one is i think it's really important to start as david sedney talked in his intervention to start andting hear the taliban to continue to attack and attack at attack, as david did, mostly noncombatants but also terrible attacks on afghan national security forces and the continued effort to kill and maim american forces and international forces as well. this is an enemy that is still out there fighting, i think any consideration of peace process is got to begin with the question of whether they are interested in doing some kind of arrangement and making reconciliation work with the people of afghanistan. secondly, i think it's also worth saying out loud that i can understand, everyone should understand, why afghans and especially i think afghan women or young people or entrepreneurs, worry about the peace process. because they worry that people are going to make decisions above their heads or over them to have a reconciliation process which might chip away at some of the important progress that's made over the last 12 or 13 years. that's why it's extremely important it seems to me that

our third panelist is david sedney who is at it long and distinguished career serving the u.s. government with most of his assignment since 2002 also focusing on afghanistan. from 2009-2013, david served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for afghanistan, pakistan and central asia in the office of the assistant secretary of defense for asia and pacific security affairs. prior to this he was deputy assistant secretary of defense or east asia, and then he also served as the dcm at the u.s. embassy in regime year prior to that as the deputy chief mission of the u.s. embassy in kabul in 2002 as well as in 2003 and 2004. and then last but not least, it's a pleasure to welcome back to usip an old friend and former u.s. ip call it, alex thier alex is currently the assistant to the ministry for policy planning and learning. from june 2010 to june 2013 alex served as assistant to the minister for afghanistan and pakistan affairs overseeing the two largest nations in the world. before joining usaid he served here at usip as a senior rule of law applies in front of for afghanista