which one where british officers and trainers go up there and train up a new generation of the afghan army and instill in it the kind of discipline and principles that we would expect from a western army. but whether this is sustained is a big question. as you probably know, the old chicago group two years ago that said the west provided for million dollars or so to pay for the afghans. but the absence of bilateral security patch with karzai really jeopardizes that. karzai has gone off on his own strange journey again. and i get the sense that the obama administration is almost exasperated by this and is just not prepared to make any commitment beyond 2014. it's all in the balance. from my experience of working in

afghanistan, as a journalist, i don't think the afghan army and police force is yet ready to take complete control of security. they do a lot of good work at the moment but that's because we're helping them, we provide the helicopters, the enablers, the intelligence. and without that i can see the whole thing falling apart very quickly, just as it did after the withdrawal of troops and 89 when i covered that and saw that. so a long history of involvement in this part of the world. >> con, a follow-up question for you regarding bridge defense, significant to be in london at the moment. what is your view the coalition governments handling of british defense spending? do you think british defense is something significantly undercut

through this wave of defense cuts over the last few years of? >> well, there's surely been a lot of damage and threat to our british, to our military capabilities. although having said that, the british played quite a big role in libya air campaign three years ago to get rid of moammar gadhafi. knowing the british as i do, if something happened and he to turn up and do something, they would. but the cuts made were no position at the moment to undertake the kind of indoor and long-term operations that we have had in the past decade in places like iraq and afghanistan. but having said that, i did not see any politician in london within to commit british forces in that way. i went with the british foreign secretary earlier this year when

all al-qaeda thing blew up there, and he was, he kept pointing out that he loved tasha heuser proud of the way britain and libya because there were no boots on the ground, no british casualties, and the job was achieved. will, you look at libya today and there's hardly a drive. i just think at the moment, and the same is true in washington, the appetite for committing the military to open ended operations overseas is very limited at the moment. >> con, thank you very much. [applause] >> and thank you, everybody, for joining us. we do have copies of the book available for purchase in the lobby and con will sign this hik for you up here on the podium. but thanks, everybody for coming today and we look over to

welcoming everybody back to the heritage foundation. thanks. >> thank you. pleasure. >> [inaudible conversations] >> is there a non--- is there a nonfiction author or '02 like to see on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv.org. >> here's a look at the top 10 best selling nonfiction books according to the "los angeles times."

>> and that's the top 10 best nonfiction books according to the "los angeles times." >> at the creation museum, we also teach people the difference between belief and what one can actually observe and experiment. i believe we are teaching people to think critically and to think in the right terms about science but i believe it's the creationists that should be educating the kits out there because we're teaching them the right way to think. we admit, historical science is based upon the bible but i'm just changing abolitionists to be up front about the difference here. >> i encourage you to explain to us why, why we should accept your word for it that natural law changed in just 4000 years ago, completely. and there's no record of it.

the arguments that are older than that. there are human populations that are far older than that. traditions that go back farther than that. it's just not reasonable to me that everything changed for thousand years ago. by everything, i mean species, the surface of the earth, the stars in the sky, and the relationship of all the other living things on earth, the humans but it's just not readable to me that everything changed like that spent evolution versus gratian is an, science guy, bill my working with origin of species and answers and jenison founder ken ham debate wednesday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> next on booktv the editors of the book "imagine" along with some of the contributors of the book talk about problems with capitalism and discussed what a socialist america would be like. this is a little over oneh