all right it's official general david petraeus will now be taking over the war in afghanistan with a ninety nine to zero vote the senate confirmed it but will what obama said hold true but a change in command does not mean a change in strategy if we look back to yesterday's confirmation hearings i'm not so sure but he said the hill take a good hard look at the directives that general stanley mcchrystal put into place to cut down on civilian casualties things like the rules of engagement so if these rules do get changed do we move away from counterinsurgency and back towards counterterrorism and by that i mean is petraeus choosing between the lives of civilians and those of the american troops joining me to discuss this is former u.s. state department official matthew hoh i think for being here so first things first do you think that a change in command here with general david petraeus stepping in means that the strategy is also going to change right away no i don't think so betrayed in the long run hopefully i've been to speak and his staff will bring his members of own staff as well

would argue with that and say that the government in iraq is nowhere near stable and will general david petraeus and strategy still hold there i mean just last week we had a new report saying that al qaeda is still being back and they're taking the sons of iraq which petraeus first used as you know the success story and there is just starting to simply pay them more than the three hundred dollars a month that they get currently from the iraqi government so they're going back to al qaida so now that we're actually leaving iraq it looks like everything's going back to well i mean this is the easy button version of history which is i want all my problems to be solved and everything to be over and that's not the reality of what happens on the ground is iraq perfect no did anybody ever promise it was before you know you know is iraq still a coherent country yes i mean you know look let's look at what europe looked like after world war two when we won ok all of western europe was completely destroyed and half of western europe was occupied by the soviet army. nobody complained they said well you know

>> it's a negotiation between the president and david petraeus. they kicked the can down the road with this policy review. but what petraeus has in his corner is the fact that we've had a very strong fighting season there. we've kicked the taliban out of their homeland in kandahar province. everything is going to -- you aren't going to see very many troop reductions in this coming july. everything's going to depend on the next fighting season which takes place during the summer. and whether the taliban are able to come back to their that is rightland successfully or not. if they're not able to come back successfully, then we're going to be able to bring -- begin bringing troops home a lot at the end of 2011. and early 2012. if they are successful, then we're going to start bringing troops home anyway because it will be such a mess and the president will -- chris: joe said they're on the same page. my question is political. is this president now committing to winning in afghanistan? or staying there long enough to achieve petraeus' ambitions? >> oh

in other words, general david petraeus. petraeus is a different kind of general.different kind of war. >> in a counterinsurgency, the human terrain is the decisive terrain. >> reporter: he believes that wars like iraq and afghanistan, can't be won with bullets alone. their battles are fought for hearts and minds, by teaching farmers learn new techniques. opening schools. helping businesses grow. keeping the peace, so life can go on and people have something to fight for. after all, it's hard to win the hearts and minds of people you're shooting at. in the military, he's a kind of rock star. but afghanistan is the ultimate test. to succeed, he'll have to bring a measure of peace to this war-torn country, to keep it from becoming a launching pad for terrorists again. and make good the sacrifices so many have made and are still making. and that, for us, makes him the most fascinating person of 2010. >> unconventional pick. but a good one. >>> that's what's making news in america this morning. >> get more from us anytime at

and meeting there on the ground with ambassador karl eikenberry and general david petraeus.point the president is on the ground for three hours, he will speak to troops, but we can't even begin to give you a time frame on when the president will speak to the assembled military personnel. we understand that the president is going to meet with general petraeus and ambassador eikenberry and then he was going to make a trip to the hospital there at bagram where he will meet with eight patients, five soldiers, three civilian contractors and will award four purple hearts and we understand that the president will have a phone conversation, no the an in-person meeting but a phone conversation with afghan president hamid karzai. we won't obvious think get video of that, and not sure when the president will actually speak to the assembled military personnel you see on the scroen now, but the president is on the ground for three hours. difficult to get a real fix on the agenda because of weather issues and other technical problems. we will continue to follow developments of the preside

>> it was a rousing welcome by general david petraeus, the commander of u.s. forces here. >> president barack obama. >> reporter: thousands of u.s. military personnel had been gathered at bagram airfield, for the president's unannounced visit. >> on behalf of me. on behalf of michelle. on behalf of malia and sasha. on behalf of more than 300 million americans, we are here to say thank you. >> reporter: the president awarded purple hearts to five soldiers. and met with the platoon that lost six of its soldiers earlier this week. president obama made clear that the additional 30,000 troops here have made a difference. >> all of those troops are now in place. thanks to your service, we are making important progress. we said we were going to break the taliban's momentum. that's what you're doing. >> reporter: president obama had hoped to meet with afghanistan's president, hamid karzai. but because of weather, he could not make the trip to kabul, talking, instead, by phone. charges of corruption in the afghan government, laid out in the wikileaks documents, continu

general david petraeus visited the international security assistance force command headquarters in northern afghanistan today. his visit comes on the heels of the roadside bombing that struck a crowded minibus in the southern iraq province, killing 14 people. authorities say the victims were all members of an extended family. officials say two other bombs were found and defused by afghan policeman. president obama is commenting on the long awaited review of the war in afghanistan released today. the new assessment addresses the fight against al qaeda, preparation with officials in pakistan, and the success of the troop surge. kate amara has more from washington. >> the obama administration releases its latest report card on the war in afghanistan today. according to the white house, the yearlong review will show the u.s. and nato allies are making progress, halting the momentum of the taliban. >> we have seen through counter- terrorism success at degrading al qaeda, senior al qaeda leaders. >> the report comes a little more than a year after president obama authorize the deployment of more

when david petraeus came to london soon after, his visit was overshadowed by the confusion over her death. now the facts are known. anti-western i'll of scotland, her parents are coming -- in the western islands of scotland, our parents are coming to terms with her death. but the u.s. and britain say the kidnappers were ultimately responsible for her death. frank gardner, bbc news. >> the latest headlines this hour. fifa has awarded russia the right to host the 2018 world cup. this is the first time it will be held in eastern europe. and qatar will host a in 2022, the first arab nation to host the world's biggest football tournament. more travel chaos across northern europe. heavy snow disrupted train services in britain, france, and germany. britain's second biggest airport was paralyzed, and flights were grounded in paris, amsterdam, berlin, and geneva. some have estimated that this has caused the british economy more than 1 billion pounds a day. >> the day started in a way that has become familiar to many since winter began. almost a foot of snow to be cleared before we could begin the

. >> it really is a pleasure to be here with -- >> when it david petraeus came to london soon afterwardss visit was overshadowed by the confusion over her death. now the facts are known. in scotland, her parents are still coming to terms with her death. despite what has happened, they paid tribute to the bravery of the u.s. team that nearly succeeded in restoring their daughter alive. both the u.s. and britain say that the kidnappers were responsible for her death. >> you are watching "bbc world news." the latest leak of u.s. cables revealed afghan and american criticism of the u.k. forces in 2008. the military in the ivory coast has announced the closure of its borders after the announcement that the opposition leader had won at the presidential election runoff. freezing weather conditions are causing chaos across northern europe. heavy snow has disrupted rail travel. flights have been delayed in paris, amsterdam, berlin, and geneva. >> the day started in a way that has become familiar since winter began. almost 1 foot of snow to be cleared before we could begin our journey. from above,

he was greeted at the airbase by the commander of nato and american troops, general david petraeus.hese are images that may just help the embattled president at home. talking to troops on a mission that has entered its ninth year but has little popularity among americans. >> this part of the world is the center of a global effort or we're going to disrupt and dismantle and defeat al qaeda and its extremist allies. and that is why you're here. >> it planned helicopter trip to kabul to meet afghan president hamid karzai had to be cancelled due to the bad weather. he and obama spoke on the telephone instead. it has been a year since the president launched his new afghanistan strategy, raising troop levels by 30,000. but washington is planning on slowly drawing down its forces as early as next july. >> in ivory coast, the top legal body declared the incumbent president e winner of the disputed westafrican country's presidential election. the un has rejected the announcement and says results showed the rival won the race. soldier attacked the main city in an attempt to force the leader o

commander general david petraeus in "the washington post" leaving reports to say that petraeus threatened to step down. "gma's" george stephanopoulos asked him about it. >> is that true? >> no, it's not. in fact, what took place, we read the interview contacting his closest advisers. >> you were surprised by it? >> it was a surprise. actually, when i sat down a couple days later. he said, hey, look, what's the big deal. i've raised these issues repeatedly. >>> but you needed to be reassured? >> i did. and i was. >> george will have more on the interview and the comments on the wikileaks documents with the starting reveal of corruption within the afghan government. it's on "afghanistan can we win?" aired on all the myskina abc programs. >>> two homes were set on fire in a resulting explosion. the cessna was trying to land at the airport when it flew into utility poles and trees before crashing. >>> hundreds gathered in wisconsin to remember the teenager killed. seth henkel was said as a well loving brother liked by many friends. >>> well, it was a glittering night of stars at the kennedy c

. >>> across the border in afghanistan, the commander of international forces, general david petraeus, paid christmas visits today to the troops, even the most remote units. many are involved in the fiercest fighting there, and they are finding ways to commemorate the holiday. nbc's jim maceda has spent the last month embedded with the marines and got a chance to experience christmas with them on the front lines. good evening, jim. >> reporter: hello and merry christmas from northern helmand province, arguably the most dangerous town in afghanistan at this time where we're marking christmas with the 3-5 marines. it's been a very tough fight here. the taliban hasn't wanted to give up an inch and these marines have taken heavy casualties. but at least for today, their commanders have wanted to give the 3-5 a special day. something where they can forget temporarily the very basic conditions here, where there are no home-cooked meals, nor is there any heat, despite subfreezing temperatures at night. today, a couple of special church services, catholic and nondenominational, where a few ma

general david petraeus called him a titan, larger than life. it is true that the death of richard holbrooke leaves no one even remotely like him in the business of diplomacy. it was by far his greatest success, ending the war in bosnia, a gruesome conflict that introduced the phrase "ethnic cleansing" to the world looking on. it took american bomb to go bring all sides to the table, but then it was widely agreed, richard holbrooke simply wore them down. >> and i combatted it by nature. well, i've read that, but it's really in my view, inherent in the job. this is a job that involves combat. >> he was new york city born, ivy educated, lived in manhattan and was on airplanes. he flew into hot spots often and without fear and was shot at more than once. while he also navigated the much cooler world of new york and d.c. society. a friend of kissinger, kerry, and both clintons, he served under every democratic president since jfk. his most recent assignment, as president obama's special representative to afghanistan and pakistan. and in that job, he

the late richard holbrooke may be a vital contribution to the campaign in the country general david petraeus claims that president obama's special representative helped build an effective team on the ground but artie's military contributor says the diplomat failed to tackle the most burning problem. with the gradual shift of the u.s. military and intelligence community from afghanistan to pakistan i guess the u.s. commander in afghanistan has a bigger fish to fry than to waste his style and accused energy credibility and respect and attention from his troops lemme hsing mr proper it preys on the architect of the drug promotion strategy in afghanistan and the main defender of the opium cultivation all across the country we used to be general trios we didn't know if general to stick with us praise to richard holbrooke calling him that tightening of the us policy in afghanistan and pakistan he might as well make his mission guilty by association he might be stuck with the mission creep which will be described as a titanic fubar both in afghanistan and across the border in pakistan in a couple o

and he was greeted at bagram air face by general david petraeus. he praised the u.s. troops for, in miswords, breaking the taliban's momentum, but he conceded progress is slow. >> thanks to your service we are making important progress. you are protecting your country. you're achieving your objectives. you will succeed in your mission. >> well, the weather around the country was bad, so the bad phoned afghan president hamid karzai instead of flying to kabul for a personal meeting. obama was likely doing damage control over the liwikileaks dos in which they called karzai indecisive and afghan corruption overwhelming. >>> top military leaders testified today the military's don't ask, don't tell policy should stay in place for now. >> i would not recommend going forward at this time given everything that the army has on its plate. >> reporter: the heads of the marine corps and the army said lifting the policy could be disruptive while the country is at war. they want the obama administration to delay lifting the ban until 2012. but the chiefs of the navy and the coast gu

for general david petraeus, holbrooke was his diplomatic wingman. but perhaps it was senator was john kerry who summed it up best, holbrooke will always be remembered as a warrior for peace. indeed, he was that warrior to the end. before being sedated for his marathon surgery, he turned to his doctors, some of south asian decent, and said, see what can you do to help end the war while i'm in there. martha raddatz, abc news, washington. >>> let's bring in jake tapper now from the white house. richard holbrooke was in washington to brief the president, and he met with his national security today team. >> reporter: that's exactly right. the president met with his national security team. the meeting started with secretary of state hillary clinton talking about holbrooke and thanking the president for meeting with holbrooke's family, saying how much it meant to them. the president said the team would really miss him a lot. then, in a business-like way, it was described to me, the team turned and started talking about the afghanistan-pakistan review. some

general david petraeus, the top commander, he is set. he has very firm agenda he is doing everything he can to put as much pressure to bear. but he is hamstrung by the fact that there's a complete political break down in afghanistan. within the afghan government, and also between the u.s. embassy and the afghan government. there's very little diplomacy that is going on there. that is the number one problem in afghanistan now-- it's not military, it's political. >> schieffer: nancy, let's just talk about that for a minute. how is that going to sit with the congress right now if the president comes, after saying, we're going to draw down, that was part of the deal. is congress going to sit by let that happen? >> probably find some cooperation on the republican side of the aisle. this is one of those areas where the republicans and presidency eye to eye. they were never in that much of a hurry to draw down troops. they always said, wait until the mission is complete, don't rush the commission mission, don't set timetables. democrats might n

thank you, david petraeus. >> the opposition candidate, an ivory coast presidential election, has declared himself the new head of state despite the election victory being overturned by the constitutional court. he received strong backing from the united nations, african grouping and france, the former colonial power. world leaders led by u.s. president barack obama urged the incumbent'ss to respect the will of the people. but he said he will accept the results and is due to be sworn in saturday. the election was supposed to restore stability in the ivory coast, which was split by civil war in 2002. in new york, the u.n. security council failed to agree on a statement backing the opposition presidential candidate. the bbc's u.n. correspondent barbara plat has this report. >> here in new york the secretary-general ban ki-moon issued a statement backing the opposition candidate. he congratulated him for winning the election and also called on the incumbent president to cooperate in a smooth transition of power. now he was basically endorsing the position that already been taken by his repres

military man in charge there, general david petraeus. the two of them sat down to talk about the progress, the problems and the questions prompted by our new poll. george. >> reporter: diane, our poll also has some revealing findings on how the afghan people feel about the taliban. fewer than 10% support the group but almost three quarters of the afghan people say they want a negotiated settlement with the taliban. when i sat down with general petraeus, i asked him if he thought that was possible. of if he thought the taliban had to be defeated on the battlefield. >> well, it depends what you're talking about. there are already cases of reintegration of reconcilable elements of the taliban. in other words, midlevel leaders and below. >> reporter: i'm talking about the top level. >> 2 dozen. well, you know, in iraq, we never reconciled with the top level al qaeda in iraq leaders. what we did is we were able to reconcile with the midlevel leaders and the population that, in some cases, was opposing the new iraq. this is not a case where yo

. >> couric: general david petraeus is the architect of the surge. >> the surge is quite clearly workingere the number of u.s. troops have been increased. >> couric: the afghan army has grown from 97,000 to 146,000 in one year, seven times more kids are in school than under taliban rule, and the economy expanded by 22% in 2009. >> the marine unit that we followed, they conducted a major assault on a town called safar bazaar in the south. and what the taliban did was, they cleared the people out at 7:00 p.m. every night, that was curfew, and they put in the i.e.d.s. so even the locals didn't know where these bombs were hidden. and as we moved in, there were bombs going off all the time. a lot of marines were getting concussions. >> hey, is everybody all right? >> two were killed. when we went back two months later after they cleared that town, there were about a thousand people in the market on market day. >> couric: success has come at a steep price. more than 470 americans have been killed in afghanistan this year alone. >> the number-one condition for victory is: can you ensuring that

he met with general david petraeus and ambassador eikenberry. with two top national security officials. he awarded purple hearts and visited wounded troops. and he also spent time with surviving troops from a platoon attack this week by an afghan policeman. >> i just talked to the platoon that lost six of their buddies in a senseless act of violence. this is tough business. >> reporter: a business made all the more tough because of rampant corruption in the afghan government and assistance provided to the taliban and insurgents by the government of pakistan. problems illustrated by classified cables released by wikileaks this week. >> we will never let this country serve as a safe haven for terrorists who would attack the united states of america again. that will never happen. we may face a tough enemy in afghanistan, and we're in a period of tough challenges back home. but because of you, i know that we once more will prevail. >> reporter: a holiday visit by the president. but the spirit, at times, was anything but joyful or merry. this is jake

on the ground for less than four hours, the president was briefed by his team, led by general david petraeusand ambassador carl eikenberry. although high winds prevented the president from taking a helicopter to kabul for a planned face-to-face meeting with president karzai, the two did speak by phone. it was just two weeks ago, the two sat across the table from each other at the nato summit in portugal. but the central focus of this visit to afghanistan was to give a holiday morale boost to the troops. >> i want to make sure that i could spend a little time this holiday with the men and women of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known, and that's all of you. >> reporter: the president also discussed the mission. >> we said we were going to break the taliban's momentum, and that's what you're doing. you're going on the offense. tired of playing defense. >> reporter: and he scored one easy applause line about their paycheck. >> you may have noticed during these tough budget times, i took the step of freezing pay for our federal workforce. but because of the service that you re

running the war and who want to run the war into the distant future i mean this include say general david petraeus and other people in the american military in the pentagon and now in the obama administration. they're not eager to have the war be particularly negative news about the word be headline so i think for instance the very fact that the american dead are announced always first as nato dead they're never announced first as american dad that story which is less of a story tends to get picked up here as two nato dead one nato dead and and just i. i think everything comes together to make this a kind of an increase a striking leave nerd story even as the numbers of american dead go up if you look at those numbers in november fifty three americans died now that that if you add all the other novembers of the war to from the invasion two thousand and one through two thousand and nine only six more americans died in all those november similarly in december twentieth americans have already died we're not even halfway into the month well security eighteen americans died in all the other years of th

casualties soar general stanley mcchrystal was fired halfway through the year and replaced by general david petraeus wiki leaks dumped seventy seven thousand reports covering six years of the war and just last week the obama administration released a much anticipated strategy review and yet a new study by the pew research center has found that the mainstream media devoted only four percent of their coverage over the last year to this war four percent is that all but hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives gets these days we are discussing with me is christopher chambers georgetown university professor and author of the blog not hers or venture chris thanks so much for being here if you have thank you to her and i really don't like to my own horn but i'm feeling pretty good right now about what we know we really do extensive coverage of the war in afghanistan this is something life feels so important but four percent that number really shocked me when it came to the world it doesn't shock me because i look at this image in the pew research center dug down some details new york times ce

anybody else in his war cabinet will remember those final words to stop the war when general david petraeus now in charge doesn't seem so realistic not only has he made statements in the past it he sees an american presence in afghanistan for generations but under his command airstrikes have more than tripled night rates have increased tanks even rolled into the helmand province so much for winning hearts and minds and on top of all this we can't forget as we mentioned yesterday that this has been the most lethal year for coalition troops fighting in the country and we're going to return to this topic on thursday and see if this review of the war takes reality into account. the news outlets across the country jumped on the news that unemployment rose to nine point eight percent in november just as benefits for the unemployed got tangled up with the obama tax deal but what if the numbers that we're hearing only tell us the story and the real numbers are much much worse artie's christine introduces us to a few people cast in the shadows of unemployment. the numbers by any stretch are staggeri

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general who did his assessment of the war general david petraeus in september says it can be improved. >> the government in itself is not a show-stopper in my view. once we bring the taliban down and able to secure it, we will get better people involved in governance. >> reporter: another issue, the pakistani government needs to do more to combat enemy fighters on its side of the border. general keen says they should have more leverage, soon. >> when we start to make troop progress in afghanistan, we're starting to turn the tables. then we cannot only put finger in pakistani's chest but a fist in it and say make up your mind what side you want to be on. >> the senior defense official says intelligence analysis was dated since the cutoff auz october 1 and the surge of the troop didn't peak until september. the official called the report detached because while there are intelligent assets on the ground, the military with 100,000 troops there has more proximity and perspective. but they're on steps forward. >> there has been some important progress in halting momentum of the taliban in a

david petraeus, in his two years in fort leavenworth, putting that into effect in iraq with the effects that we have seen and now in afghanistan, he opened -- open the doors, open minds. britain has eroded resilience. we have seen this year -- britain has a rugged resilience. we have seen this year -- we saw speeches.how make there is a tremendous resilience in this country, a tremendous base common sense, and a tremendous instincts for fairness, which, i must say, i find very engaging. canada, a country having to live alongside and on top of a country vastly more powerful than themselves, with remarkable success, they have constructed a kind of alternate society there. it is a society which has bridged the distance between europe and america. they have, for example, a system of medical care which is a hybrid between the american system and the british system. they fought with extraordinary valor in the two wars, the first and second world wars, and again in afghanistan. as anyone in the 49th parallel knows, canada it is an extraordinarily pleasant place. i did not choose it to be so. i

base ba gram from general david petraeus. got a couple of t-shirts as well. and huge, huge applause from the army's 101st airborne division. and during a speech there to the american troops, mr. obama -- were you watching? did you notice there was almost a tear in his eye -- appeared to get pretty emotional when he spoke of a meeting with a unit that recently suffered heavy, heavy casualties but also reflected on his decision. it was one year ago this month -- remember he was in west point -- to bolster the war effort there with 30,000 new troops. here's the president. >> as general petraeus mentioned, one year ago i ordered additional troops to serve in this country that was the staging ground for the 9/11 attacks. all of those troops are now in place. and thanks to your service, we are making important progress. you are protecting your country. you're achieving your objectives. you will succeed in your mission. we said we were going to break the taliban's momentum. and that's what you're doing. you're going on the offense. tired of playing defense. targetin

thank you, david petraeus.eers and applause] i want to take a while of your outstanding leaders who welcomed me here, including general john campbell, admiral bill mcrae then from the 455th expeditionary wing, turn -- colonel todd annenberg. out to salute your great senior enlisted leaders, including command sergeant major scott schroeder. [applause] command sergeant major chris baer and command chief craig adams. i also want to acknowledge the outstanding work that our civilians are doing each and every day, starting with karl eikenberry, all the way through to your senior civilian representative and all the civilians who are here. they are fighting alongside you. they are putting themselves at risk. they are away from their families and we are very, very grateful to them as well, so give them a big round of applause. [cheers and applause] i think we have had every service here tonight. we have got army. [cheers and applause] we have got navy. [cheers and applause] we have got air force. [cheers and applause]

thank you, david petraeus. want to thank all your outstanding leaders who welcome me here, including general john campbell. admiral bill mccraven, from the 455th air expeditionary wing. i want to salute your great senior enlisted leaders, including command sergeant major scott schroeder. command sergeant major christopher is, and command chief, craig adams. i also want to acknowledge the outstanding work that our civilians are doing each and every day. starting with karl ikeikenberry awful the civilens who are here, fighting alongside you, putting themselves at risk. they are away from their family, and we are very, very grateful to them as well. so give them a big round of applause. [ applause ] i think we got every service here tonight. we got army, we've got navy. we've got air force, and i think we may have a few marines around too. and a whole lot of folks from the 101st airborne division, the screaming eagles. now, here in afghanistan, you are all coast guard. is that what i heard? here in afghanistan, al

he was greeted at the airbase by the commander of nato and american troops, general david petraeus.hese are images that may just help the embattled president at home. talking to troops on a mission that has entered its ninth year but has little popularity among americans. >> this part of the world is the center of a global effort or we're going to disrupt and dismantle and defeat al qaeda and its extremist allies. and that is why you're here. >> it planned helicopter trip to kabul to meet afghan president hamid karzai had to be cancelled due to the bad weather. he and obama spoke on the telephone instead. it has been a year since the president launched his new afghanistan strategy, raising troop levels by 30,000. but washington is planning on slowly drawing down its forces as early as next july. >> in ivory coast, the top legal body declared the incumbent president the winner of the disputed west african country's presidential election. the un has rejected the announcement and says results showed the rival won the race. soldier attacked the main city in an attempt to force the leade