gen. mcchrystal talked about this was a rising sense of security. it is all of those things as well to think about it in terms of how the operation is being undertaken. it is very important to have the afghan security forces involved. and they will be. is complex. there are some challenges associated with moving through this. it has been exceptionally well planned. it is an operation that has been discussed at great length the president car side, the leadership -- karzai, the leadership. >> thanks for doing this. i wanted to ask about don't ask don't tell. there looked like there was a great breakthrough, but there have been some hiccups in questions about whether the bill may be affected. will it be appealed the sheer? how you see things planning now from your perspective? >> you're asking me to predict what congress is going to do. chairman taylor, would you like to come up here and try to do that? those pieces of legislation has moved rapidly over time. it is very difficult to predict them with legislation. i just cannot do that. what is really i

gen. mccrystal -- mcchrystal and many members of his staff have served this country would skill and devotion for many years. the outstanding record of service remains intact and is deserving of our lasting recognition and gratitude. finally, at general petraeus -- finally, general petraeus is willing to take this challenge and this is testimony to his patriotism and his character. it would be easy to remain the commander of central command and to rest on his record of success. but when the commander in chief was asking, he took this new3 three years ago, he described the effort in iraq as difficult, but not impossible and is describes the challenge facing us in afghanistan. i am grateful that he agreed to return to the battlefield. >> thank you. i am supporting the decision of the president's to take the resignation of general mcchrystal, and to take general petraeus as the commander of forces in afghanistan. general mcchrystal is a great man and he has served this country with distinction for three decades. he was leading men into places that the rest of us could not follow, and he fought i