all topics for retired general david petraeus.commanded american and coalition forces in the wars in iraq and afghanistan, and served as overall commander of u.s. military operations in the middle east. he later served as director of the c.i.a. in 2011 and 2012. he's now with a global investment firm. we spoke a short time ago. and i started by asking him about reports that the trump administration will soon send 4,000 additional u.s. troops to afghanistan, and whether he thinks that is a smart move. >> i think it is, and it's heartening. i think what we need to get to in afghanistan is a sustainable, measuring the expenditure of blood and treasure, a sustainable, sustained commitment. we need to recognize we went and stayed for a reason, to ensure that afghanistan is not once again a sanctuary for al quaida or other transnational extremists the way it was when the 9/11 attacks were planned there. that's why we need to stay. we also have a very useful platform there for the regional counterterrorist effort and, of course, we've gr

ford had three important allies in the administration: cia director david petraeus, secretary of state hillary clinton, and defense secretary leon panetta. they made the case to the president. >> you did have people inside the administration who said, "we need to get involved here. we need to help this opposition force. we need to find those who represent values that we can live with and provide them arms and training." >> the only way we were going to get credibility with those that were fighting on the streets and dying was to be able to provide the weapons they needed in order to confront assad, and that's why i supported petraeus's recommendations and why we recommended that. >> narrator: despite the recommendation of his senior advisors, the president was reluctant. >> ...for us to think that somehow there is some simple solution i think is a mistake. >> that wasn't something president obama wanted to do. he didn't think it would be effective, he didn't want to necessarily get involved in somebody else's civil war. he came to office not to get involved in the middle east, but to g

on friday, i sit down with retired general david petraeus to discuss the fight against isis, and the fghanistan. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. tonight, we leave you with a view of the congressional baseball games which gets underway tonight. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org boom! hello, i'm julia child. welcome to my house. what fun we're going to have baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads right here in my own kitchen. leslie mackie's pastry chef and owner of seattle's popular macrina bakery. today she shows us her way of making perfect pie crusts for these beautiful fresh fruit tarts.

on friday, i sit down with retired general david petraeus to discuss the fight against isis, and the fghanistan. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. tonight, we leave you with a view of the congressional baseball games which gets underway tonight. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

what he read were the rand reports and general david petraeus' book awful book called counterinsurgency: a manual, all of which were nation and state-building devices which either glibly passed over vietnam or just talked about vietnam without coming to any real conclusions. those also are available online for free, and they're listed on my handout for free. so obama's surge, now, he didn't surge as much as secretary of state clinton wanted him to. he only put in an additional 30,000 service members in 2011. he said he'd -- in 2010. he said he'd have them out by 2014. three years ago, by my counting. secretary clinton wanted 100,000 and wanted it to increase. okay, this was all a very unfortunate mistake. but obama -- it's amazing, and in the book i've got quote after quote after quote from him. he didn't learn from the mistake, he actually thought he was winning in afghanistan. i don't know what he thought he was winning. democracy? at any rate, he thought he was winning. so that in 2011 when the spring emerged, what did he do? he did what any liberal internationalist would do. he salu