On the president s announcement and how it is playing on the editorial pages of major newspapers around the country. Our phone lines are open. Democrats can call in at 2025853881. Independents host you can also catch up with us on your favorite social media pages. A very good wednesday morning to you. That announcement by the president yesterday in the rose garden, playing on the front pages of most every major newspaper around the country today here. The president s hometown newspaper, the washington to remain after the war, the goal is largely what the military requested, is what the Washington Post writes. In usa today, obama u. S. Allout by end of 2016. The picture of u. S. Troops there in cavesistan, living with weapons caches, that is the picture there. Want to show you now a little bit more from the president s speech in which he explains how he is going from 9800 troops at the beginning of next year to essentially zero troops at the end of 2016. Here is what he had to say. At the beginning of 2015 we will [video clip] of 2015 weeginning will have approximately 9800 u. S. It Service Members in different parts of the country together with nato allies and other partners. By the end of 2015, we will have reduced that presence by roughly half. We will have consolidated our troops. Of year later, by the end 2016, our military will draw down to a normal Embassy Residence in kabul, with a security assisted component just as we have done in iraq. We will get to your calls in just a second to get your response. We want to bring in now on the greg,nk ella very thank you for joining us this morning. I want to start with where that 9800 number that is going to be there at the beginning of next year, where did that number come from . The president has asked the military to provide options. The options did range from several thousand, i think senator in half, the Ranking Member on the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee Said he was told by some military commanders were talking around 13,000 troops. The 9800 is roughly where people have been talking about it eating. The numbers that have been bandied about are about 10,000 over the last year or so as people have contemplated the amount. Thathat number within number the force has the ability to protect itself, one of the key components the military wanted to have there. If they were going to have u. S. Troops at a low number, they wanted a force they could protect itself. Anyas this announcement kind of surprise . Did it represent any kind of change in policy from what the Obama Administration has been talking about . I dont think so. I think the only thing that people were surprised by was the end date. 2016, you know, we will have a force there that will be an embassy, tied to a military office that is there to acquisition for the Afghan Government. We are talking about something very similar to what we have in a rack. That contingent could be of 1000 troops or so. Does Congress Need to approve this plan . Be perfectly honest, no. Congress could try to act, but i doubt that it would. I doubt that there is consensus enough to change this. Plus you have to remember that when you look at the polls, afghanistan, there is great ambivalence in the united dates about u. S. Forces in afghanistan. There are very few lawmakers out there who are arguing for Larger Forces to remain longer. As i said, senator in half about theconcern number being less than 13,000, but you had the chairman of the house Armed Services in california, yesterday he seemed to support the number the president was talking about. He was concerned with setting a time, and end date, so to speak. There were others on the republican side who were upset that the president would provide an end date, thinking it gives the taliban some kind of upper hand. The president laid out some kind of caveat to this number. I want to show viewers a bit about what the president had to say about the signing of a bilateral Security Agreement and then come back to you. We will only sit sustain this presence if the Afghan Government signs the bilateral Security Agreement that our governments have already negotiated. This agreement is essential to give troops the authorities they need to fulfill their mission while respecting afghan sovereignty. Final afghan candidates in the Runoff Election for president have each indicated that they would sign this agreement promptly after taking office. I am hopeful we can get this done. The president said he is hopeful because the afghan candidates have said that they would sign it. Is there any chance that they could still not signed that agreement . We are talking about afghanistan. President karzai, the sitting president of afghanistan actually negotiated this treaty. He was encouraged by a council of leaders across afghanistan to sign it. President karzai at the 11th hour reneged. Take anythingver for granted in afghanistan. Obviously all the candidates had committed to signing on. On its face it appears to be in the interest of afghanistan to sign it. They still need u. S. And allied assistance there for training. And also just the Financial Support that comes with it. They will have a force of 300 52,000 that largely has to be financed by the u. S. And its allies. So, they do need it. But there is always a chance, you know, that there may become a domestic political issue that drives them to not sign it. They are cautious, they are see the they want to signatures, they have a limited amount of time in which to get things done. If it gets too late we have to get our troops out by the end of the year. If they dont sign, we will pull out. Let you go, the president is headed up to west point to give a commencement address. What do we know about what the president is expected to say . Caller he is going to lay out his plans for roughly how you use the tens of thousands of troops that we are pulling out of afghanistan. Troopsow we have 32,000 in afghanistan. They will be taking 22,000 up by the end of this year. Ok that is missed metastasizing and other places in the world. Particularly around syria and in locations throughout africa. As a result, you know, he is going to talk about a Broader National Security plan and how this drawdown fits into that and what the United States will perhaps you doing to counter al qaeda growth in other areas. Frank, appreciate you getting up with us this morning. Caller my pleasure. For we are asking viewers reaction to the president s speech yesterday. What did you think . We will start with patrick calling in from carnegie, pennsylvania. Patrick, good morning. Caller how are you . Host good, patrick. Go ahead. This is astonishing. The president of the United States travels to saudi arabia, no sooner does he return than announcement,his a de facto announcement that we ,re going to turn around contravention being the will of the American People, making it clear that we do not support military action in syria. He turns around and announces the we are in fact going to provide weapons and now it has stepped up to advanced weapons. We find out that the saudi the interior,er, the director of the intelligence has been terminated consequently in the same timeframe of what took place on the president s visit to saudi arabia. Stick to afghanistan for moment and tell me what you think of the president s announcement. Disastrous. S the United States of america is now completely broke. What do you have to do . You have to manufacture wars. This is where america is going. The direction we are now in, particularly with regards to afghanistan, we have turned around and made warlords billionaires. The me ask you this from our twitter page caller your thought host your thoughts on that comment . Already killing americans. When we use White Phosphorus weapons, deleted uranium shells, there are entire villages in these countries that have had to the mostzed over using horrific weapons imaginable. My father was the director of the osi for the air force. He said that the direction we are going in the disastrous for the United States and if the American People dont put a stop to this we will be looking at not only an internal implosion, but a social implosion as well. Patrick from pennsylvania with comments on our facebook page. Donald wrightson donald writes in below that, Melissa Griffith powell writes host we are taking your comments. Our phone lines are open. For democrats host some oft to show you the editorial pages from around the country in this topic this morning. The wall street journal. The Editorial Board, obama sets another arbitrary and risky deadline. Host that is the Editorial Board of the wall street journal. Times, writing trapped in afghanistan. There to derek, calling in from pensacola. Morning. Caller yes, good morning. I think, you know, people are talking about staying in afghanistan, not to lose what we gained . What are we trying to gain . We were supposed to go there to get rid of the bad people, they are gone, so why are we still there . Dont know why i we want to keep staying in places. We talk about invasions, but we do the same thing in a different way. It is time to come home and take care of home. Host moses, good morning. Caller good morning. My comments here are mostly for republicans. Withdrawalthere is a , there are comments from like why is graham is saying this not the time . Are to be clear, you concerned about announcing a timetable . Caller right. I think it is the right thing to do. Scared that ifre they leave there will be a return of taliban or whatever you call them. We have work we need to be doing in that country. This is not the america from everywhere in the world. All right. Criticism from a trio of republican senators on the president s statement yesterday. In their joint release they noted that the president s decision to set an arbitrary date for the full withdrawal of troops in afghanistan is a monumental mistake, they note, and the triumph of politics over strategy, they call it a shortsighted decision. That statement from three republican senators, a different tone from the one coming out of the house office john boehner, who writes i welcome the president s announcement that he will support a troop presence in afghanistan next year that will have a counterterrorism mission. Nd a train and assist mission i had said that i hope that washington and kabul would be worthy of the shared sacrifice of the people in afghanistan, the biggest take away from my visit is that of all the afghanistan,cing the most potentially damaging and completely avoidable is quitting short of the goal line. That it has been his longstanding position that input from commanders on the ,round should input decisions not arbitrary numbers from washington, and i am pleased that this supports the request for forces. That is the statement coming from john but rainers office. From the minority leader, nancy pelosi, the president strategy will enhance security and and the Afghanistan War responsibly, the longest war in american. Story is coming to an end we have a special line this morning for veterans of the war in afghanistan. On that line waiting is summer, calling in from hawaii. Good morning. Summer, are you there . Yes, caller yes, sir. Host go ahead. Got back fromt hawaii. 30 years and seven months, retired. This we are going to expand and all of that, when the government is laying off more and more military people and finding reasons to weed them out of the military. Some of the kids were really good. He is narrowing down the military bigtime and taking away money, actually. Someone it has been done to is us. Got a raise, turned around and had to pretty much pay. Host is your concern that the president and the u. S. Government will not be able to support more veterans with two and a half more years of commitment to afghanistan there . Caller no, i dont think they will be able to. Host what years were you afghanistan . It is not me, it is my husband. Host ok, what years did he serve . Caller he retired this past july. Host summer, thank you for calling in all the way from hawaii this morning. We are getting our viewers thoughts as we talk about the president s announcement from somerday, also showing you of the editorials from around the country. Again, here is the president s retreatn paper, continues. Once again the president embraces the zero option. Host concern being expressed by the Editorial Board. One other tweet from democratic senator about the plan the president laid out. He writes that congress should debate this ongoing deployment plan. We want to hear from our viewers this morning. Tricia, libertyville, illinois, good morning. Good morning. I am a veteran advocate. I conducted a desert storm think tank. I am in total opposition of continued occupation in afghanistan. Not a move that is popular amongst the afghani people. It is totally disrespectful to ignore the wishes of the leader of afghanistan. I am concerned that we are unable to care for our veterans on a continued occupation of today 10,000 troops, tomorrow 20,000 troops in afghanistan. When allegedly our goal was to remove out data. The fact is as we continue on in afghanistan, in a Muslim Country , we continue to breed to the people who have reasons, they think, to aim terroristic acts against us. I do agree that we should be voting on this. American people should have the option to vote on this and congress should be voting on this. Patricia, talking about the reaction she sees overseas. Ronald neumann, todays usa today question and answer is with him. One of the questions put to him impact of this war on americans . He says former u. S. Ambassador, ronald neumann, there in usa today. Forn is waiting on the line republicans in baltimore, maryland. Go ahead. Caller yeah, sorry. I think that obama is getting for a fabricated into overush drove us that. D bs like was a war of money. It was just built off of money and for cheney republicans. Think the u. S. t was justified to go into afghanistan after the attacks of 2001 . 9 11 was a farce, it was a total for farce. It was not it was fabricated. Ok. we will go to monti on twitter, who writes said, we have a special line this morning for veterans of the war in afghanistan. We certainly want to hear your thoughts on the president s proposal. Brett is on that line, calling in from guam. Thank you for calling. Good morning. Good morning, thank you for having me. I must agree with erins first , in the sense that we need to go out. I disagree with the republican the speakers with regards to the president making a mistake. Unfortunately, after 12 years, we have done what we can do. It is a special Operations Mission at this point. The original mission has been met and then some. The afghani is are quite capable and the afghanis will run their country as they see fit. With or without our support. At this point enough is enough and we need to refocus our , onrts, in my opinion things other than afghanistan. Host where did you serve in afghanistan . Rc east,n the capital, rc north, and rc south. Most recently last year. Thank you. Brett calling in their from kuan. On our twitter page host this topic was brought up by michael hanlon, from politico. Coauthor of a book, Strategic Reserve and strategic resurgence and resolve. He writes in his piece we are getting your thoughts and comments for the next 15 or 20 minutes or so. Frederick, good morning. Caller how you doing today . Host go ahead and turn on your tv and give us your comment. Are looking at this war and this whole situation in the wrong way. I understand that everyone comments, i respect their comments and thoughts on the situation, but this war is bigger than us, bigger than afghanistan, bigger than america , bigger than anything most people comment about. The spirits are at war. We are not recognizing that. This war is going to continue no matter what. It is not going to stop in afghanistan, it is not going to stop in whatever other country we go to. We are not invading these countries, we are assisting these countries. These are sovereign countries that need assistance. The way we are going about it maybe wrong. It,ver you want to speak not being good little about it it is not going to stop until the prophecy is fulfilled. Cedric, calling in from florida. Talking about the president s recent visit to afghanistan, what will happen with the cia cia chief ousted by the white house outed by the white house . The probe was set in a leak by spies, their to determine how the identity of top spies were engaged in afghanistan during the president s surprise visit to afghanistan on sunday. The story notes that Denis Mcdonough has instructed chief counsel to examine how the name. Sh d up on a list we are talking about the president s plan from yesterday. More comments from a few members of congress here. Here is congresswoman barbara lee from california, who writes in on her twitter page after 13 that there is no military solution. Senatorr tweet, from. Ob corker and it is my strong desire that we revisit conditions on the ground to determine if a full withdraw is warranted. We we want to bring the bureau chief from the Washington Post. We want to get your thoughts on this announcement was received in afghanistan, specifically by government officials. Caller for a long time there has been a sense that host are you still with us . We will work on getting him back. O talk to him dave, good morning. I want to agree with a large majority of the comments made by the caller. After 9 11, both sides of the aisle were pretty much in lockstep agreement with what had to be done. Only monday morning quarterbacking that after the fact they have all broken their ankles jumping off the ship. That these to say people that say we should not have fought these wars . Quite often in my daily life. I talk to them and i say ok, i w