explained the incident was not intentional and president obama and central command chief general jon allen have apologized but doesn't appear to have quelled afghan rage. was this a simple mistake that could have been covered with better cultural sensitivity training. nick dowling specializes in this kind of military training. he's a former member of the national security council during the clinton administration. welcome to the show. >> thanks, vago. >> let's start out. what do we know about this incident and why do incidents like this appear to happen in a fell swoop to sort of reverse months of gains that we made? >> right. it's obviously a huge, huge mistake, general allen's very fast apology demonstrates we wanted to quickly take responsibility and that's one of the first things you do when you make a mistake like this, and we as the force made the mistake. what exactly happened here, the investigation will work through the details of that. but what you saw with general allen and then with president obama apologizing is trying to very quickly quell the anger and there's certain justif

jon: and what about general allen, the top general in afghanistan?there's been another what you might call a revenge slaying by afghan nationals on coalition forces, what's general allen saying about that? >> >> reporter: that brings to the number of people killed to 15 out of 62 incidents this year. that's 25% of those who have been killed in afghanistan, those soldiers killed in afghanistan have been killed by the afghans they were there training. general allen was also asked about the blood money that was paid to the family members of the victims of staff sergeant robert bales. reports are that each victim, the families of each victim received $50,000 per victim. here's general allen. >> it is a natural and a cultural norm that we would pursue. we've done that in the past, and in this case it was appropriate, we believed, given the circumstances of this particular tragedy. >> reporter: one man had 11 family members killed, that means he was given an estimated $500,000, a princely sum in afghanistan f the reports of the amount are correct. and nobo

no witnesses are jon miller and general john allen, commander of the international security assistanceorce. a warm welcome and thank you to you both. i'm going to interrupt this moment to take care of some nominations. we have a quorum present. i will ask the committee to consider a list of 246 military nominations. they have all been before the committee. is there a motion to report the military nominations? is there second? all in favor say aye. the motions carry. our troops in afghanistan are being asked to perform dangerous missions. general allan, on behalf of the committee, please pass along our unwavering support for our military men and women serving with you in afghanistan, our gratitude for their courageous and dedicated service. talking about families, i know you have with your wife. and your daughter. i hope i got the names correctly. i got a mixed up earlier. we are delighted that they are here. >> thank you, senator. >> the success of our mission depends on building the capacity security forces to take the lead for security in their country. yes-afghan partnering has been

jon: carl cameron and a.b. stoddard, thank you. we'll continue to watch that race throughout the day in illinois. jenna: also today, a critical hearing on the way forward in afghanistan. u.s. general john allenlawmakers, we're on track to make sure that afghanistan doesn't once again become a safe haven for al-qaeda. today's hearing comes amid growing tensions, of course, in the region, tensions we don't have to remind of you, of course, you have the koran burning, a u.s. soldier allegedly going on this deadly shooting rampage, so the timing is important. chief intelligence correspondent catherine her eurpblg is live with more on what the temperature commander in afghanistan had to say today. some interesting changes on the hill. >> reporter: that's right. so far the hearing has not been dominated by testimony by staff sergeant bale, confirming there are 16 shootings of afghan civilian, one is criminal and the second, administrative, which means it looks at the command structure that allowed bales to go off base. allen is also testifying under repeated questioning that the mission remains on track in afghanistan des might the -- despite the massacre of afghans and burning of korans and there

allen vote with her. radke has her supporters, but she certainly lacks an attraction statewide. if she were the nominee, i would have to move that race in the democrats' favor. host: jon in boston on the line. caller: my understanding in massachusetts is that scott brown has a pretty sizable lead in a local polls over -- guest: elizabeth warren. caller: a lot of people seem to be wanting to give him another chance to have a full term in office and he seems to have really connected with the constituency in massachusetts. can you comment? \ also, on the presidential side, i am not sure if there is going nose factor one's with the republicans that no matter who is nominated, even if it is not the candidate of choice, they will vote for anyone just to beat obama. thank you. guest: there have been three polls in massachusetts over the last month that give brown a lead anywhere between eight points and 10 points. i expect that to be somewhat temporary, actually. i think that right now the message environment has been a little bit more conducive to his campaign. elizabeth warren would much rather talk about the economy but tends to talk about contraception. you get knocked o

allen vote with her. radtke has her supporters, but she certainly lacks an attraction statewide. if she were the nominee, i would have to move that race in the democrats' favor. host: jonline. caller: my understanding in massachusetts is that scott brown has a pretty sizable lead in a local poll over -- guest: elizabeth warren. caller: a lot of people seem to be wanting to give him another chance to have a full term in office and he seems to have really connected with the constituency in massachusetts. can you comment? also, on the presidential side, i am not sure if there is going to be a hold one's nose factor with the republicans that no matter who is nominated, even if it is not the candidate of choice, they will vote for anyone just to beat obama. thank you. guest: there have been three polls in massachusetts over the last month that give brown a lead anywhere between eight points and 10 points. i expect that to be somewhat temporary, actually. i think that right now the message environment has been a little bit more conducive to his campaign. elizabeth warren would much rather talk about the economy but tends to talk about contraception. you get knocked off your