denying the taliban the ability to overthrow the government. can you update us in terms of what you are seeing now to plug that hole? >> it continues to be a threat to the campaign. as you know, it's the nature of the taliban in those safe havens differs, varies according to where they are geographically. i believe in the south the southern taliban elements have been successfully -- their momentum has thwarted by the forces of the ansf. it is in the east where i spend a great deal of my time focusing on the network. and on the taliban pakistan and other taliban elements, the

commander group. i spend a lot of my time dealing with that. as i said before, with respect to the numbers associated with the ansf, in the end, it's less of function or factor of what the numbers will be of the ansf. it will be their posture over the long term. if we don't see some political outcome from reconciliation, which can have the effect of effectiveness and safe havns, if we don't see pakistani action to address the safe havens, we are going to have to thicken the defenses of the afghan people to provide as much friction as possible to protect the strategic center of gravity,

which is kabul. it's going to have to be an outcome. we'll watch the campaign unfold this year and next and watch in consultation with the afghan partners how they will force it in the end. the chances are very good, if the issues in the pakistani safe havens don't resolve, we need a larger presence of the ansf to thin in other places in afghanistan. >> thank you. committee will recess for five minutes. when we return, mr. wilson will be on for questioning. thank you.ta commanders

in afghanistan testifying before

the house armed committee this morning. a short break now. should be five minutes or so. we'll return to live coverage when they get under way here. it is budget day on capitol hill for republicans. this morning, the budget committee chair paul ryan released the budget. he offered details including cuts to medicaid, food stamps and pell grants and a number of other programs president obama worked to protect. dan pfeiffer reacted to the republican budget this morning. the white house budget once again fails the test of shared responsibility that would shower the wealthiest few americans with a tax cut and preserving taxpayer give aways to oil companies and hedge fund managers. the tax breaks are paid for by medicare and the things we need to grow our economy like education, research and energy.

it's a portion of the statement. you can read it at our website, go to cspan.org. you can read the budget proposal at our website, cspan.org.

come to order, mr. wilson. >> thank you. we sincerely appreciate you being here today. i'm grateful in my home state of south carolina, the 218th brigade served for a year in afghanistan. general, they felt like you,

commanded by our general bob livingston, they were working with afghan brothers, truly making a difference and helping train the security forces of afghanistan to protect themselves. addition nally, this past weekend, i was honored to be at a deployment of personnel from the national guard. they will be going as an agricultural team to help the people of afghanistan develop their economy. to see the military families there, the dedication, the service members, the veterans who came, it truly is the greatest generation. with that in mind, i'm concerned the wall street journal, last night, reported the administration is offering a compromise regarding night raids in afghanistan and specifically that it would subject operations by afghan judges.

one option under discussion and talks would require warrants to be issued before they got a green light. can you comment on the accuracy of the report why the compromise in the interest of the united states? >> first sir, thank you very much for your comments on your troops. they are magnificent. bob liveingston is one that i served with over time. thank you for the service of those troops in afghanistan. i would like to decline answering the specifics of that question because we are in very sensitive negotiations now on night operations. we do intend that night operations ultimately acknowledge the afghan constitution and afghan law but the process specifically of the execution of night operations

has yet to be negotiated. it is not my intention that they lose their momentum, which is what gives them their effectiveness. any specific conversation about the issuing of warrants or mission folders by judges is very premature and i have not been involved in negotiations about that at this point, sir. >> it always had been my hope it was beneficial to have nine operations for the protection of the people of afghanistan. best wishes on getting that point across. they are the primary beneficiaries of improved security. >> they know that, sir. they tell me that all the time. >> i hope they do. when i read about it, it's appalling they would give a green light to the other side. add degs additionally you say

they flame the violence. the advising training supply weapons, ammunitions. which groups are they working with? where in the country? what is iran's goal? >> they have operated primarily or worked with the taliban elements in the west. that is the only area in which we have seen the presence of support to the taliban. our sense is that iran could do more, if they chose to, but they have not. we watch the activity and the relationships very closely. there's an ancient relationship between the persian people of iran and the afghan people. in fact, today is the beginning of the persian new year. there is real potential common ground between our objectives and iranian objectives with

respect to narcotics, arms, struggling, human trafficking. there are a large number of refugees. there is potential to co-operat in iran, or afghanistan, excuse me. i know they have a long relationship. it's a national relationship that president karzai pointed to on a number of occasions that could benefit afghanistan over the long term. the troubling part right now is the fact there is some assistance that is going to the taliban from iran and we seek to check that. >> again, i appreciate both your service. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you mr. chairman. good to both of you. it's a pleasure to have you with us. i wanted to address the status of women and the impact on their lives as we transition to the afghan national security forces and in time out of afghanistan.

in november, i met with several female afghan parliamentarians in washington, all members of it. progress was made toward female equali equality, they also expressed a number of concerns with roadblocks toward further reforms. the decision made earlier this month by afghan president mr. karzai to endorse a code of conduct that forbids women to travel alone in public, permits husbands to beat their wives is an outrage to afghan women and undermines the significant progress this brave group has made in the last decade. his decision to align to the council of clerics and they code causes great concern about the same value, since the same values we sought and fought so

hard to displace are being put forward as the future of afghanistan. during a bipartisan delegation, i visited a long with a number of colleagues who hoped to become doctors, teachers and entrepreneurs and with afghan women training to become helicopter pilots in the afghan military. it really was an extraordinary trip. it highlighted so well the advances made for women. they wanted nothing more than to help provide for their families and contribute to the future success of their country. assigning them status of second class citizens, mr. karzai turned his back on those turning from decades of abuse from the taliban and threatened afghanistan to function as a stable democracy and american ally. i'm pleased the administration has taken steps to deter the

afghan government such as temporarily cutting off funding for the prison at the edge of kabul which has female visitors to invasive body cavity s searches. however, this is an issue not yet resolved. so, my question is, as we draw down from afghanistan over the next several years, what can we do to make sure we don't lose the hard-fought gains for the rights of afghan women, 50% of the population and what, if any, leverage will we have as we go through this process and after the withdrawal is complete. how is congress able to help preserve the gains which have been made. if we are seen as walking away from those gains, we are done not just the afghan women, but ourselves a great disservice. so, i ask dr. miller.

>> thank you. ma'am, let me answer in three parts, if i can. the first is to acknowledge that the government of afghanistan will not always do exactly what we prefer and what we wish. at the same time, we have and we continue to make clear our view that this is an important issue. just as you said, we have that has been a consistent message from this administration. it is often, in our view, more effective to do that lesssibili. sometimes it has been more visibly. second, asver the course of this campaign and, in fact, over the course of this surge as we are seen improved gains that occurred for women including education. when i was in command south a couple weeks ago, just one

relatively, in a sense small, but incredibly important fact. that is 40,000 women are education that we were not just a few years ago in that, in kandahar. and -- and third, i would say that while our fundamental national interests is to prevent re-emergence of safe al qaeda and to prevent the taliban from coming back and displacing the afghanistan government, over the -- over the long-term and indeed in the intervening period, part of the basis of our relationship with the afghan government will include how it treats its citizens, and so this will remain a continuing conversation. >> and do you express a bright line in your conversations around some of these issues so that it becomes very clear? >> gentlemen -- gent's lady's

time expired. take that one later. >> over the past several years i focused my attention on the afghan narcotics trade as a major source of funding for the insurgents. in 2006, general james jones, the supreme allied commander quoted "the achilles heel of afghanistan is the narcotics problem and went on to say the uncontrolled arrives the spread of narcotic, the business that it brings in, the money that it generates is being used to fund the insurgency. the criminal elements, anything to bring chaos and disorder. in 2010 the united states office of drugs and crime published a study showing opium production rapidly increased from the period of 2006 to 2010, and i have a chart from crs that summarizes that report. i'm fond of holding up the chart and folding it in half. if you fold it in half you can

see during the periods of the surge, if you will, of production, it nearly doubled over what the historical levels were prior. in a recent correspondence you told me, "the narcotics trade and its linkage to the insurgency contributes to regional insecurity, corruption and stagnation of economic development." general petraeus has agreed was a serious problem noting that the trade finance roughly one-third of the taliban's funding. confirming this number just two weeks ago before this committee. in an attempt to confront this issue i've discussed this issue with you, general petraeus, general karzai, just to make a few. in response general mattis stated, u.s. government and other international partners including the afghans are reducing the poppy cultivation and opium production in afghanistan our inner agency strategy supports a comprehensive set of actions to

reduce opium production include numerous initiatives campaigns and joint collaborative efforts that took years to create and implement. i want to complement you and your leadership on these efforts and on the apparent success. the united nations office of drugs and crime winter poppy assessment for april 2011 demonstrated an actual decrease in 2011 opium production. further, in correspondence with general petraeus last year he told me his forces have seen a 48% decrease in opium production and then the first quarter of 2011 we saw a 341% increase in drug seizures nationwide compared to the same period ago, and i want to continue with the charts and folding them over. this is the one that has been updated to show the fall. if you fold off the surge, you can see you're back down to levels that once again represent historical level. and while i find these trends reassuring, i am concerned that

the premature withdrawal of u.s. and i zef forces in afghanistan might reverse this trend and allow the insurgents to regain this luke trative form of funding. the general said we will create an afghan national army, afghan national police that has this capacity if we continue on the track that we are on right now. close quote. your testimony before this committee today serving in your capacity at commander, you stated that the progress in afghanistan is real. sustainable. and that we have severely degraded the insurgency. general allen, we are still pushing the programs to the degree you said in your earlier response received in september and in receiving similar positive responses in the decreased level of the opium productions? do you anticipate that these positive results will continue as we draw down our forces? and does the afghan army have the capacity to address these counternarcotics efforts and if the administration ignores the

advice of its combat commanders and decides to accelerate withdrawal what do you anticipate happening to the counternarcotics efforts in the afghanistan community in the futch jer it's my understanding that this issue of narcotics in afghanistan will not be on the nato summit agenda although the agenda is described as an afghanistan agenda. seems toee me with all the references and understanding how this contributes to the insurgency, the taliban instability, that it would be high on the list. general? >> it is my intention to preserve to the maximum extent that we can the gains that we've made in both the inner agency approach to counternarcotics both on the u.s. side, but also the inner agencies capabilities built into the afghan side as well. the counternarcotics police of afghanistan. the vetted investigative units. the high-end special police

units within the general directorate of police special units. gdp of the osi. have are a variety of units gaining in capabilities and in skills that have grown as a direct result of our advisory capacity and our partnership capacity with them as well. operations such as coupler cardin, which you are probably aware of. a comprehensive drug operation last year. we intend to underdak a similar operation again this year. so it's my intention to remain committed to use both the inner agency resources that we have in-country and close partnership with the u.s. embassy and with other international part mer there's to continue to develop the capabilities of the afghans themselves both to interdict the cultivation of narcotics, but also the, the production of drug products and the shipment and the movement of those.

it's my intention to remain on track in that regard. there is no signal to me that there is going to be an accelerated drawdown of the forces necessary to continue to support those processes as well. and i will have to check into the nato summit agenda to see if there might be subpoints which could, in fact, be the opportunity to discuss this issue, sir. >> thank you very much. mr. johnson? >> thank you. mr. chairman, and thank you gentlemen for being here today. in the aftermath ever tof the mn burning of books followed by the massacre of 16 incident civilians, nine of whom were children, apparently at the hands of an american soldier,

americans as well as afghan citizens are outraged. this climate of hostility can lead to bad things happening. insofar as the american soldier accused of committing this massacre is concerned, it should be kept in mind that america has asked much from our american soldiers in the field. this particular gentleman who stands accused, i understand has been deployed four times to afghanistan and also to iraq, and i would imagine that his state of mind would be a question that will have to be answered by the fact-finders which the trial comes up, and so i would just simply ask that we not yield to the instinct to throw the soldier under the bus and -- and wash our hands of the

fact that he has been put in a situation that many people would snap under. so that would be my statement as far as that is concerned. i think he deserves the presumption of innocence that the constitution entitles he as well as us to. general, we're in the process of gradually drawing down u.s. forces and transitioning responsibility to afghan forces, and you have stated that -- progress is being made in terms of the development of the afghan security forces, the security gains that have been made