now it is more than that. but also the fact that nato has once, in its existence in 73 years, taken an article 5 vote to support one of its members against a foreign attack, and that was after 9/11 when the united states was attacked by al qaeda, and that resulted in going to afghanistan, which was a nato engagement as well as a u.s. engagement, of course, so the nato partners now today are talking about the disengagement from afghanistan, the end of the war which is actually taking place much sooner than what had been said on 9/11 this year. it s actually going to be over by the end of july, as far as we know the withdrawal schedule, and it s a complicated withdrawal schedule. plus there is a meeting between president biden and erdogan, president erdogan of turkey. very controversial, the president deliberately not calling and not getting a call from erdogan after his election. they ve had icy relations in the past, and that was even before
he was killed. whether he had official protection is something i can t tell. what do you think? really difficult to say one way or other but where he was, how could he have been without some knowledge. that s what a lot of people suspect. all right. let s talk about u.s.-afghan relations. right now you ve had some successful, i think, meetings with the president of the united states. but a lot of americans as you know, and you look at american public opinion polls, they re concerned that they want the u.s. out of afghanistan, about 70% say it s time for the u.s. to come home, the u.s. is spending to keep 90,000 troops, $2 billion a week in afghanistan, $100 billion a year. why is this money well spent? we have already agreed on a process of transition to afghan authority whereby afghanistan will be looking after itself and after its security and the defense of the country almost entirely by 2014, and that s also the time that the american forces and other forces wil
the united states. we talk about his personal relationship with president obama and even his personal relationship with mitt romney. stand by for that as well. and the man sometimes nicknamed america s supermayor, has made a super gaffe. i m wolf blitzer in chicago. you re in the situation room. but first, through my exclusive far reaching interview, i just completed only a few minutes ago with the afghan president hamid karzai, it s his only interview while here in the united states. we sat down only moments ago, and he spoke of president obama just minutes before the interview. the three leaders are here for a meeting in chicago. listen to this. no, we didn t have a three-way meeting, we had a three-way photograph taking. just a photo opportunity? why not a meeting? why not have a three-way meeting and discuss the most important issues facing afghanistan, pakistan and the united states. it wasn t for us to decide on the three-way meeting. the united states was
rebalancing our defense expenditures so we can put the necessary investments where the greatest need is likely to be. so just to understand where this is going, when we sort of thought of libya, as an example here. i know you were against u.s. intervention there. that was a case in which there were no u.s. boots on the ground but we certainly provided air strike support. general, is that a model for how war will resemble under this plan? well, i think it s clear that we ve got lots of capabilities. we can intervene again if we have to to support others the way we did in libya. we can do much more if necessary. the air force, the navy, the army still will have substantial capabilities and we can act in more than one place at once. the truth is we re out of iraq right now. we ve got a withdrawal schedule for afghanistan. so these troops that are coming out, these two major land wars, that s where we were. we need to look to where we need to be and where we need to be is to face diffe
barack obama. i think it will be very hard for him to win the general election because i think it just blurs everything. i think a real conservative who stands for solid values, essentially for new hampshire values the former massachusetts governor holds what looks like an insurmountable lead in new hampshire so he is moving on to south carolina. that state s primary is january 21st. it has been a deadly day in iraq. at least 60 people were killed in attacks in baghdad and other cities across the country. most of the victims were shiites raising fears of renewed sectarian violence. the deadly attack was a suicide bombing targeting shiite pilgrims west of the city of nasiriyah. at least 36 people were killed. dozens wounded. the iraqi military blames the attacks on terrorist groups. president obama says a fighting force that costs less can still be the best in the world and it will be. in an unusual visit to the pentagon, the commander in chief unveiled a rewrite of co