stability in afghan villages, in afghan territory. so i think, although obviously we are still two years away, i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission and very different task and a very different footprint for the u.s. if we are able to come to an appropriate agreement. with respect to pakistan and safe havens of there, afghanistan and the united states and pakistan all have an interest in reducing the threat of extremism in some of these border regions between afghanistan and pakistan. that will require more than simply military actions. that is really going to require political and diplomatic work between afghanistan and pakistan, and the united states obviously will have an interest in facilitating and participating in cooperation between the two sovereign countries. as president karzai has indicated, it is very hard to imagine a stability and peace in the region if pakistan and afghanistan do not come to some basic agreement and understanding about the threat of extremism to both countries and both governmen

the afghan constitution protects the rights of afghan women.nd the united states strongly believes that afghanistan cannot succeed unless it gives opportunity to its women. we believe that about every country in the world. we will continue to voice very strongly support for the afghan constitution's protection for minorities, its protection of women, and we think that a failure to provide that protection not only will make reconciliation impossible to achieve, but also would make afghanistan's longterm development impossible to achieve. the single best indicator or one of the single best indicators of a country's prosperity around the world is how does it treat its women. does it educate that half of the population? does it give them opportunity? when it does, you will unleash the power of everyone, not just some, and there was great wisdom in afghanistan ratifying a constitution that recognizes that appeared that should be part of the legacy of these last 10 years. thank you very much, everybody. [captioning performed by national captioning in

of the afghan people in the past ten years, both for the service men and of the afghan people. i'll be going back to afghanistan this evening to bring to the afghan people the news of afghanistan standing shoulder to shoulder with america as a sovereign, independent country. but in cooperation and in partnership. thank you, mr. president, for the hospitality. >> thank you very much, mr. president. okay. we have two questions each i think from u.s. and afghan press. we'll start with scott wilson of "the washington post." >> thank you, mr. president, president karzai. mr. president, does moving up the deadline for the transition to an afghan security role in the spring mean you're winding down u.s. troops faster than you expected this year? and specifically, as possible, how many troops do you expect to leave in afghanistan beyond 2014 for the two missions you outlined and would you consider leaving any troops in afghanistan beyond that kate without an immunity agreement for their actions? and president karzai, you've spoken often about the threat the american presence in afghani

of the afghan people.to afghanistan this evening to bring to the afghan people the news of afghanistan standing shoulder to shoulder with america as is sovereign independent country, but in cooperation and in partnership. thank you, mr. president, for the hospitality. >> thank you very much, mr. president. >> we got two questions each, i think, from u.s. and afghan press. we'll start with scott wilson of "the washington post". >> thank you mr. president, mr. karzai. mr. president, does moving up the deadline for the transition to an afghan security role lead to the spring that you'll be winding down u.s. troops faster than you expected this year? and specifically as possible, how many troops do you expect to leave in afghanistan beyond 2014 for the two missions you outlined and would you consider leaving any troops in afghanistan beyond that date without an immediate agreement for their actions? and president karzai, you spoke about the threats to your nation's sovereign sy. i wonder if you'll be working o

supported by afghan forces.this is plan and conduct game the supply and separate resupply missions conducted by emerging afghan air force using helicopters. the afghan organizations demonstrate independently security force that assistance will focus at the next organizational level. while this supports a smaller footprint, it is not simply about doing life. this is about putting our advising and enabling resources in the right places at the right levels within the afghan national security force to ensure that afghan partners can hold the gains of the past. this is about the right mix this capabilities to security while continuing to support the afghan national security forces as they grow in capability over time. our partners need our help in this regard and we will be better with no doubt challenges and we still have a long road ahead. as we look to the future, it is not without associated risk. some are generational and some are regional. population -- the afghan national security forces display them as they t

the afghan people make significant sacrifices every day. afghan forces still need to grow strong.in vigilant against insider attacks. lasting peace and security will require governments and development that delivers for the afghan people and an end to safe havens for al-qaeda and its ilk. all of this will continue to be our work. but make no mistake, our path is clear and we are moving forward. every day more afghans are stepping up and taking responsibility for their own security. as they do, our troops will come home. and next year, this long war will come to a responsible end. president karzai, i thank you and your delegation for the progress we've made together and for your commitment to the goals that we share. a strong and sovereign afghanistan where afghans find the security, peace, prosperity and dignity and pursuit of that future, afghanistan will have a long-term partner, the united states of america. mr. president. >> thank you. thank you very much, mr. president, for the very gracious and warm welcome. to me and to the delegation and this visit to washington, and for b

the afghan constitution protect. the rights of the afghan women. and the united states strongly believes that afghanistan cannot succeed unless it gives opportunities to its women. we believe that about every country in the world. and so you know, we will continue to voice very strongly, support for the afghan constitution, protection of minorities, protection of women. we think that a failure to provide that protection, not only will make reconciliation impossible to achieve, but also, would make afghanistan's long-term development impossible to achieve. the single best indicator or one of the best indicators of a country's prosperity around the world is how does it treat its women. does educate that half of the population? does it give them opportunities? when it does, you unleash the power of everyone, not just some of the people. and i think there was great wisdom in afghanistan ratifying a constitution that recognized that. that should be part of the legacy of these last ten years. >> thank you very much, everybody. >> president obama in the e

to get afghan's charged, tried, and convicted in afghan accords for bribery and corruption. remember, this may sound odd to you, why are we using u.s. court stepped in afghanistan, unlike in iraq where u.s. contractors were predominant, the u.s. government promoted an afghan-first initiative which emphasized prioritizing contracts with afghan-owned and operated companies. that is why in order to fulfil our mission of combating fraud, in many cases, we need to work through the f. kennan law enforcement and legal system when we uncover criminal activity. that is a challenge but it has paid dividends. just recently, a prominent individual in one province was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail after sigar agents went undercover and take him offering bribes. another thing i told my staff on the first day of work was that we have to be relevant by approaching our work like i did what i was an attorney having clients. we have to view the people use our report and our investigations as their clients. if what we produce is not used by the commander in the field for the stat

stability in afghan villages, in afghan territory. so, i think, you know, although, obviously, we are still two years away, i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission and a very different task and a very different footprint for the u.s. if we're able to come to an appropriate agreement. and with respect to pakistan's and safe havens there, afghanistan and the united states and pakistan all have an interest in reducing the threat of extremism in some of these border regions between afghanistan and pakistan. and that's going to require more than simply military actions. that's really going to require political and diplomatic work between afghanistan and pakistan and the united states, obviously, will have an interest in facilitating and participating in cooperation between the two sovereign countries. but as president karzai i think has indicated, it's very hard to imagine a stability and peace in the region if pakistan and afghanistan don't come to some basic agreement and understanding about the threat of extremism

what is next for afghan. part of that has to be form nature-- formulated by the afghan political leadership. they can help to a certain degree but we still do need to hear very clearly what is in for afghanistan after 2014, as far as what from the national partner but most importantly how afghanistan itself sees itself in a changing region. >> what about this of hamid karzai saying he will be retired president soon enough. is that a certainty at this point. and then what does that mean for afghan politics? >> that is a challenge. i believe that president karzai will step down and he is not going to be running. >> therefore i didn't expect he will be endorsing individual groups too early that enhances this environment of uncertainty in afghanistan where we do need actually a clear movement. we don't have political party notice afghanistan so therefore it's important to know who are some of the front-runners but president karzai may not like to see an individual emerging because it will make him less relevant.

-afghan women's council. the council is a public private partnership that has been housed here at the university since 2008. it was founded in 2002 by president karzai and president bush in support of afghan women and children. it's focused its work of areas of education, health, economic empowerment, leadership development, and humanitarian assistance. since its founding the council has created call laarships, provided skills training, litteracy and health care, established a burn center to treat victims and provide reconstructive surgery and provide leadership training for afghan women. in recent years we have witnessed significant improvements of the lives of women and children throughout afghanistan. educational opportunities for all children, including girls have increased. improvements have been made in the area of maternal and child health with the maternal mortality rate drops to 460 today. many advancements have been realized with 90% of afghanistan cover bid the four main telecom providers. we wish

can come to the gate of afghan forces. it is good they are being tested at a time when he was will have significant forces there. >> what happens after 2014? president karzai said he would probably be on board for granting any troops to stay there, but how many troops should stay? >> again, that was a success, the foundation for a post-2014. there are a lot of questions as to the numbers. it depends, obviously, on the mission. the larger the force, the more it will be able to do, not only in terms of training the afghans but being able to counter terror operations in the region and deal with other unforeseen contingencies, but i think our countervailing pressures domestically in the u.s. that president obama is facing to reduce the force to a smaller force to be up to bring more folks in and lower the cost, but that is a risk they may not be up to carry out. the various missions that still need to be carried out. >> one of those unforeseen circumstances for many americans might be the involvement of the taliban, one of the

today 4/5 of afghan households have [indiscernible] one half have tv's and three- quarters of afghan households have telephones. the statistics, for radius they may have been fairly high. for tvs and telephones they would have been zero. there connected with each other and with the rest of the world in ways that are completely different from where they were 10 years ago. on balance that is positive. >> let me thank the panel, each of whom has been positive in terms of a thoughtful and useful presentation. we appreciate it. thank you for coming and we're concluded. thank you very much. [applause]>> next, your live calls and comments on " washington journal." after that, remarks by public and afghan president karzai. >> if you ask how many people described themselves as libertarian, depending on which poll you look at, you might edit around 15%. if you give people a battery of questions about different ideological things. then you track those two different ideologies, depending on which poll, you get up to maybe 30% of americans calling themselves libertarian. if you ask the following

afghan sovereignty.t this will be implemented soon enough on my return to afghanistan. we also discussed all aspects of transition to afghan government and security. i am very happy to hear from the president as we also discussed it earlier, that in the spring this year the afghan forces will be fully responsible for providing security and protection to the afghan people. and that the international forces will be no longer president in afghan villages, that the task will be that of the afghan forces to provide for the afghan people in security and protection. that we also agreed on the steps that you should be taking in the peace process, which is giving a party to afghanistan. we agreed on allowing the taliban have an office, where the taliban will engage in direct talks with the representatives of the afghan high council for peace, where we will be seeking that help of relevant reasonable countries, including pakistan, where we will try our best together with the other allies to return peace and stabil

literacy is up, but the number of afghan children stay in school for 10 years, afghan literacy rate will be three times higher than today. now, the polls, of course, they did not poll of in some of the areas that were some of the violent the numbers would probably be lower i in some of the areas. the number of areas that we failed up poland were still fairly limited. there was a long story by in of the new york times about how levels cause anxiety. each is written about the cleese the exposed areas and will be the most exposed to help and. the story is about high levels of anxiety and pessimism. i am not that is not correct, i am responding that is not correct with the attitude of most of the country and as it can be determined. just to end on what we are looking forward two, clearly there are two transitions coming up it. the transition from cars i led the government to somebody else. the two, the latter is the more dangerous, the more difficult, and more uncertain. i did nothing the afghan army as corn to run a way i in 2014, but it is positive that it will result of in a failed transi

after 2001 he had repudiated the taliban in seeking a way to doing the afghan government. he contacted his brother to a range a deal if he could join the government. the meeting was scheduled to take place on the border but they caught wind of this and were not too pleased with the idea of the taliban joining the car's side government. they told americans and i believe they arrested them and handed him over to the americans and he is still and guantanamo today. a lot of the talks and negotiations taking place and are about prison releases that the taliban seek to release. you can go across the board. the chapter goes into more detail we also have night raids and the afghan government and human rights abuses not just words taliban numbers but people who the afghan government or the americans perceived as being space with the taliban in which they had driven recruits from. for those who were once in the taliban in communities that the taliban was drawn because there was no room in the political system for them. and the taliban was reconstituted. what is striking to me is how

i know that president obama has offered a strategic partnership to the afghan people, the afghan governme. i think that to m what tha means is to give them a sent of reassurance, a sense of certainty that if things really are difficult from external threats or otherwise, that we would be there as an ally. i think that what's going to have to happen is we'll have to decide what we want to accomplish, if we want to just support the training of afghan troops or building of institutions you can do that in a few locations it wouldn't take a lot of people. if you have wider asrations to put advisors at farther levels either civilian or military or you decide to provide medical support, medevac aircraft which takes a lot of bases to do, whatever you decide, the matt math goes up very quickly. if you want to put them out in remote locations you have two choices you either accept risk which is not an irrational thing or you put an infrastructure of fire support communications medical evacuation, hospitals and all of those thing to support them, which takes a significant nuer of pele and places. on

when an afghan soldier looks at an afghan flag, the doesn't see that.so divided right now, they're not thinking about afghanistan as a whole, they're thinking of their family, their thinking of their village, their ethnicity. afghanistan is too divided at the moment to have a security force that is going to be able to stand on its own two feet without assistance. >> and that is something the u.s. aimed to change over 12 years there, 11 1/2 years there. i'm not sure that america ever could. but the kind of help we lend in the long run is really going to be substantially determined by this very important president for the president. atia abawwi, your interview was terminal in terms of determining where the president is heading. thank you so much. the difference between a hawk and a peacock, pretty much the story of the republican party right now. and it will be told with real life evidentiary facts. plus lots of pictures of peacocks, coming up. copd makes it hard to breathe, but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is cl

i do not think the afghan army is going to run away in 2014, but it is possible the afghan government will collapse in 2014, as the result of a failed transition. by that, i do not mean the election will be irregular, necessarily. a regular election could produce an unusual result. it is a two-round system. it is possible that in the first round, he would have 58 candidates. --25 candidates. none would get more than 10% of the vote. you have a second round of two candidates, neither of whom had gotten 10% of the vote. that kind of result probably would not be enough to hold the country together. i think the concern about corruption in the government is accurate, real, and valid. but it does miss the point that it is as much corruption as formal institutions that hold that country together. karzai has built an effective patronage network that allows him to exert significant influence across sectarian lines and across geographic lines. formal institutions that have been built since 2001 simply are not up to exerting that degree of control and influence. the big question is, can a succes

this taliban pr video praises a former afghan soldier who killed a u.s. service member and calls him a hero. >> reporter: the taliban rewarded another soldier who mounted an inside attack with a payment of about $500. the afghan government and the international commanders are drawing up measures to halt insider attacks. afghan soldiers learn about foreign cultures and lifestyles to try to reduce negative feelings. a textbook gives examples of behavior that might offend afghans such as showing photos of female family members, blowing one's nose, or crossing legs in public. the handbook explains such actions are common overseas. >> translator: we would never show photos of our wife or daughter to a stranger. but that's not uncommon for foreigners. >> reporter: afghan soldiers who attend the classes said they had a better understanding of western culture. even so, some still cannot tolerate behavior they consider unislamic. >> translator: we learned a lot. foreign men can go to the bathroom standing up, but muslims sit down. we couldn't accept that. >> trans

the afghan constitution protects the rights of afghan women. and the united states strongly believes that afghanistan cannot succeed unless it gives opportunity to its women. we believe that about every country in the world. and so, you know, we will continue to voice very strongly support for the afghan constitution, its protection of minorities, its protection of women, and we think that a failure to provide that protection, not only will make reconciliation impossible to achieve, but also would make afghan -- afghanistan's long-term development impossible to achieve. the single best indicator or one of the single best indicators of a country's prosperity around the world is how does it treat its women. does it educate that half of the population? does it give them opportunity? when it does, you unleash the power of everyone. not just some. and i think there was great wisdom in afghanistan ratifying a constitution that recognized that. that should be part of the legacy of these last ten years. okay. thank you very much, everybody. >> so there

people the afghan military the afghan government will officially be in charge they will be in charge of the military now the idea that the u.s. forces still there or the nato forces still there are going to take their orders from the afghan military i think is rather spurious that's certainly not going to happen i don't think the afghan government has the capacity to survive without massive u.s. support that means both economic support and crucially military support but his reliance on that support leads to one massive corruption which is widely hated throughout the country karzai has very little public support in the country and militarily his his very large army isn't capable of standing up to the other militias it's one more militia the u.s. leaving will leave his government and his own position in a very precarious moment and he may well not survive that politically. now that the afghan president's a washington trips are done and dusted laurie half of this is our people in new york what they think of their country's campaign n.f. canister. there is that we are over here it's beca

as they try to build and then we teach the afghans to help themselves. and i think that's where we're going to see our success down the road. thank you. (applause). >> thank you, barry, now it's lieutenant commander serrano and captain napalitano >> good morning, everyone, i'm pleased to be here today to tell you about an exercise we conducted this past summer in hawaii as part of rim of pacific exercise which involved 22 participating nations and this offered us a venue to be able to conduct a humanitarian and disaster relief exercise with all the different partners that we had together and collaborating with this exercise, this offered a perfect opportunity for us to introduce the military capabilities and interaction in exchange with our civil military partners as well. the exercise was located on oh oahu we had used that island as a fictitious island of chianti where we wanted to do a humanitarian response but it also provided us an avenue for the state-wide partners, the civil hawaiian partners, to be able to exercise their exercise as well. this ex

in training the afghan army. i thought that we probably ought to try to devise some arrangement in which at least in limited aspects, countries could participate. but the others in the administration were flatly opposed to any iranian role, and relations between afghanistan -- between pakistan and india at the time weren't absolute -- going to do with 9/11 and the subsequent bomb process of pakistani-based terrorist groups, conducted large-scale terrorist attack on the indian parliament. and the two countries were close to war. very close to where. and so the idea that they would collaborate in some joint venture, and afghanistan was more difficult to conceive now, then that might be now where it's relations have to some degree improved. i don't think that india and pakistan, between them, would be able to substitute for the kind of assistance that afghan national army needs from the united states, and from wealthier western countries for some time to come. to the extent the two countries, that is, pakistan and i

to get afghan's charged, tried, and convicted in afghan accords for bribery and corruption. remember, this may sound odd to you, why are we using u.s. court stepped in afghanistan, unlike in iraq where u.s. contractors were predominant, the u.s. government promoted an afghan- first initiative which emphasized prioritizing contracts with afghan-owned and operated companies. that is why in order to fulfil our mission of combating fraud, in many cases, we need to work through the f. kennan law enforcement and legal system when we uncover criminal activity. that is a challenge but it has paid dividends. just recently, a prominent individual in one province was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail after sigar agents went undercover and take him offering bribes. another thing i told my staff on the first day of work was that we have to be relevant by approaching our work like i did what i was an attorney having clients. we have to view the people use our report and our investigations as their clients. if what we produce is not used by the commander in the field for the sta

shot at afghans. he targeted the coalition camp which was next door. then the gunman was killed. we will have more details. >> soldiers are risk where they should be most say from inside their camps. taliban infiltration is often to blame. the tactic is to undermine the relationship between afghan forces and the coalition partners, making it more difficult for the afghan military to take over security here. president karzai arrived in washington today. mapping out afghanistan's future after foreign combat troops have left. their meeting will determine the primary mission, to fight the taliban or to get rid of al qaeda. president karzai wants soldiers. his forces lead emissions across the country. they are still not ready. for many years to come, these soldiers in afghanistan generally will rely on america's support. >> for more on those meetings taking place, i spoke with peter bergen. what is the main sticking point in these meetings between what the white house wants and what president karzai wants?

the afghan people make significas everyday. afghan forces still need to grow stronger. are stepping up for their own security, and as they do, our troops will come home, and next year this war will cocome to a responsible end. president karzai, i thank you for the commitment to the goals we share, a strong and sovereign afghanistan where afghans find security, peace, pros pperity a dignity and in pure suit of the future, afghanistan will have a long term partner in the the united states of america. mr. president. >> thank you. thank you very much, mr. president, for the very gracious and warm welcome to me and the afghan delegation on this visit to washington and for bearing was, as i mentioned during our talks with all of the crowds that we have there. the president and i discussed today in great detail all of the relevant issues between the two countries. i was happy to see that we have made progress on some of the important issues for afghanistan concerning afghan sovereignty. we agreed on the complete return of detention centers and detainees for afghan sovereignty,

and these are not afghan police and these are not afghan army.ese are irregular militiamen that we call private security contractors to guard. to supply each of these bases, we require a convoy that needs to be protected from attacks. that they would protect these convoys are again militiamen, warlords and strong and. each of them are either being paid directly by the u.s. military or they're being paid and directed by the department of defense through various subcontracting regimes. and there's been various estimates on how many of these people that are. if you include the private security contractors in kabul, maybe 60, 70,000 young men who have arms, who do not fall under the afghan government purview, whatsoever. and they all owe their existence entirely to foreign allegiance to the question is what happens when the money stops flowing? along with them the afghans, the afghans say it doesn't collect its road is through taxation to again the question is what happens when the money stops flowing? we have one case that we can look to, which is i

no one talk to the afghans. the afghans have no technical capabilities to install the meter so what did we do? we went out and bought more meters. so that's unfortunate. i think the same thing i have seen, we did an audit, one of the first audits when i came in on the afghan infrastructure program. a lot of that were big-ticket items that have to do with the bridging agreement and again it was a situation where we didn't talk to the afghans. we didn't coordinate with the afghans. we didn't coordinate with in this case, we didn't coordinate with the eight development bank. and they poured millions of dollars into programs. so the answer is, and again i'm not saying there are programs like that. i haven't run across one yet. i would love to. like that in our region, i would love to meet them and see how they designed eight programs. it's a learning experience to me. yes, circ? >> my name is adam and i'm a grad student at american university. i just had a quick question. i know you are you're also investigating cri

people the afghan military the afghan government will officially be in charge they will be in charge of the military now the idea that the u.s. forces still there or the nato forces still there are going to take their orders from the afghan military i think is rather spurious that's certainly not going to happen but i think what was more significant in the at least initial part of the discussion at the press conference between president obama and the afghan president karzai was on the question of immunity for what u.s. troops will remain after two thousand and fourteen because remember the end of two thousand and fourteen is seen as the date for withdrawing officially acknowledged combat troops it doesn't mean the end of the entire u.s. military presence in afghanistan there will still be training troops there will be counterterrorism troops there will be rapid assistance troops there will be a lot of troops the numbers are unclear the pentagon proposed different scenarios five thousand ten thousand or twenty thousand to be to remain in the only numbers the obama. straiten admits to

. >>> afghan security forces will take the lead in their own country. repeated insider attacks have damaged trust w suspicions rising on both sides, military come plaerpsd sending soldiers back to school for a some lessons in cultural tolerance. >> we should know the heroes we honor today will not have died in vain. amen. >> reporter: some 440 soldiers died last year in afghanistan. 61 were victims of insider attacks. that's about 30 times the number five years ago. rising anti-u.s. sentiment in afghanistan is partly to blame. angry afghans took to the streets last february after burning of copies of the koran by u.s. military personnel. many afghan soldiers feel humiliated by foreigners' behavior. >> translator: if an american soldier crosses his legs, it makes me angry and i tell him to stop. >> reporter: insurgents are taking advantage of such emotions. this taliban pr video praises a former afghan soldier who killed a u.s. service member and calls him a hero. >> reporter: the taliban rewarded another soldier who mounted an attack with a payment of a