david sedny, former deputy assistant minister of defense and former u.s. ambassador thomas pickering. thank you for joining me. david, let me start with you. we will talk later in the program about the afghan interests as this year unfolds. what's the united states' interest? what are the specifics thbottom country is looking for as it proceeds to extricate itself from afghanistan? >> our number 1 bottom line after 2014 and in 2001 when we went in was terrorism. al-qaeda still exists. the threat of a resurgent al-qaeda is something we can't accept. so we need to make sure that afghanistan is never again a haven for terrorism. >> ambassador pickering, how would you answer that question? >> i would agree with david that terrorism is an issue. i think that we have a difficult problem because over the years, we have created several impressions or misimpressions about why we are in afghanistan. one of those is the swiss democracy misimpression. another of those -- >> say what that misimpression is. >> i thought that shorthand would work. that misimpression, i th