we know he interviewed earlier this week, diane wood, she s the fourth we know of he s interviewed personally. it seems as though we re expe expecting a decision. and joe biden also interviewed diane wood and some of the others separately. he is overseas right now and coming back we think saturday. could this actually happen if the president decides, just go ahead and do it? some of these big decisions, it s hard to know. the obama campaign and now the administration has done a good job of throwing the press off the fence.
it s the reason i stopped voting. 2002 was the last time i cast a vote. again, we have to work very hard at providing our best professional military advice and not worry about how that might be received on capitol hill or anywhere else. i think what the president wants from us is again, our military advice. not our political advice or some other component of that. that s his job. he knows it and that s what he asks for from us, just tell me your views in uniform. one of the most difficult, politically charged issues is don t ask don t tell. admiral mullen and the rest of you have been clear about the commitment to changing the policy, but the study, why does it take so long? they re going around to every different post camp and station, as many as they can.
for karzai, also to puersuade te u.s. he is cracking down on corruption in his government. the u.s. has a lot on the line here. i asked general petraeus whether this is going to be possible. we think we can, it s way out in the future. it s july, 2011. that s a substantial period of this additional forced posture we ll have before that time. but really, i think it s important to remember what was intended with that 2011 date. when president obama spoke at west point, announced his policy. he was sending two messages. one, 30,000 more u.s. forces, tripling the number of u.s. civilia civilians, but there is also the message of urgency and that compliments this other message.
you have to work around his brother who is the powerful figure in kandahar? i talked to wally karzai in kandahar as well. we had a good conversation. the topics of inclusivity and transparency came up several times. i have to say by the way, and general mcchrystal has said this, we have asked the intelligence committee, lay down, show us where you think he s involved in this or that so we can confront this. i must say, there has not been anything with rise to level of evidence. certainly a lot of here say. again, this has to be taken very seriously because it is the perception of the afghan people. again, we had a very, very candid conversation and he has pledged full support for what the afghan government and coalition is trying to do. let s see how it goes forward. ahminedjad was in new york at
there s been so much tension in the past between president karzai and some officials here including a rather tense meeting with president obama. president karzai s coming next week of course. has he the ability to prove to the satisfaction of the military and civilian administration here, can he prove that with his own brother being accused of corruption, that his ministry and his government can weed out corruption and handle the handover if we actually prum that it can take place? he is committed to do that. met with him three weeks ago in kabul. talked with him about four days ago. he has committed in particular, to two very key concepts. inclusivity and transparency. those are very, very important. i think you ll hear those echoed when he comes here.