>> surprises welcomed and not, the president pops up in afghanistan. the jobless rate goes up, not down. plus wikileaks has shown the diplomats as the most undiplomatic. this week on "washington week." >> we begin this holiday season, there's no place that i'd rather be than be here with you. >> talk about changing the subject. president obama takes a break from a week of domestic political struggles with a quick trip to afghanistan. but there are still many loose ends, including state of the war itself, lingering fallouts from embarrassing wikileaks

disclosure. >> one of my counter parts said to me, well, don't worry about it, you should see what we say about you. >> and good old fashion gridlock over taxes. >> trying to catch my breath so i don't refer to this maneuver going on today as -- as chicken crap, all right? but this is nonsense. >> the deficit. >> this is it. no more fun and games, smoking mirrors, trickery, cunning c.y.i., demagoguery and making promises we can't possibly keep and rising on employment. covering the weerks yogi treason, doyle mcmanus of the "los angeles times" and john harwood of cnbc and the new york times. >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens, live from our

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afghanistan for unannounced trip. >> we look forward to next week, the transition of afghan responsibility. weas do we continue to forge a partnership with the afghan people for the long term. >> yogi has been reporting in afghanistan for the last three weeks trying to assess the state of the war and including the promises can be kept. what did you find out about that, yogi? >> first it was, july 2011. now it's july to 2014. it's kind of hard to see how we get there. the afghan army is really, really far from being incapable of replacing us when we go. the relationship between karzai and obama is poison. the general can find statistics

that makes you think this is doable. but when you look at the statistics they begin to fade. he said, more americans are diing from i.e.d. blasts, but there are fewer americans flying in the impled e.d. blasts. if you look at the number of u.s. deaths, number of u.s. casualties, it's all off the tcharts. >> what was today's visit all about? was it a rally? it's only the second time he's been there. was it just a holiday trip? >> i think it was a rally. the substance of it are just a little bit strange. it's not a thanksgiving trip, it's not a christmas trip. he only went to back gram. -- bagram. he didn't really see karzai except by video teleconference. it was a strange trip that i don't entirely know what he was

trying to demonstrate. fundamentally if you're trying to say to a war-weary people, spend time under most heavily protected camp. i don't understand the purpose. >> earlier this year, the administration was saying this is either 2 make our break situation. what's the situation there? >> as in marsha. they went into kandahar expecting it to be d-day. the unit brought only one chance of clothing because they thought they would be constantly fighting. one thought is that we drove them out which would be potential progress. the other school of thought is

they left. we declared victory in marsha. then there were public retaliation. they're not stupid. they'll always choose the ladder. >> the larger question that occurs to me in the pretty gloomy assessment that you were giving, during the campaign the president said afghanistan was the war that we took our eye off the war when we were in iraq. and i'm going do something about that and he came up with a new policy in 2009. does that tell you that even with a surge of troops or at the threavel the president supported, this is not a winnable conflict? >> it's a great question. and it's one that i wrestled with on the trip. i'm not sure what "winnable" means. that wouldn't matter much. i'm a journalist that cares on

some level. but when i asked the guys in kandahar, they didn't know what winning is. we had a basic lack of understanding, if we didn't win how we lt. it's a very messy situation. when president obama announced the surge, it was all about al-qaeda. al-qaeda's gone. they've been gone from afghanistan for years. so now it's about the taliban. and now it's about peace talks potentially with the taliban. but the taliban don't want to talk to us because they feel like they're winning. one thing that i found very interesting, a cup pol -- couple of years ago when i was talking about the peace talks, i asked general petraeus can you ever dream of talking to the man who indirectly killed so many americans? he said, definitely not. this year, i asked an official that question. i can't invision shaking his

hands. and at the end of that process he would live in dubai, we're ok with that. >> among the wikileaks were tension between the white house, the administration and the hamid karzai. how much of a drag is that on our effort? >> it's enormous. and the level of sort of contempt within the military towards karzai, personally was just staggering to me. in part because it's no longer an issue just for him criticizing obama, criticizing the u.s., believing in conspiracy theories why we're there, and he's specifically criticizing the military. he's saying the military presence is too big. he doesn't want any nighttime operation made. which petraeus thinks it's the best we have. we're fighting and dying so this man can stay in power. his response is not only not thank you but constant attack,

constant criticism. >> does that mean ha the problem that you refer to aze poisonous a few minutes ago is not an obama-karzai problem, it's a karzai problem. >> i think it's an obama-karzai problem because the white house don't really know what to do with karzai. remember the last time obama went to afghanistan and general jones and the national security advisor said we're going to lay the smack to him on corruption. that leaked from afghanistan and blew up. this week there was no more hammering him for corruption. we don't know as a country what to do with hamid karzai. >> you mentioned afghanistan also played a major role in the mountain of information disclosed wikileaks. the leaked documents were full of unflatering assessments of enemies and allies alike. but in the end, how much was in politic and how much was actually dangerous, doyle? >> there was a lot that was in

politic, unvarnished opinions of leaders, karzai, the president of pakistan and this was a british diplomat's words a num skull. and andrea americale as really, really dull. none of that was really good. but the big surprise was actually out of these thousands of documents that a bunch of newspapers had reviewed that there was no big surprise. there were a lot of intriguing details about pieces of american diplomacies. lots of interesting stories. it was very gripping reading. you can see the original documents and that's always intriguing because it's a look behind the curtain. but it toiled you things that we already knew. that the united states does back room deals on

counterterrorism. that the united states doesn't trust a lot of its supposed allies like karzai and vladimir putin. and that it's a messy world and there's a lot of back stabbing. but you already knew that. >> nft, the cables told a story of american diplomats focused on the right thing, not fundamentally acting in things that are deceitful with their public posture. he said it raised his estimation of u.s. diplomacy. >> you can have that take so some degree. there was so little deception, the story told in these cables of the same story that we've been hearing. there's even the same school of thought that there could be some good coming out of this. exposing that leaders dislike

iran. maybe that could shake some sense into the iranians. or that the chinese, that it would embarrass them into a performance. i don't think that's going to happen. i don't think countries is going to get embarrassed like that. >> you don't think the iranians knew that the saudis think that? >> they knew that. >> we talkn't -- talked about what it means for washington. what does it mean for them for it to be so public? >> that's a good question because that really is where i think there is a negative impact from this. it's not only the arabs -- you know, there are an awful lot of embarrassed leaders out there. actually, you know, the king of saudi arabia who said cut off the snake speaking of iran. >> the head of the snake. far more evoketiv.

>> more stub tan actively, the problem is you had countries that were cooperating with american counterterrorism networks. and they told people that it's very limited. and it's not. and this may actually push them for domestic political reasons to cut back on their corporation. >> i detected a shift in frone the beginning of the week when these were first coming out where hillary clinton was saying, this is dangerous and this could bring bads things. and by the -- bad things. and the next day they said, they've said worse things about us. almost as if they were relieved.

>> there are cables that show that both the americans and the british are more deeply worried about pakistan's nuclear security, pakistan's ability to prevent nuclear weapons material to leek out to terrorists, that they are more worried about that than they led on. there was this great flood of gossip. this was much more "us weekly," right? everyone wanted to read about colonel gadhafi's nurse. some of the more serious stories got buried. >> do we know how these documents came to be leaked? and do we noit know how to stop that in the future? >> maybe and no. by which i mean, it appears pretty clear that the american government believes that this

private first class bradley manning who has been arrested under military charges for earlier wikileaks that this came from his computer. he is being prosecuted under military law. and of course, the question's been raised how can a private see this? this stuff was in secret. secret isn't really the best stuff. it has to be top secret. there's no top secret stuff here. can we stop it? probably not. there are three million people who can geter private document and prosecuting them is very difficult. >> and someone's got top find them first. fazz there wasn't enough on their plate, the administration got a huge shock today when they learned that jobless rate has leaked to 9.8%. this in a week when congress failed to improve jobless

benefits in -- and a much anticipated tax extension deal failed to pass. is this about lame duck? >> i think it's lame duck politics and timing with respect to the tax cut deal. and i -- we had a very pessimistic talk with yogi. yes, there is partisan trash talking. yes, you had the chicken crap -- >> chicken crap that was the term. >> the word from john boehner. i wanted to make sure i didn't make a mistake here. and a lot of back and forth. however, privately these talks have been going smoothly. and there could be a deal. this very jobs bad number probably will fuel that because it encourages republicans to give into the democrats call

for extending employment benefits and that no one tax's should go up. this is a recovery that is weak that is going to proceed very slowly. and it's going be a while before the unemployment rate before anybody would consider it an acceptable lev. -- level. >> no one expected this but still -- even they thought they were going to get -- >> that's part of the story. they got 11 votes. they didn't get 14 which is what they needed to force action more directly with the congress. but you had people like dick durbin, the liberal senator from illinois. tomko burn from oklahoma, house members split but the senators with one exception, max walker from the finance committee came together behind that report.

i what it does is even though the president didn't endorse the specifics, he praised the work of the commission. i think what this has done is accelerated a discussion that is likely to include long-term budget reform also potential tax renoorm could have effects on the economy. i'm not sure that that could happen in the next two years. i think the odds of it is happening after the presidential election. sometimes in this polarizing moments, you have to be thankful for small movements. >> if you want to kill an idea, give it to a commission and put the recommendations in a closet. do you think some of the specifics that this commission raised whether it's defense cuts whether it's raising social security, even the specific recommendations will have life? >> i do because those recommendations to the extent are controversial. they're controversial because that's where the money is. the short-term cuts, the pay freeze for federal workers, the

attempt to squeeze discretionary appropriations republicans in congress are pushing. that's not going to solve the deficit problem. you're going to solve it by taking away mortgage interest ru reduction, medicare, and turning to defense. that's one area where some of the tea party republicans may be able to make common cause. it's a process that's going to take some time. i wouldn't expect it to yield huge savings in 2011, 1202012 but we're getting closer to the -- 2012, but we're getting closer. >> that's the long-term. let me wrestle you to the mediate question on the tax cut. what do you think the deal is going to look like? and you know, last week democrats and liberals were angry at the white house and president obama for bargaining before they got a chance to

plant a flower -- >> they've been trying to plant a flag for all these votes. those are symbolic votes. the white house much leverage. what i expect to happen is that all the bush tax rates will be extended probably for one or two years and then you'll have that tax reform discussion. >> and then we'll all have a merry christmas. >> before we go to tonight we return to the world of what was he thinking? 80-year-old new york democrat charles rangel wants the chairman of the tax writing ways an means committee admitted that he made mistakes filing his taxes. so what was he thinking? >> there's absolutely no excuse for my emission for my responsibility to obey those rules, but i still believe that this body has to be guided by

fairness. >> in the end, rangel said he did not emmit himselfs of his actions and he should have been reprimanded not censured. was the punishment fair or snot drop us an e-mail at "washington week" and we'll post your responses online. we have to leave you early to give you an opportunity to support your local pbs station. but we continue, check it out on pbs.org and keep it up with daily developments. we'll see you again next week on "washington week." good night. >> fundsing for "washington week" is provided by -- >> i would love to have been a musician, but i knew that i was going to need a day job. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture in

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