fight against al qaeda and the taliban and these afghan patriots are being wounded and killed in far greater numbers than our forces. this should give us hope that our common goal of an afghanistan that can secure and govern itself remains achievable over time. to sustain this fragile process it's critical that president obama resist the short-sighted calls for additional troop reductions which are a guarantee of failure. our forces are currently slated to draw down to 68,000 by september. a faster pace than our military commanders recommended. which is significantly increased the risk for our mission. at a minimum, there should be a pause after september to assess the impact of the drawdown. it would be much better to maintain the 68,000 forces through the next year's fighting season probably longer. at the strategic level our efforts continue to be undermined by the perception