i recall my former colleague, charlie wilson and went to the camps and talked about the villagers beingombed indiscrim natalie. -- indiscrimnat ely. and this is general mcchrystal and has demonstrated an alliance and they are the ones that think this is the most effective way to wage this fight. >> we have started to see some signs of fatigue with the afghan war with the public. how long do you think we have before it starts to seeing serious obstacles to stay? >> there has been frustration obviously. it's been a long time, this is eight years. but we did not appropriately use many of those years. this was underresourced and ignored, because iraq assumed all the resources and political debate and capital. and in those years we have lost tremendous ground. we have allowed the taliban to reconstitute itself. and the frustration is not only the americans but with the afghan's. we thought we would help to achieve more quickly stable governance, etc. but we have to recognize this can't go on the same way. and that's why i think the president decided not only would we provide these additional

when charlie wilson went to those camps and talked about villages being bombed indiscriminately, that is what moved us to step in. general mcchrystal and general petraeus have dedicated their life not only to serving their nation but to protecting the soldiers and sailors and marines under their command. >> we have already started to seek some signs of fatigue with the afghan war here in the united states. how long do you realistically think we have before it starts to become more untenable and we start to see serious opposition to staying? >> there has been frustration. it has been a long, long time. this is eight years. one of the unfortunate things, we did not appropriately use many of those years. this was under resources, ignored, because iraq consumed all the resources, all the attention, all the political debate and capital. in those years, we have lost tremendous ground. we have allowed the taliban to reconstitute itself, and the frustration is not only with the american people, the frustration is with the afghan people. they thought would help them achieve more quickly as sta

theduring the 1970's and 1980'si had the privilege of serving with congressman charlie wilson in these of representatives. mr. secretary, i am so happy to see in your statement, and i quote you, we will not repeat the mistakes of 1989 when we abandoned the country, only to see it descended to civil war and then into taliban hands. it was charlie wilson at that time who singularly had been in large part responsible for us getting in in the first place, that fought us getting out. so thank you for stating the united states policy as strongly as you have. i am going to ask you and secretary clinton a couple of questions that i think for the long term, other1zo than the poy that was announced last night by the president with regard to the military activities, for the long term, we have got to integrate the military with the other agencies of government to help stabilize the country. for example, the congress has provided our commanders in the field with the commanders emergency response funds, to quickly initiate reconstruction projects and provide immediate assistance to the afghan comm

i represent a guy by the name of charlie wilson's old district.and so, i have a few questions, i just got back from afghanistan on tuesday and met with our generals, german, canadian and british nato allies and our troops down on the pakistan/afghanistan border. i was pleasantly really sprilsed to learn that the afghan people appear, to me, to be very supportive of our presence in afghanistan. that they fear the taliban, they fear the reprisals that they have lived under under the taliban and they supply us a lot of information about the taliban, good intelligence. the question -- several questions -- we've heard about the president's position on more troops. i call it the surge and retreat policy. but now, that has been hedged a little bit in the summer of 2011. general mcchrystal, what is our policy now? is it to re-evaluate our troops, our position in 2011, the summer of 2011, is that what it is, as you understand it? >> congressman, my understanding is is in july of 2011, we will begin the reduction of u.s. forces. the pace of that and the sco

. >> and that is what charlie wilson was arguing for in 1989, to keep a presence going. but we pulled out and we made a mistake. last week, i recalled that for secretary gates when he was in front of us. and he said we're not going to make that mistake again. let me ask you -- one of the things that i asked secretary gates and secretary clinton, general mcchrystal, last week was that we have a military force that can be all the more effective, not a nation- building, but in getting things settle down if we use all the other civilian agencies of government along with ngos. you want to sketch briefly for the committee how we're doing that and to whom you are listening as you said that policy as the commander? >> the person not listen to the most is three seats to my right. -- i listened to the most is three seats to my right. before we even go into an area, we work together to figure out what is required, and how we provide security to make it bearable. they need to flow in almost simultaneously. our afghan partners are not here today but they are at that same meeting as w

i recall in my former colleague charlie wilson when he went to those camps and they talked about villages being bombed, that's what sort of moved us to step in. so i think that it's a very careful policy, and it's also a policy that originates from the military. there are some suctyls, to be politically correct, it's so far from the fact. this is general mccrystal and general petraeus, who have dedicated a life not only to serving the nation but also to protecting the soldiers and marines and sailors in their commands, and they're the ones who think this is the most effective way to wage this fight. >> we hope you tune in for c-span's "newsmakers" program. senator jack reed and also the committee chair of the emerging threats subcommittee, the entire interview, at 10:00 and again this evening at 6:00, 3:00 for our west coast viewers. good morning, thanks for joining us. your piece this morning, obama press for a faster surge. 25 hours of meetings, ten sessions. what surprised you the most as you reported on this? guest: that there were a coupful of clear turning points. one of which was t

what others have said is up to others. >> i have a related question to follow one charlie wilson fromcbs. did you bring back a letter? >> i can confirm i did not bring back a letter. >> ambassador jones, u.s. positions have always been of course to return the six-party talks in the north koreans have been very interested in getting some kind of discussions with the u.s. and wanting to negotiate with u.s. specifically on a bilateral basis. you said they accept the six party idea. how will this play out what kind of meeting will there be with the u.s. in the context of the six party would with the north koreans accept? >> they did not challenge our assertion that this meeting took place within the framework of the six party process. we had consulted in coordinated extensively with other members of the process over the last few months, and everyone understood this wasn't a negotiating session. we were going to have exploratory discussions aimed at restarting the six party process and the basis of that is accepted by the dprk. >> cnn. thank you for doing this today. i would like to ask so

irony is and i was talking two of the house foreign affairs committee yesterday, the irony is charlie wilson who was so successful in getting money for the cia to give to the mujahedeen as weapons to beat the soviets after the soviets left trying to get money for the civil side where he was able to get hundreds of millions for the weapons could get very small amounts to build schools and so on so that was the mistake, in both countries. >> thank you very much. thank you again for your service to the country and your stations with the committee today. >> thank you very much senator cardin. >> thank you very much and i also want to echo my sincere appreciation to all three of you for your service to our country. i tell you have the greatest confidence in your abilities and your commitment and i know you are doing your best and you are working together as the team. secretary gates you pointed out this is part of a coordinated strategy that the-- to deal with the epicenter of terrorism which is in the afghan-pakistan border areas. i want to raise one other issue. you talked about external forces

i represent a guy by the name of charlie wilson's old district. and so, i have a few questions, i just got back from afghanistan on tuesday and met with our generals, german, canadian and british nato allies and our troops down on the pakistan/afghanistan border. i was pleasantly really sprilsed to learn that the afghan people appear, to me, to be very supportive of our presence in afghanistan. that they fear the taliban, they fear the reprisals that they have lived under under the taliban and they supply us a lot of information about the taliban, good intelligence. the question -- several questions -- we've heard about the president's position on more troops. i call it the surge and retreat policy. but now, that has been hedged a little bit in the summer of 2011. general mcchrystal, what is our policy now? is it to re-evaluate our troops, our position in 2011, the summer of 2011, is that what it is, as you understand it? >> congressman, my understanding is is in july of 2011, we will begin the reduction of u.s. forces. the pace of that and the sc

but i saw charlie wilson's war the other night. and there was a time where charlie got a lot of money for what he was doing. after it was all over he could do any money for what he wanted to do. and so we don't want to suffer from it and find ourselves with a hat in her hand with a lot of broken down equipment, and that we are the nations force of readiness. [inaudible] >> that's a pretty good gig i think. that's everything. that's reset and that's what we need in terms of some in rome in fusions for sort of our contemporary requirements. but it is a lot more money than we first thought it was going to be. is because of these factors that kind of take us down the drain. >> one more question. >> where are you going to be in the next 18 months in helmand province and terms of transitioning? >> okay. heating at the end of 18 months? >> during the next 18 months, how much billy are you going to be able to deal? >> well, you know, we don't know what we don't know, david. in terms of what we are going to be able to do with regard to iraqi