i want to give cliff his last shot. what would you do printively if you had to give us a policy. i think if i give you a policy i d rely on general petraeus. he knows more about this than any of us do. he s got his troops there. not as many as he would like but we give him a chance to work that out and see what happens. this will not be fast. it s also very important to keep this in mind. there are some people who believe, i don t think christine is among them, that the taliban represents an indigenous, insurgency that s against the american occupation. and is very popular inside afghanistan. not true. they are savages. they object to such things as women getting an education and having jobs. they express that not on tv shows and op-eds but by throwing asnid the fafss little girls who go to school. christine and i disagree on what the most effective strategy is to defeat the taliban but we agree taliban should be defeated. in pakistan, there s a great range of people from those who a
and al qaeda families have intermarried. the idea we re going to with one conclusion on this. the idea we can afford to lose to the taliban, which christine is right to call savages and allow that to happen to afghanistan and then think that will not help al qaeda and will not endanger pakistan, i just think is incorrect. but you are using a word there that i don ting it s fair to put in her mouth which is to lose. she said they re not the same enemy as al qaeda. even general petraeus has basically said very overtly, negotiating with the taliban and reaching an understanding with them is the only way to end this successfully. this is a very important point. eliot, this is a very important point you are making. there s no question and i talked to commanders when i was in afghanistan about this that there were the taliban is a network itself. and there are elements within the taliban that are probably not that ideological. and if they see the taliban over all losing, they will de
policy i d rely on general petraeus. he knows more about this than any of us do. he s got his troops there. not as many as he would like but we give him a chance to work that out and see what happens. this will not be fast. it s also very important to keep this in mind. there are some people who believe, i don t think christine is among them, that the taliban represents an indigenous, insurgency that s against the american occupation. and is very popular inside afghanistan. not true. they are savages. they object to such things as women getting an education and having jobs. they express that not on tv shows and op-eds but by throwing asnid the fafss little girls who go to school. christine and i disagree on what the most effective strategy is to defeat the taliban but we agree taliban should be defeated. in pakistan, there s a great range of people from those who absolutely want to have a secularized state and have all the freedoms that we have to those.
even general petraeus has basically said very overtly, negotiating with the taliban and reaching an understanding with them is the only way to end this successfully. this is a very important point. eliot, this is a very important point you are making. there s no question and i talked to commanders when i was in afghanistan about this that there were the taliban is a network itself. and there are elements within the taliban that are probably not that ideological. and if they see the taliban over all losing, they will defect to our side. but when you are talking about somebody like mullah omar who is the head of the afghan taliban, he is somebody you are not going to be able to negotiate with and general petraeus doesn t think so. i m not going to argue that we necessarily have the best strategy in afghanistan. i will argue that we have the best american general who is heading up that strategy, general petraeus. his full complement of troops has arrived only this fall. we sharks lou
necessarily have the best strategy in afghanistan. i will argue that we have the best american general who is heading up that strategy, general petraeus. his full complement of troops has arrived only this fall. we sharks lou him time to do what he wants to do. we all want to play arm chair general but we should be supporting this general and, by the way, this president in what is a very well considered if very complicated and difficult strategy that the obama administration would say is, and i think they re right on this is making progress, particularly in what was the al qaeda the taliban hot land of helmand and kandahar and they ve also done a pretty good job prove tecting kabul. they re not everywhere in the country. they are making progress, it s uneven but we ll allow that to continue. if we can put up the maps that were internal u.n. determinations about whether we were making progress. there s a map from march and then october of this year. that s march. you can see the red