presents portions of author talks on afghanistan and the u.s. war. you will hear from a historian, journalist tjournalists who covr and medal of honor recipient dakota. you can watch all of these programs in its entirety on our website, booktv.org. we start with the author of games without rules. in this clip, mr. ansary gives an overview of the history and the conflict of external and internal the afghans experienced over the years. >> i'm sure all of you are interested in what's going on afghanistainafghanistan right ns contesting for the presidential seat in the elections next year, what happens after the nato forces withdraw if they do. but as a historian we can get into all of that with questions and so on but what i'm interested in is how we got here and i feel how we got here is part of the question of where to go from here. in this book i've gone back to what i consider the origins of the afghan nation state with just two and a half centuries ago and i traced the narrative of that country, that emerging developing country which is still not q

afghanistan is deserving of our assistance. they needed help. we tried to spend $4 billion on reconstruction in 2010, far more than the country could absorb. the last point before i turn it over the subtitle of my book is the war within the war. i discovered back and forth that there was a second war going on that weekend the beltway and one of the nastiest was between the state department and the white house over the topic of the potential reconciliation with the taliban, not over anything substantive. they both wanted to get to the point that you could maybe negotiate with some elements. the problem with personalities. hillary clinton appointed the diplomats to take charge of the process for the state department. holbrook was a qualified guide in 1996 he brokered the courts to bring peace to the balkans that he had a big ego, sharp elbows, first for the spotlight and he was a personality run by the nickname no drama obama. the national security staff scheduled meetings when he was out of town and prevented him from using government aircraft an

in afghanistan as faces many challenges. i think that in terms of the economic strategies, not just economic but also political and social aspects, but i think it is about improving the legal infrastructure, the key economic loss. for example, the banking law of the new tax administration wants , the laws on anti money-laundering and countering financial terrorism, they help set the stage in a framework so that people have clear reviews of the rules of the game and what is a lot of what is not allowed and what the penalties are if you try and skirt what is allowed. that obviously means to be complemented by supervisory and regulatory reform. for example, the way the tax and ministration is wrong, the way banking supervision is done, the requirements for disclosure for corporations and companies so that there are measures in no way that reduces go for them to succumb or be a partner in corruption because one has to remember, corruption is a two-way street, a public and private sector. you want to try and reduce the scope of t

projects in afghanistan. another is that for all of our efforts and desire to do good in afghanistan, we have glaring deficiencies that must be addressed. 103 has allocated over billion dollars to afghanistan relief. back then government is still not capable of handling such a large inclusion of money, goods, and their equipment. it is incapable of achieving long-term stability. often times usaid would fund projects that are too large and too ambitious. it leaves the afghans with facilities that are larger and .ore expensive to operate used andpitals no one unstaffed because afghans cannot find the funds nor the staff to operate them. these efforts are not economical and are not practical. as a result, it is a waste of taxpayer dollars. the result of this large to incapableoney of can system is twofold. that isrt reads conducted by the joint coalition operational analysis, they determined that the vast influx of money overwhelms the afghan government's capacity. this helps foster an environment of corruption

troops in afghanistan beyond 2014. the plan was presented on the assumption that guinness and newly elected leaders would sign a bilateral security agreement electednistan's newly leaders would sign a bilateral security agreement. this is 10 minutes. >> good afternoon, everybody. as you know, this weekend i traveled to afghanistan to thank our men and women in uniform and our deployed civilians. on behalf of a grateful nation for the extraordinary sacrifices they make on behalf of our security. i was also able to meet with our commanding general and ambassador to review the progress that we made. and today i'd like to update the american people on the way forward in afghanistan and how this year we will bring america's longest war to a responsible end. the united states did not seek this fight. we went into afghanistan out of necessity after our nation was attacked by al qaeda on september 11, 2001. we went to war against al qaeda and its extremist allies with the strong support of the american people and their represe

efforts in afghanistan. and the of us have ongoing concerns about the future of afghanistan. president obama's recent announcement that he was told that all but 9800 just troops out by year's end and then having that in 2015 and employ all our troops out why the end of 2016 is troubling. announcing a departure date, no matter what the conditions on the ground, just tells the taliban how long they have to wait for us to leave before they can then, at least in their mind, take over the country. this announcement puts at risk i'm afraid the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform have made in that country, not to mention the billions of dollars the u.s. has invested in stabilization, relief and reconstruction efforts. i fear we may see something similar to what we saw in iraq when we all thought that there would be a number of troops that would remain there. they were all pulled out. fallujah we see a fall to al-qaeda. we now see rather than a u.s. ally there, we have extreme iranian influence. i would hate t

of 2014 is simply not the afghanistan of 2001. as mike waltz mentioned, the afghan people have just gone through elections. 14 million ballots cast in two separate elections in open defiance of the taliban. the strength of the insurgency will not regenerate because of the presence of five more individuals on the battlefield, especially since they have been off the battlefield for over a decade. some have questioned whether the recent prisoner exchange created new precedents that will endanger the lives of u.s. personnel. while the exchange of sergeant bergdahl took place before the end of the war in afghanistan, in the past we have conducted prisoner exchanges before the end of hostilities. world war ii and the korean war, for example. likewise, the threat of kidnapping to u.s. members of the armed forces by terrorists and insurgents has long been the case in afghanistan. it was my own number one threat while i served in uniform. there is no reason to think that this calculus will be changed by the recent exchange. finally, the un

doing in afghanistan. can you each one give me a short answer that might help us -- >> we'll each give you long answers. >> make it somewhat short. >> i'll start, one. >> there's several different reasons. first, afghanistan is just enormously complex. people want a short strategic answer and province to province, sometimes district to district, things are enormously difficult and different, in fact they resist that kind of simplification. secondly the u.s. government has done an absolutely rotten job of providing a steady measure of reporting. we have done spin as opposed to fa fact. that makes people subject -- first, it just builds on the cynicism that has been there since vietnam but secondly it also makes people revert back to anecdotal news reporting for a basis of understanding. first of all, with news, if it bleeds, it leads, so their tendency is to the bad reporting and secondly, every country reports primarily on the areas where their troops are involved. the german press will report almost exclu

joining the army's fight in afghanistan. by may 2009, bergdahl and the rest of the company were in the rural province where they manned a small outpost. >> pretty much as soon as we had gone to afghanistan and things started to turn a little bit harder for all of us, he immediately started separating himself away from us. and everyone in the platoon and started gravitating more toward the afghan soldiers. >> personally, i thought he took an interest in the culture. and i didn't see any problem with it. >> one of bergdahl's closest friends was gerald sutton. >> every day, we would always eat together and we would always go outside and he would smoke his pipe and sometimes i would smoke with him, too. and we would just relax after work or after we were done with trucks. he wasn't a loner. >> they often talked about what they wanted to do with their lives after the army. bergdahl presented a strange plan. >> three days before he actually left, he asked me what it would be like to get lost in the mountains or do you think he cou

soldier held host ig in afghanistan is -- hostage in afghanistan is freed for five taliban leaders. >>> i'm here with the world news on al jazeera. also ahead - the anger behind the smiles. china hits back at the u.s. over its stance on the china sea. a sudanese government official says the woman sentenced to death for abandoning islam could soon be freed. >> i'm rory challands in russia where half the population smokes. from this weekend there's a smoking ban that's come in. people are being told to stub it out in bars and restaurants like this. >>> a u.s. soldier held in afghanistan for nearly five years is on his way to a hospital in germany. sergeant bowe bergdahl was freed in a deal brokered bay qatar. in return the u.s. released five senior taliban detainees from guantanamo bay. we have more from washington d.c. >> reporter: this is the deal the taliban had long been pushing for. after five years in captivity, sergeant bowe bergdahl was handed to a force of u.s. special operation soldiers in eastern afghanistan by a 19-strong contight by the taliban. and exchange five will be se

what was your personal experience as a woman in afghanistan and? >> you mean working there a reporter? it's an absolute advantage to be a woman to be a female reporter in a very conservative country because you get access to both parts of the population. you have access to men as a foreigner and you have access to the women whereas a male reporter would have difficulty speaking to women for instance because they are so secluded and so protected. as a woman you can go between the two genders and that gives you an enormous advantage actually. you are seen almost as a third gender as a foreign entity and for that reason they also allow you to come into their lives. >> jenny nordberg out of your experience in afghanistan came this look "the underground girls of kabul." who are these girls? >> the underground girls of kabul as i think of them are part of a secret practice that goes on in afghanistan right under the surface where little girls are being brought up as voice. since girls have so little value their it's a strict patriarchy gender segregation

area of in the same afghanistan. what is your sense of the level of the disillusionment that bowe bergdahl expressed here? how prevalent was that or is it an isolated situation or a shop degree of disconnect the soldiers thinking what they were going to do versus what they ended up doing? >> like i've said, the area was a very difficult area to operate in. it is crushing poverty, zero percent female literacy -- literally, no toilets in the entire providence except for american toilets. so a lot of them into my platoon -- i was there two years prior to bowe being there. a lot of the men in my platoon, myself included, came back with fromndous cases of ptsd what we were doing there because it was simply a difficult lace to fight a war in. i think everyone from alexander the great to the soviets to us has learned that fact the hard way. >> we're going to take a break and then come back to this discussion. we are talking with matthew for "rollinger stone" magazine, and afghan war veteran. he helped the late michael hasti

partnership in afghanistan. thank you for the opportunity to testify. >> i will begin with the question and answer segment of our meeting. is so pervasive in afghanistan that it only serves to exacerbate the already difficult obstacles facing the government's ability to govern effectively. not only that, but it undermines the security of both the international forces and the afghan people. it erodes confidence in government and it leads them to distrust us and it leads to the waste of billions of taxpayer dollars. for all of these warnings and all of the reports we have had about corruption in afghanistan, we have yet to do -- develop an anticorruption policy. even karzai acknowledged that this is a major obstacle to progress. how is it even possible that we still don't have an anticorruption policy? even as we are sending billions of dollars in direct assistance to afghan ministries despite all of the warnings. do we have any insight into dated amounts of direct assistance? sticking with the direct assistance i

-- of afghanistan? that gives us a benchmark. >> i would have to refer to the dunfordny of general don where he said if we pulled out today there would be a collapse. i have to rely on his expertise. we have not done a study on that. >> ok. thank you. i think the point is if they got pulled out we would see an utter collapse. we are focused on withdraw and pulling out. in my me smarter to have a mission past 2016 in which we can have a long-term gain. thank you for being here. i yield back. >> thank you. mr. connolly of virginia is recognized. >> thank you. i know you want to look forward, but i think before we do that we need to glance backwards and see what we have learned or not. reading your reports and press stories, including press stories referring to you and listening to your testimony and of mr. johnson's, i have to tell you one has a sense of dÉjÀ vu all over again. example, lotsor of aid money thrown at vietnam. the biggest aid mission was in vietnam. there was no aspect of life in south vi

we have witnesses who can tell is what else happened in eastern afghanistan in 2009. those who have suffered as a result, and what this so-called deal may mean for afghanistan going forward. i will not recognize the ranking member from california, mr. sherman. >> thank you. mr. andrews, we know that you are the father of darren andrews, second lieutenant, who gave his life for his country. we cannot thank you enough for your family's sacrifice. we salute darren's courage. i would like to thank you specialist full for your service to our country. mr. waltz, a senior national security fellow at the new america foundation, who demanded special forces in eastern afghanistan. thank you for your service. and dr. jacobson, thank you for your 20 years of service in the military, including your deployment to afghanistan. first, as to a preliminary issue on iraq. let me point out that we do not have forces in iraq. we do not have a status of forces agreement with iraq. president bush established president malki in 2006, and in this governance is responsible for the violence tak

he was in afghanistan at the same time as bowe bergdahl. and when he came back to the united states, he applied for conscientious objector status. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as this controversy brews, it is on so many different levels. yet the controversial prisoner swap and the whole issue of is this leading to the posting of guantÁnamo, and then you have bowe bergdahl leaving the base, not really fully understood at this point as we have not talked to bowe bergdahl. once he left the base, he was not spoken to again except through taliban videos of him. the question is being raised, did he desert? being condemned in the mainstream media for his antiwar views. >> we're going to talk more about the bowe bergdahl story. ando to brock mcintosh washington, d.c., who fought with army national guard in afghanistan from november 2008 to august 2009. he was based near where bergdahl was captured. mcintosh later applied for conscientious

efforts in afghanistan. during the course of our work we have may over 150 recommendationings on action thanks should be taken to planning,ogram implementation, management and oversight. today i would like to highlight few key issues. among them are the need to mitigate against the risk of assistance toct the afghan government. the oversight and accountability of u.s. development projects, as the chair noted including the need fof a data base and the for contingency plan as the u.s. transitionings to a presence. regarding direct assistance to the afghan government, in 2010 alone with other international donors plentied to provide at 50% of development assistance report. was contingent on certain controls being in place. thewe reported in 2011 that u.s. fill filled its plenty by nearly tripling its awards year. the first going from 4' 0 million in twisk about 1.4 billion in fiscal year 2010. that whileorted usaid had complied with other control, it did not always assess the risk of providing direction assista

within a year they will be back in afghanistan and god help the people of afghanistan. the president hurt our national security and it was a dumb and dangerous position. >> senator you served in the jag arm of the military for many, many years. there are a couple of questions. there are reports that and james rosen said bergdahl converted to islam and declared himself to be an enemy. they are reports that are published and leaked out. i want you to speak to it from the stand point of the military process. does this change anything? &wsç how should the military deal with bergdahl if in fact he deserted his post and ended upç joaning with the taliban? what does that do? >> this is a good question. you and i believe in the rule of law for everyone. this man deserves due process. he will be part of a investigation. you heard from members of the unit about what they think happen. he will have a chance to provide information on his own behalf and if there is it evidence of a crime here, his commander can convoen a court martial. he is not be tried on television or internet.

-- into afghanistan? >> thank you. this is a reflection of wider society, regardless of [indiscernible] thank you for reflecting that. does anyone want to take that question? >> please. >> i was waiting for chris. >> [indiscernible] [laughter] nofirst of all, there is question that the sanctuaries in pakistan allow the taliban continue to fight. if there were no centuries in pakistan, there would be no important insurgency. it would have been crushed a long time ago. that is very clear. there is a degree of official response ability in pakistan for that. i agree with that as well. the united states has complex interests. narrative, afghan which says if you would just beat out the pakistanis, they would close this down. have more could pressure. i think we could have more understanding. i think that narrative is exaggerated. the pakistanis have allowed something to grow which now threatens the pakistani state as well. and which i'm not even sure they have the capacity to control. and it does affect the pak

similarly, it may not be driven by afghanistan. you know, like everybody else, afghanistan is dependent on its neighbors so that, you know, regional conditions will also affect how well it does, like what we're seeing in europe, for example. you know, the problems that some countries face in europe are affecting some of their neighbors in europe. and the same applies in the region where afghanistan is. you know, because countries' economic prospects are linked, if one country -- if a nearby country faces economic problems it can spill over into other countries nearby. >> thank you, i'm at brookings and used to live also and work in afghanistan for a few years. mr. ross, i was impressed by your introduction and i agree that it was as smooth as silk and i was left also to wonder is he optimistic or is he not optimistic? because you were optimistic assuming that there would be a smooth political transition, a smooth security transition. that there would be continued reform, which means governance, corruption, et cetera and also that d

the problem in afghanistan is not afghanistan. and the sooner the west admits this. i know, you know it, but you will not admit it. the world has got armies. pakistan's army has a country. it is the opposite. pakistan's military is running the country. the isi is the one that is supporting these people that are coming into afghanistan and killing our people. the biggest symbol of celebrating the release of the five was yesterday they almost ablated -- eye nighlated the frontrunner. why don't we address the fact they're sending rockets in and killing our people. i don't hear a word from the 47 nations that aren't there to protect us against the enemies of afghanistan. afghanistan is not at war with iran or pakistan. the west is at war with the al qaeda and taliban. the battle is being fought on the soil of afghanistan. we're paying a price for it. my heart bleeds for the foreign soldiers that have lost their lives in afghanistan. but speaking for every foreign soldier that has fallen in afghanistan, tens of thousands have fallen into the hands of the taliban that are

we're not at war with the people of afghanistan or the government of afghanistan. we're at war with terrorist groups like al qaeda and those who provide material support to al qaeda like the taliban. this war is far from over. as a matter of fact the enemy is stronger today than they have ever been. so the end of hostilities will be when the taliban surpders. we're a long way from there. i hope the president releases that. >> do you think this whole thing blew up in the president's face and he underestimated the reaction of the release of those five terrorists? >> at the end of the day, i think there was a political dynamic to this, the rose garden ceremony blew up in his face. here what the president doesn't understand, radical islam hasn't been decimated. it is on the march. most americans want these guys off the battlefield, stay in jail and they are upset that we traded five hardened killers under this circumstance to go back to the fight to put our country at risk, not only is he weak and decisive as a commander in chief, mike, i think he is now detached and d

the senior leadership is in afghanistan not in pakistan although any of us spent any time in afghanistan know quite the opposite. so to be involved in this in a sense they've got to become public about it. >> during my seven months in the hands of the network, it's held the entire time in pakistan. and i think that's where bowe was the entire time. i saw no effort by the pakistani military to confront the hakanis. i was able to escape with the help of a colleague because we were being held half a mile from a pakistani military base. the soldiers never came off that base to investigate what the taliban were doing. and thank god this afghan soldier brought me to the base -- >> rose: back to the relationship between al-qaeda network and isi. >> isi turned a blind eye to the very least to the hakani network. we learned our lesson. the pakistanis still think they can use them as proxies and control them and it's disastrous. >> rose: you come to the conclusion you took a blind eye to the fact that osama bin laden was that far from the military base. >> at least a blind eye or they knew about i

. >> i came to afghanistan in 2009. >> bergdahl was the only u.s. prisoner of war from the afghanistan complicate and he was held by the taliban for nearly five years. in exchange for the american soldier, five senior taliban officials, imprisoned at guantanamo bay, were released. the government of cutter helped to broker the deal. >> we saw an opportunity, and we were concerned about sergeant bergdahl's health. we had the cooperation of the qataris, to execute the exchange, and we seized that opportunity. and the process was trunkated because we wanted to make sure that we did not miss that window. >> some members of congress said that they were not consulted, and the process involved releasing the gitmo detains a without their consent. they must give 30 days notice before any gitmo detainees were released. asked about the assertion that congress windows alerted to the deal, the republican vice chair on the senate intelligence committee said --. >> the white house was wrong about that. >> i've had this for a year and a half, and if that's keeping u

>> well, i'm reporting from afghanistan. free and fair elections western standards, no, not yet, not yet, but what i can clearly say, these have been the freest and fairest elections so far in afghanistan since 2001. >> in what respect would you say that the vote did not meet western standards of freedom and fairness? >> well, we already know that there was fraud again in some places here in afghanistan. there were places where there were no ballot boxes, some ballot boxes were stolen already, so this is all what i do not call western standards. >> thank you very much. iranian president hassan rouhani says the shiah majority country is ready to help the government of neighboring iraq in its fight against sunni militants. they said tehran could cooperate with the united states to restore iraq. isis has seized control in much of the country. u.s. president barack obama is reportedly considering the use of u.s. air power. iraqi prime minister maliki has asked for washington's help. the most senior shiite cleric has told iraqis

. >>> a "consider this" exclusive, afghanistan goes to the polls. we could speak to the man who could be the country's next president. and so much for science fiction, a real star ship enterprise at the very planning stages at nasa nasa. hello i'm antonio mora. welcome to "consider this." more on what's ahead. >> the americans may have left iraq but the war goes on. >> thousands of shiite civilians are pledging to fight back against sunni militants. >> we will not be sending u.s. troops back into combat in iraq. >> tight security is in place across afghanistan ahead of sat' run off election. >> could affect voter turnout. >> abdalla abdalla and nashraf gani . >> bowe bergdahl is in a texas military facility for further evaluation. >> might give you a menu and say choose what you want to eat. >> united nations raising extreme alarm over summary executions, rapes, beheadings of civilians in iraq as islam ic insurgents show no sign of pulling back. president obama says no u.s. troops will be sent. >> the united states is not simply going to involve its

if they do, the afghanistan of honey 14 is not the afghanistan of 2001. 14 million ballots cast in two separate elections in open defiance of the taliban. especially since they have been off the battlefield for over a decade. some would question whether the recent prisoner exchange would endanger u.s. personnel. while the exchange took place before the end of the war in afghanistan and we have conducted prisoner exchanges before the ends of hostilities with the korean war. with the threat to kidnapping by terrorists and insurgents has long been the case in afghanistan. it was my number one threat when i served in uniform. there is no reason to think that this calculus will be changed. the united states has been negotiating with the taliban and her some time now. a recognition that the war in afghanistan cannot end without a political settlement. i understand what we feel about the stories coming out about bowe bergdahl. if i were them, i might feel the same way. the truth is that we do not yet know the whole truth. and our nation of laws, the presumption of innocence is sacrosanct. peo

if they do, the afghanistan of honey 14 is not the afghanistan of 2001. cast in twoallots separate elections in open defiance of the taliban. especially since they have been off the battlefield for over a decade. some would question whether the would prisoner exchange endanger u.s. personnel. while the exchange took place before the end of the war in afghanistan and we have conducted prisoner exchanges before the ends of hostilities with the korean war. with the threat to kidnapping by terrorists and insurgents has long been the case in afghanistan. it was my number one threat when i served in uniform. there is no reason to think that this calculus will be changed. the united states has been negotiating with the taliban and her some time now. a recognition that the war in afghanistan cannot end without a political settlement. i understand what we feel about the stories coming out about bowe bergdahl. if i were them, i might feel the same way. the truth is that we do not yet know the whole truth. and our nation of laws, the presumption of innocence is sacr

i'm just asking if afghanistan in its current situation -- >> as far as i know, afghanistan would be a potential recipient country. >> okay. thank you very much. i yield back my time. >> the gentle lady yields back. mr. bridenstine. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, did i hear correctly earlier, you mentioned that when you were making the decision to release the five members of the taliban, that you did not take into consideration whether or not they would return to the field of battle? >> no, i didn't say that. we took that into consideration. we took everything into consideration. yes? >> was your assessment the best assessment from the people who advise you, was that assessment that they would or would not return to the field of battle? >> the assessment was, first, we looked at the threat. whether they would or not. we can't predict. >> you can make an assessment. >> i'll read you what i just read this committee a little bit ago and i don't think you were here on the latest intelligence community assessment on the threats. i asked for this from gem clapper. this is the m

soldier held host ig in afghanistan -- hostage in afghanistan is released by the taliban in exchange for five of its leaders. >>> hello, you are watching al jazeera live from doha. also on the programme - china hits back, slamming the u.s. and japan for their stance tonne the south china sea -- on the south china sea snoost 3,500 -- >> 3,500 migrants land on italy's shores. >>> calls to cull more elephants - environmentalists will have none of it. that report from sri lanka. >>> good to have you with us. a u.s. soldier is being flown to a hospital in germany. sergeant bowe bergdahl was freed after five years in exchange for five detainees in guantanamo bay. >> i've been in afghanistan from may 3rd, 2009... >> this is the deal the taliban has been pushing for. sergeant bowe bergdahl reportedly handed to a force of u.s. special operations forces in eastern afghanistan by a 19-strong contight. in exchange five prisoners will be september to qatar and be subjected to security restrictions, including a ban on travel. >> i want to go home. you know, the afghanistan men in our prisons, they

afghanistan is at a critical juncture. at the same time we're focused on the first democratic transition of government, and supporting security and stability within the country. this negotiation has legitimized the taliban. the organization that safeguarded the 9/11 al qaeda perpetrators and ruled afghanistan through atrocities. lastly, this transfer sets dangerous precedent for how the president intends to clear out gitmo. the remaining detainees, by the obama administration's own analysis, include the most dangerous against u.s. forces and national security interests. in the president's rush to close gitmo, are other deals in the works to release these dangerous individuals? mr. secretary, i don't envy the position you have been put in. we understand the responsibility you bear for signing these transfer agreements. but we're also aware of the immense pressure the white house has put on you to transfer these detainees so it can claim victory for closing gitmo. nevertheless, we expect the department to abide by the law an

three months in afghanistan. i was hoping i was going to spend a couple of weeks with bowe and these guys. i got pulled back and went to andher area with the 501st then went on to join the brits with another operation. yeah, i mean, we did not know the circumstances. i found out sometime later. but as i say, the video we ran at the time was two guys in the same dugout, hole in the ground, who started the early morning watching the back of the construction site, and that is what they said. , youthink at that time know, naturally enough, quite a number of people serving in the military in afghanistan were voicing questions about what they were doing their, you know, or what they were told were doing their and what they actually thought they were doing their. you know, on a political level. they were to decide -- criticizing the chain of command, they were questioning the war and the concept of it and etc., it was a very unusual. have a similar thing with a couple of the brits, which was quite unusual. the number of

we have undercut our efforts to secure afghanistan. have unleashed forces that will make it more likely that americans will be kidnapped in the age are. we have sent the worst possible signal to those who have been trying to change afghanistan for the better. >> in the video, which we saw, is there any reason that you believe it should not be made public? >> no. absolutely not. every american should do the video. every american should be able to evaluating the decision-making process. what led to this decision? this is a democracy. i am not asking about releasing classified information. what was the reasoning that the five taliban being released would empower the process? was he in dire straits? did we have to act now or lose the opportunity. this is something i need to put out to the open. we need to look at the video and judge for yourself. but did he tell you why? >> no. >> that video. [inaudible] wednesday, chuck hagel heads to capitol hill to testify publicly on the sergeant bergda hl exchange. the general counsel is also testifyi

do we have troops in afghanistan right now? >> yes, congressman. >> and so you had referenced troops who have been left behind. we can argue whether bergdahl left his unit behind, and i agree with specialist fuller, but if we still have troops there, who have we left behind? we're still fighting the conflict. it's not over yet. so the nothing that somehow we had not done this trade that means, quote, we left him behind is other nonsense. what we have done is we've replenished the enemy in wartime when we still have fighters in there, and those individuals will be back on the battlefield, even if you believe this qatar year, they'll be back while we still under the president's timetable still have troops there. so we have not left anybody behind, and i think mr. waltz hits it right on the head about the price you pay. does it help or harm the security interests of the united states? i would refer to people like my colleague sam johnson, who was a medal of honor winner, one of the most respected men in this body, prisoner of war,

seriously in afghanistan. it is part of their culture. revenge and hospitality. they will invite you in and do anything to protect you or they will kill you for multiple generations in the future. if they don't kill you their sons will and so on. that is what it is going to be like for westerners in afghanistan for a long time. what should we do if we cannot strike back military or physical force? how do we respond to the terrorist threat? i didn't know the answer for a long time. i just knew somebody should be thinking and talking about it. and then i remembered this scene or story in "fantasia" the disney film. about mickey mouse being a working and carrying water in the

it would allow forces to remain in afghanistan after 2014. karzai first negotiated it, but ever since he's refused to sign it. here's the front runner abdullah on the bsa. >> it has to be signed and it will be one of the priorities of the future government of afghanistan. >> and here is ghani. >> i'm on record that i will sign the agreement within the first week of being elected. i have weighed every word and consider it to be both in afghanistan, the united states and in the global interest. >> as for whether the leading candidates would bring the taliban into the political process to help broker some sort of peace deal, listen again to what they had to say. here's abdullah. >> absolutely. the continuation of the talks to the taliban of keeping the door open for negotiations with the taliban with a clear parameter and clear goals, it's important. >> and here's ashraf ghani. >> the talibans and afghans first must make a choice, and we hope they would make that choice to sit down and discuss all key issues. >> both candidates are also less ant

efforts in afghanistan. president obama's recent announcement that efgs pulling out about the 9800 u.s. troops out by year's end and then having that in 2015 and pulling all troops out by the end of 2016 is troubling. announcing a departure date no matter what the conditions on the ground just tells the taliban how long they have to wait for us to leave before they can then in their mind take over the country. this announcement puts at risk i'm afraid the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform have made in that country, not to mention the billions of dollars the u.s. invested in stabilization relief and reconstruction efforts. i fear that we may see something similar to what we saw in iraq when we all thought there would be a -- a number of troops that would remain there. they were all pulled out, fallujah to al qaeda, we see rather than a u.s. ally there, we have extreme iranian influence and i would hate to see a repeat of that. thank you very much for holding this. >> thank you so much. mr. higgins, of

. >>> next, could afghanistan turn out to be a success? i will give you my case for optimism. >>> also, from what to have for dinner and how to fix global warming, a revolutionary new way to solve problems from the freakonomics guys. >>> and a woman who went from shoplifting anti-capitalist to founder and ceo of a major retailer. this self-proclaimed girl boss has great advice to help you succeed. >>> but first, here's my take. let me read you something from a well-known analyst of american foreign policy. he wrote, "because of unsure and indecisive leadership in the field of foreign policy, questions have been raised on all sides. the right added that the administration is plagued by a hamlet-like psychosis which seems to paralyze it every time decisive action is required." is this one of the many recent critiques of barack obama's foreign policy? actually, it is richard nixon writing about president john f. kennedy in 1961. criticizing presidents for weakness is a standard trope in washington because the world is a messy place, and when