Im just really sorry im sorry for it to be anyone, but im really sorry, again, my condolences to his family. Major general gene had his masters in National Security policy, also a ph. D. In the engineering field. He was one of more than a dozen people struck, the only one to die, in an attack for which we still have very few answers at this point. Lieutenant tony schafer has experience dating back more than a decade about these socalled insider attacks. What happened here . Simply put, i think you had an infill traitor who was either recruited or became subjected to the talibans influence while he was in the army. He took it upon himself. At this point, theres no direct evidence he was directed. But he took it upon himself to essentially kill the invader, which is the perception that the taliban has put forth about our efforts there in afghanistan. First off, condolences to general greens family. This was truly an outstanding general. You all know i dont pull any punches here regarding generals i like and dont like. This general is a true loss to our effort. He was a good man. He was doing the best he could to make sure the Afghan Security forces were going to sustain. Thats what the taliban wants to prevent, therefore this was unfortunately an effect i have attack on our effort there. And major green was the highest ranking general to die since 9 11. As you said, hes well respected and admired and looked up to, especially by the thousands of men and women who are still over in afghanistan and have to finish this mission. Tony, how does this affect their morale as this we have to stay there with the concern that this same thing could happen again . Thats what the taliban want. They want to instill this fear that Something Like this will happen. Well, i have to say this is one of or the beginning of what was going on in 2012. I predicted in 2012 this would continue to expand if we didnt take certain actions. General joe dunford has taken those actions a commander who got there in 2013. Hes done everything he can to secure the training efforts so theres less of a chance of this. Hes done things in a classified level we cant get into here. Hes taken the cadre of the afghans who were trying to train, sending them to a third country, training them, sending them back in. That lowers the risk on both sides of something going wrong. Frankly, we have to do everything we can now. If a mission is to help the Central Government become effective to sustain itself past december of this year, we have to actually throw in and try to make sure that this effort works. Joe dunford is doing that. I know that this did hurt the morale, but i know joe and everybody there is trying to do everything they can to keep the mission on track right now as we plan to leave. Lieutenant colonel, of course everybody in america is concerned about the security of our folks over there. We were before we heard about what happened to Major General green. When that sort of thing happens, it has us even more concerned about our men and women overseas. You say perhaps we should not be too concerned because greenonblue attacks are actually decreasing. Yeah, i heard another general on your Network Earlier today talk about how he thought that our lowering our footprint to 10,000 troops, which is the goal in 2015, would be a bad thing by the fact it would create more circumstance. I disagree. The numbers show as weve lowered our footprint from 100,000 to 32,000, thats helped lower the number of greenonblue attacks. When we go to 10,000 troops, i believe the mission there will be pushing an offensive mission which will allow for intelligence and special operations folks to do their job. And i would argue that while weve talked about this both on and off air, we need to be out of there as much as we can. We need to get conventional forces out of there. We should have never gone in there in force. The intelligence Operations Mission should be about right to go after the al qaeda elements, which are now moving back in with the taliban as we start our departure. Tony, are we, in fact, on track right now to leave afghanistan in a relatively stable state . Well, good question. I dont know. So much will depend on who becomes the next president. Were talking about abdullah abdullah, doing a recount. Either candidate has said theyre going to sign up to the security agreement, which karzai has refused to sign. If that agreement sticks, if it becomes effective, i think we have a chance of continuing the training of the Afghan Security forces to sustain past our departure. If not, its going to be chaos. Again, let me be very clear on this. My senior sources tell me that as we move out and the taliban moves in, al qaeda is moving in as well. Again, im not saying we should be there in force. Im saying that we should be there to make sure that they cannot establish safe havens and training areas like they did before 9 11. Otherwise, why have we spent the past 12 years there . Right. And the pentagon has made it clear after this incident, theyre not changing their strategy moving forward. But tony, as you know, there are a lot of folks out there who are saying weve got to pull out today. Lets just get everybody out of there. What are the implications of that . Lets say that is what we did and tomorrow all men and women were to come home from afghanistan. What would that mean . Well, it would mean essentially abandoning everything we have done. Again, im one of those who i would actually say get all conventional forces out of there now. Theyre not doing any good. Theyre essentially targeting for the purposes of greenonblue or outside attacks. We need to focus the mission. Being allowed to do your mission is far more important than the number of troops. Unfortunately, we play this never game over the past 12 years and allowed our commanders to refight the war one year at a time. Weve never had a clear strategy. Our strategy should be antiterrorism, to go after the bad guys and help secure the government. The Afghan People have to figure out their own future. We can give them some push to do that. With that said, we need to get out of there. I would support that if we could do that. You spoke about Major General green earlier in this interview. I wonder what more color you could give to help folks understand who this man was as a soldier, as a leader, as a person. One of my Close Friends was a close friend of his. According to my friend ken, this guy was an extraordinary leader. He was down to earth. He understood what was necessary to lead, which is a rare quality. More important, he was also technically proficient. That is to say this general was an engineer. He knew his stuff. So often in todays military, people become so focused on just not making mistakes. That wasnt the case in this general. This general wanted to do the right thing constantly. And he put himself out there. I was told he wanted to get even further out there than what he was in afghanistan. Unfortunately, this is a tragic loss that will be felt badly. This guy was needed in our military. You know, tony, we always get to ask you questions. Tonight the president s taking a lot of questions. Were going to be talking that. Given your military background and interest in afghanistan here over the long haul, what kind of question would you pose to the president or like to hear answered tonight . Well, look, i got to be honest with you. Im still questioning why we returned the five taliban commanders. Thats something thats showed grave concern to my associates. I think its put the wind back in the sail of the taliban. Even if this guy wasnt controlled by the taliban, the chances are pretty good he was influenced by the fact we released these guys. Im not saying we shouldnt release him. Im saying we should have gotten more for the release, a ceasefire at least. Right now my concern is whats going to happen over the next six months and year when were still in contact with the taliban. We have to release prisoners. I get that. We had to get our guy back. There were better ways to do it. Im curious why the president took the deal he did. Good questions, tough questions. Lieutenant colonel, thank you for your time today. Thank you for having me. Up next a man whos been reporting from inside the immigration debate, msnbcs newest host, jose diaz ballart. Hes taking his first spin with us in the spin cycle. Later a look inside one of washingtons most important security operations, the secret service, as the cycle rolls on this wednesday, august 6th. Then boom. What happened . 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Carefully crafted with real seafood, real veggies, and never any byproducts or fillers. Wow being a cat just got more enjoyabowl. Fancy feast broths. Wow served daily. If it seems like the media has overused the time crisis lately, its because were juggling a number of crises inside our borders, outside our borders, and directly on top of our borders. Tens of thousands of kids escaping from gangs and rapists in Central America who now find themselves in a new hell, living in Overcrowded Detention Centers here in the u. S. , places that were never intended for longterm care, where refugees survive on two sandwiches a day and sleep in rooms alongside hundreds of others under thin blankets and quarters that many have described as freezing cold, even though were in the dead of summer. Many of our people in the front lines like Border Agents and the National Guard are doing their best to make the process humane for these kids, but thats a tough task when the system is so strained. And with congress out of town for the month, president obama faces a huge decision. Should he act on his own . One of the most informed minds on this issue is msnbcs newest member jose diaz ballart. First, i got to say, the new show is awesome. Youve been doing a fantastic job. Thank you for what youre bringing to msnbc. Thank you. But to the issue here, i think the heart of this issue and the heart of the problem within america is that we have a lot of fear that is wrapping this issue up and making it very paralyzed. People who are afraid of the browning of america and the loss of a dominance that has become second nature. Do you think thats a critical part of this issue . I think its part of the. I also think the fact is when you have 56,000 kids crossing the border since the last month of october and no end in sight to some resolution to this crisis, when you have entire communities that really dont know what the policy of this country is regarding people that are crossing over the border, and then there are all the other aspects you bring up. Then i think people really fear when they fear there is no control and there is no apparent solution. Thats why its so odd that you have both the senate and the house recess for five weeks. They each come up with these position papers, these bullet points, these talking points, but nothing is really done and nothing is even accomplished. And both sides know that nothing is really being accomplished. They go home. No problem. Well, it is a problem. And its a problem thats not going to go away even if you wish it to go away. Youre exactly right, jose. Abby huntsman here. Welcome to the msnbc family. Ive loved your show as well. Hi, abby. Thank you. As a republican at this table, i have to have say what you have today are a few voices that speak for the entire group of the Republican Party. Theres a sense out there that if you meet a republican, well, youre just againstment grags reform, which as you know is actually far from the reality. If you look at recent polls, this one was in politico, showing 64 of the gop support k comprehensive Immigration Reform. We know the support comes from religious groups, business groups. What can they be doing better to take control of this their tina and help these lawmakers dot right thing here . Theres an old expression, abby, in spanish. [ speaking Foreign Language ] if my grandmother had wheels, shed be a bicycle. But you know what . She doesnt have wheels and shes not a bicycle. Jose, we say that in hebrew a lot too. There you go. Universal. So you can say there are a lot of people that are for it, but wheres the facts . The facts are that in the house, there was a handful of republicans working with democrats for years to try to get to some Immigration Reform proposal. Not the one that the Senate Passed over a year ago, because that was seen as too crazy lefty. But even they couldnt agree on anything that could be put to a vote. So you can say that theres a lot of people for Immigration Reform, and im sure there are a lot of goodwill people for Immigration Reform, but that doesnt do squat for the reality, which is that you have 11 Million People living in this country without documents, many with children, even with grandchildren, and theyre living under the shadow of the fear of deportation. On the other hand, you have a porous border where 56,000plus kids are crossing by themselves after crossing through mexico, which is a living hell. And no one seems to really care other than they say, yeah, were for it or were against it. Well, and to that point of how the nation is feeling and who is caring about these children, were going to have more later on the new nbc wall street journal poll. But there were numbers in there specifically about the crisis of children crossing the border. They asked people whether they felt that we have a responsibility for these undocumented children or whether we felt that we dont have the resources to care for them. I found it very disheartening that 43 say we have a responsibility for the children, but the majority think that we dont have the resources to be able to help them. I find that very troubling in a nation that prides itself as being caring and looking after our neighbors and also as a beacon of freedom and human rights in the world. I think, krystal, that it would probably be different if the people that were answering those questions thought that this country had a very specific way of dealing with these kinds of issues. I think, you know, both sides think that immigration is broken and its time to fix it. Well, if both sides can agree that something is broken and no one is willing to fix it, you know, they can say they are, but no one is really doing anything to fix it, i think youre going to get people around the country that fear this is not a problem that i can handle in addition to the other problems i see in this country because theres no one thats really doing anything about it. I think that most people have a heart, and when you see a child crossing the border ive got to tell you, 1500 miles through mexico when there are gangs, cartels, drug dealers, rapists, thieves, and even government officials who along the way take money off these kids and these people, your heart has to go out for these children that finally make it. These are the heartiest of the heartiest. But when youre confronted by a crisis of this nature and you see that no one really is doing anything about it, a lot of people are talking about but no one is doing anything about it, then i think that its natural for you to say, i dont know if we can handle this because we cant even handle the immigration problem, which both sides say is broken. Yeah, and why do you think theres been such a breakdown in the understanding of the traditional distinction between immigration policy and asylum . You know, i dont know what has happened. I really dont know. And abby, i want to bring back just to talk about legislative issues. Lets remember that the house before they went on their fiveweek break, they passed two bills. One on a budget to deal with the border crisis, much less than the almost 4 billion the president asked for. But then the second thing is, to prohibit the president from expanding daca, which is deferred action for about 550,000 kids that were brought here through no fault of their own. And so what message again, you can say youre for Immigration Reform, but when the only thing that you leave with as a message, no true actual stuff, but as a message that you want to destroy deferred action and theres just a handful of people that voted in the Republican Party against this deferred action freeze, then it brings me back to people just see legislators and people in d. C. Talking and no one cares to do anything about it. Why should it billion upon the American People to deal with something when we have elected officials that should be dealing with the crises that we confront in this country . Right. Jose, one of the two dreamers who spoke with and interjected with steve king jyesterday, was erica. She had some interesting things to say on your show. Lets play a bit of that. The Democratic Party has a lot of talking points, you know, saying they support Immigration Reform, that they support immigrants. At the end of the day, you know, its also another its sort of like the political football that they like to play with the Republican Party where its easier for them to say they support us and try to get the latino vote for their candidates inst