i wanted to get your perspective on that and understand do you agree with general allen? are you looking to him as far as his guidesance, his thought about how we utilize our current forces there as we're drawing down, what's necessary past 2013. because i think of all these parts of what happens in the middle east but also in afghanistan and obviously our efforts there in iraq are all intertwined. i wanted to get your perspective on that. >> congressman, you bet we are listening to general allen. he's the best. he's exercised tremendous leadership out there and tremendous dedication. and he's put together -- more importantly he's put together a very good plan for the future with regards to afghanistan. as i pointed out 2011 was a turning point. we have seen the taliban weakened. they have not organized an effort to regain any area that they've lost. they've engaged in sporadic hits. we expected that we'll continue. they're resilient. but they have been weakened. more importantly the afghan people themselves have rejected them. more importantly than that the afghan army i

general allen was here testifying before us last month, talking about operations in afghanistan, and i want to get both secretary panetta and general dempsey your perspective. his comments were this -- he said that he saw the use of u.s. power extending past 2013. i wanted to get your perspective on that and understand, do you agree with general allen? are you looking to him as far as his guidance, his thought about how we utilize our current force there's as we're drawing down? what's necessary past 2013? because i think all of these parts of what happens not only in the middle east but also there in afghanistan and obviously our efforts there in iraq are all intertwined. so i wanted to get your perspective on that. >> congressman, you bet we are listening to general allen. he's the best. he's exercised tremendous leadership out there and tremendous dedication, and he's put together, more importantly, a very good plan. for the future with regards to afghanistan. as i pointed out, 2011 was a turning point. we have seen the taliban weaken. they have not organized an effort to regain an

host: here is what our guest writes -- host: tell us more about who general allen is. he is not as known as general petraeus and other leaders. guest: john allen is a marine troop commander who came from april school and was looking to go to princeton but decided he would go to the naval academy. the marines always seem to be in the thick of battle. his father and teachers fought in world war ii with great distinction. he decided he wanted to be a marine. he got caught up in leading troops and he loved it. he is intellectual. he studies problems and listens very carefully and he has no pride of authorship. he will take an idea and he could say, we will go with your idea. he is courteous unless the bureaucracy take care of what a bureaucracy will take care of. he focuses on what the commander is supposed to do. he has about eight hours a week when he speaks to nobody. those hours where he is pondering these problems so he is not always getting pushed around by the staff. i have compared how he spends time at all other chief officers spent their time, it is pretty similar

general allen will be the last commander to make decisions in the field. host: president obama has promised to withdraw troops by 2014. isn't john allen -- what is in john allen's mind? general allen is a troop leader. he said, i'm not above americans fighting this war anymore. i am about turning this war over to the afghans. he is focused on turning the war over to the afghan security forces. host: here is what our guest writes -- host: tell us more about who general allen is. he is not as known as general petraeus and other leaders. guest: john allen is a marine troop commander who came from april school and was looking to go to princeton but decided he would go to the naval academy. the marines always seem to be in the thick of battle. his father and teachers fought in world war ii with great distinction. he decided he wanted to be a marine. he got caught up in leading troops and he loved it. he is intellectual. he studies problems and listens very carefully and he has no pride of authorship. he will take an idea and he could say, we will go with your id

i'm especially appalled those in uniform, general allen just jumped to trash our troops. he needs to mutt in context -- make it the greatest generation sent japanese skulls home to their girlfriends. i'm not condoning it. i'm trying to make the pin that our soldiers are under tremendous stresses. war is not a ladies auxilliary tea party. it's too easy for people in los angeles and new york or the white house to condemn the troops. they should have been given letters of reprimand and moved on. if our strategy and doctrine is so weak that it can be so shattered by a few burning korans or few photographs of dead party parts of terrorists, that's not much of a strategy or doctrine. i'm furious, not at the troops who did something dumb. but at moral cowardess of military leaders. as a 22-year-old former enlisted man and officer i'm angry. general allen needs to get it through his head that a leader is responsible for everything his troops do or fail to do. that's the military code. don't blame it troops out doing the tough work. blame the generals whose strategy has failed, the

it's an area that i know my boss at the time general allen and general scalbeie ni, my commander have been working very hard at. but it's difficult. because 12th corps -- as you know, helmand province has pakistan and iran as its borders. helmand and nimruz. on the pakistani border is a place called ba. rum-cha. i know for a fact drugs are moving out of pakistan and lethal aid is coming in on a regular basis. barum-cha is a long way away from the helmand river valley. to provide forces down there to interdict, stop that, it detracts, takes away from efforts that i'd like to be working in upper helmand river valley. if i had 12th corps, if i had the pakistani army support, to at least conduct patrols along the border and limit the amount of movement across, it would really help. that's been my focus. but i haven't been able to really get that kind of support. >> thanks, general. another example of how critical pakistan is to this effort. second row. viola. >> thank you. bloomberg news. general, couple questions. one, you mentioned that it's really important to sideline the sort of acto

. >> first of all, we had our mission, which was to visit the constituents, meet with general allen.eral allen was in my office six weeks ago and invited me to come to afghanistan so i came with his request and number three was to meet with the northern alliance. we decided we can continue that mission and succeed in the mission. dana did not want to be an impediment. there's one other piece that you left out and it's this, ryan crocker, our ambassador, who i can't say enough good about and also general allen, they were in the process, particularly ambassador crocker, he was at 11:59:59 negotiating the deal for handing oft baton for leadership in iran from the international security forces to the afghans to be able to run this conflict on their own and defeat the taliban. this agreement was completed while we were there. we did not in any way want to turn an international incident into preventing this agreement from being signed. this was months in the making. so we didn't want to be the ones that would prevent this from happening. >> you can read more about all of this on my blog. a

general allen says the actions undermine the daily sacrifices of thousands of troops he's promising a thorough investigation. the new photos come as the u.s. military continues to deal with a series of high profile converse sees connected to the war -- controversies connected to the war including a previous controversy and deli protest in afghanistan after accidental burning of copies of qur'an by u.s. troops. we'll continue to follow this story throughout the morning and on abc7news.com. >>> it wasmko÷ 106 years ago ths morning that san francisco was awakened by a major effort quake that would change the look of the city forever this morning hundreds have gathered to honor the victims and the survivors of that massive quake. amy hollyfield joins us from 20th and church where crowds have just finished their second memorial moment of the morning. you don't know this, but that fire hydrant saved my grandparents' home. >> reporter: oh terry what a significant piece of history, thank you for sharing that, i don't have anything like that to bring to the table. you should be out here. we ar

general allen says the actions undermine the daily sacrifices of thousands of troops. he is promising a thorough investigation. we'll continue to follow this breaking story throughout the morning and on our website, abc7news.com. >>> uc berkeley facing a new financial threat. this time over the pricey renovation of its football stadium. fundraising has fallen way short of the goal line and that could force students to take a new hit. katie marzullo is live at memorial stadium. >> reporter: good morning. the "wall street journal" did the math. the original renovations were supposed to cost 321 million dollars. as of december the university had only raised 31 million dollars. huge discrepancy. the question is where is the rest of the money going to come from? the "wall street journal" quoting campus officials who say most likely from campus funds. guess what money is included in campus funds? students' fees. not new fees, but moving money that would otherwise be used for academics this is sure to cause trouble among students. they are going to be mad. maybe they have the

general allen says the incident representsl)$ a serious error in judgment myself al soldiers who have acted out of ignorance and unfamiliarity with u.s. army values. those foers to are the latest in a series of blows to the u.s. image in afghanistan including a previous photo controversy and accidental burning of the qur'an which triggered violent protests against several americans. >>> secret service agents linked to a prostitution scandal will undergo lie detector tests. 11 agents and 10 military personnel are telling different stories about whether the women were prostitutes. sources tell abc news many of the women have been identified and will be interviewed. u.s. officials are in colombia scoping out nightclubs and collecting hotel surveillance video. >> what has gone on is very embarrassing and it is clear there are investigations at the pentagon and the secret service and i hope to get to the bottom of it, quickly. >> from what i understand there were 20 to 21 women involved. they could be employees of the local drug cartel. they could be spies planting eavesdropping devices. >

. >> i strongly condemned what we see in those photos, as has general allen. that behavior that was depicted in those photos absolutely violates both our regulations and, more importantly, our core values. >> reporter: u.s. troops in afghanistan have to stop anti-american sentiment. they have been accused of burning copies of the koran and in one case killing 17 afghan villagers. in brussels, nato members decided wednesday to stick to the planned withdrawal of international troops by the end of 2014. >> let me stress that there is no change whatsoever. it is in the interest of the whole international community to see strong and highly capable afghan security forces take full responsibility for security by the end of 2014. >> reporter: that statement by the nato secretary general came the same day that afghan defense ministries say the country will need at least $4.1 billion a year from international community to maintain security after foreign troops leave. nato is due to discuss long-term aid for afghanistan at a meeting in the united states next month. but m

general allen says the incident representsl)$ a serious error in judgment myself al soldiers who have acted out of ignorance and unfamiliarity with u.s. army values. those foers to are the latest in a series of blows to the u.s. image in afghanistan including a previous photo controversy and accidental burning of the qur'an which triggered violent protests against several americans. >>> secret service agents linked to a prostitution scandal will undergo lie detector tests. 11 agents and 10 military personnel are telling different stories about whether the women were prostitutes. sources tell abc news many of the women have been identified and will be interviewed. u.s. officials are in colombia scoping out nightclubs and collecting hotel surveillance video. >> what has gone on is very embarrassing and it is clear there are investigations at the pentagon and the secret service and i hope to get to the bottom of it, quickly. >> from what i understand there were 20 to 21 women involved. they could be employees of the local drug cartel. they could be spies planting eavesdropping devices. >

. >> i strongly condemned what we see in those photos, as has general allen. that behavior that was depicted in tho photos absolutely violates both our regulations and more importantly our core values. >> reporter: a string of incidents by u.s. troops in afghanistan created anti-american sentiment. they have been accused of burning of copies of the koran and in one case killing 17 afghan villagers. in brussels, nato members decided wednesday to stick to the planned withdrawal of international troops by the end of 2014. >> let me stress that there is no change whatsoever. it is in the interest of the whole international community to see strong and highly capable afghan security forces take full responsibility for its security by the end of 2014. >> reporter: that statement by the nato security general came the same day that afghan defense ministries say the country will need at least $4.1 billion a year from the international community to maintain security after foreign troops leave. nato is due to discuss long-term aid for afghanistan at a meeting in the unite

. >> i strongly condemn what we see in those photos as has general allen. that behavior that was depicted in those photos absolutely violates both our regulations and more importantly our core values. >> reporter: as a string of incidents of u.s. troop in afghanistan has strengthened anti-u.s. american sentiment. they have been accused of burning copies of the koran and in one case killing villagers. in brussels, they decided on wednesday to stick to the planned withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014. >> let me stress that there is no change whatsoever. it is in the interest of the whole international community to see strong and highly capable afghan security forces take full responsibility for security by the end of 2014. >> reporter: that statement by the nato execusecurity general the same day that they say the country will need at least $4.1 billion a year from international community to maintain security after foreign troops leave. nato is due to discuss long-term aid for afghanistan at a meeting in the united states next month. but many members of th

i was an tabak in general allen's testimony that we conducted 2,200 night raids in the course of the last year. and he also said that 82% of the them captured their intended target and only 1.5% of those raids resulted in civilian casualties. that's a very admirable statistic. but that means at least 330 times a year afghan civilians are being killed in the conduct of night raids. right? that's almost a death a day or several deaths a day over the course of the year. but it's understandable to me why that's difficult for them to sus tin. it's understandable to me that when it's afghans conducting the raids, they will have a much more difficult time building political support for that. and to the extent our strategy continues to depend very heavily on that, it seems to me problematic. two last quick points. first, i think we are at risk of adopting a strategy where we quarantine failed states. and i would want to be a lot more confident in our ability to play defense before i would shift our strategy that way. it does seem to me that bomb threat in december 20099 suggests to me that w

the commander of coalition forces in afghanistan general allen condemned the photos and said the actions unmoon the daily sacrifices of thousands of troops. we'll continue to follow the story. >>> back here in antioch, investigators trying to determine the cause of an apartment fire that damaged eight homes. this fire started after 9:00 last fight at 9 delta pines apartments on sycamore drive. -- it took firefighters -- [ unintelligible ] no word on exactly how many people were displaced. the fire chief says nobody was injured, two were taken to the hospital. >>> hours from now divers will search four more morgan hill ponds and volunteers will be back out looking for any signs of sierra lamar. techs are pouring over 12 hours of data from sonar scans taken from several ponds. they are looking for anything out of the ordinary. yesterday divers found two cars in the ponds. >> we want to determine to make sure they've been there, we'll look and make sure they've been there for quite a while. >> detectives are following up on new leads from the crime lab's analysis of the evidence that includ

so the challenge for general allen, and he has reminded the regional commanders that there really isn't anything more important than keeping this coalition together during this entire operation, till the end. and it hurts when a country like france, for example, says, out east, after an insider event, when several french soldiers were killed is, okay, we're out of here. because, you know, that registered a "w" for the insurgency. it's very powerful when a coalition partner like, for example, the uk, steps up and says "we're here, we're here to the end." "oh, by the way, we're not reducing our forces." because the uk is only going to reduce their forces by about 500 over the next year. which is very small. so, i mean, that's helpful. that serves as a great statement in helmand province for us. we've got it. we're here. i think that the strategic partnership you refer to in the beginning between the afghanistan and the coalition has had some challenges. the two big ones are obviously night raids and the tension operations. i think that the president of afghanistan has been working very ha

the media i mean on the other hand let's remember this as you said is that it wasn't so far away general allen apologized president obama apologized it's not that our top officials in this country got up and said this wasn't a big deal they acknowledge this was a big deal but it is a very critical of journalism the new york times is just you just don't forget we're also trying to start a war with iraq ok not only i've got to wrap it up but thanks for joining me tonight that's it for tonight's show thanks for tuning in and they for the come back tomorrow former white house advisor banjo. it's going to be joining us and i mean time don't forget to take in a fan of the i want to show on facebook and follow us on twitter if you missed any of tonight's show or any other night you know it's cash coming in last few months and coming up next the needs. to. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then he lives something else and hears you some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew if you don't talk i'm tom hardy welco

the media i mean on the other hand let's remember this as you said it was it wasn't so far away general allen apologized president obama apologized it's not that our top officials in this country got up and said this wasn't a big deal they acknowledge this was a big deal but it is true and very critical of journalism the new york times is just you just don't forget we're also trying to start a war with iraq yeah ok totally i got it but thanks for joining me tonight that's a good night's show thanks for tuning in and make sure that you come back tomorrow from the white house adviser van jones. the going to be joining us and i mean signed up for get fit in a fan of the on a show on facebook and follow us on twitter if you missed any of the night's show or any other night you know it's cash elephantine fat comp class the lunch hour and coming up that's when it's. download the official we can show you on the phone the i pod touch from the i choose up store. one shall see lights on the. video on demand on t.v.'s mine gold coast's an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the call she to

this to the media i mean on the other hand let's remember the as you said it wasn't so far away general allen apologized president obama apologized it's not that our top officials in this country got up and said this wasn't a big deal big knowledge this was a big deal but it made it through a very cynical of journalism the new york times is just you just don't forget we're also trying to start a war with iraq yes ok i'm going to totally i got a big for joining me tonight and that's it for tonight's show thanks for tuning in and make sure that you come back tomorrow former white house adviser van jones. is this going to be joining us and i mean time got to get to the fan of the on a show on facebook and follow us on twitter if you missed any of tonight's show or any other night you know it's cashed out in hot flashes in washington and coming up next and it's. wealthy british style. that's not on the telephone. market finiteness. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on our

i have been in touch with my friend and battle buddy general allen. all of our folks are accounted for and safe. really don't know what's going on around town. but but the african gekt forc-- afghan security forces are responding to this so they seem to be getting it under control. >> it seems a setback to the over arching story the situation was improving. >> not a good thing. we hope and pray that they are not casualties among the afghan population of this city. it is pretty similar as it was in september. high profile yesable effectiveness. this is done more for the splash than a serious attempt to carry out a military operation. we have to see. >> where sdou think we -- do yo think we go now? does this set back the timetable? >> oh, no. kabul transitions to afghan security back last july. that's why they are responding to this. i don't think it will have an effect on the transition. >> are you distressed the trend going into the right direction to have something like this happen at the heart of the afghan government? >> it is not a good thing. how

general allen when he was here two weeks ago for testimony underscored there will be no radical drawr. we still have iran in our hor eyesons and our radar scopes and a trillion dollar deficit. i don't think the country is willing to do what would truly be needed to unseat assad which, unfortunately, is something like the iraq operation. i don't think there is any guarantee. >> let me ask you, then: will that taint the rather affirmative story that president obama has been able to tell thus far about his foreign policy with bin laden gone with theoretically the afghan war coming to an end, however one defines that, iraq war over and libya and egypt being viewed until recently as stories of reform? will this begin to look somewhat different if egypt goes in a bad direction in the and libya dessends into chaos and assad still there, will the president be playing defense on foreign policy not offense? >> it's a great question. and, you know, i think the president does have some challenges in these countries. our book "bending history" is fairly complementary of how he has handled most of

i was in afghanistan, i was with our general, general allen and ryan crocker and i was with hundreds of troops. i was in the number one trauma hospital which is camp leather neck down by helman province and went to the united emirate. >> greta: and give a top nurse in the hospital because where are they from? >> they are from my district. i was absolutely thrilled. i had no idea. number one trauma hospital in the world are serving our guys and gals and top doctor is dr. morris and top nurse is lisa from minnesota. >> greta: it's tough to go to afghanistan in over the weekend. >> it's a good 14 hour trip. >> greta: but when you get there and see it, it makes, whether you understand, it helps you understand to do your job? >> it really does because the big question is it the right thing to be there. my opinion when president obama we are going to be out by 2014, come hell or high water, i thought if your goal isn't to win and be successful, why even expend one more human life if that is not your goal? when i went over this weekend and literally i spoke with hundreds and hundreds of our

i have been in touch with my friend and battle buddy general allen. all of our folks are accounted for and safe. really don't know what's going on around town. but but the african gekt forc-- afghan security forces are responding to this so they seem to be getting it under control. >> it seems a setback to the over arching story the situation was improving. >> not a good thing. we hope and pray that they are not casualties among the afghan population of this city. it is pretty similar as it was in september. high profile yesable effectiveness. this is done more for the splash than a serious attempt to carry out a military operation. we have to see. >> where sdou think we -- do yo think we go now? does this set back the timetable? >> oh, no. kabul transitions to afghan security back last july. that's why they are responding to this. i don't think it will have an effect on the transition. >> are you distressed the trend going into the right direction to have something like this happen at the heart of the afghan government? >> it is not a good thing. how

this tragedy that general allen -- the plan and strategy that general allan has developed and that nato's support is to proceed with that plan to take us to 2013 and be able to complete the final to the end it 2014. and beyond that, to happen during presence there that represents a continuing effort to provide support to the afghans on counterterrorism, on training advice and assisting in other areas. >> thank you. mr. larsen. >> thank you. thank you for being here. general dempsey,you're asking questions about chemical and biological weapons. i do not want to read characterize your comments. i will say what i thought i heard. did you say you thought we had sufficient transparency/ >> we have sufficient halogens on their facilities. -- intelligence on their facilities related to chemical and biological weapons in consultation with our close allies in the region. >> this is the so what question. the that mean we're in position to do something about rise? -- if a circumstance arises? who makes that call? >> if you are talking about our vital national interests, it seems to me that the poten

. >>> i strongly condemn what we see in the photos as has general allen.n the photos absolutely violates both our regulations, and more importantly our core values. this is not who we are. we had urge the "los angeles times" not to run those phot photos. and the reason for that is those kind of photos are used by the enemy. to incite violence. >> those are criminal investigation now by the department of defense. 18 photographs taking over the span of roughly 90 days. two years ago. first published as the defense secretary mentioned by the los angeles times. we blurred some of this. soldiers posing with body parts. there is a series of them and there is pushback about the reaction to them. >> i'm furious. not of the troops that did something dumb. but i'm furious as a moral cowardess of military leaders who never stick up for troops but protect the careers. the action of our generals is leap out and say my, go our troops are so awful. they're so wicked. this isn't us. this isn't us. the real scandal is that the establishment media leaps on another chance to

general john allen has had to apologize for three other incidents so far this year. u.s.n corpses and mistaken burning of korans in february and massacre by u.s. staff sergeant in kandahar only last month. increasing bad news here that mounts up daily. these particular images very gruesome. 2 of 18 were leaked by a soldier here showing disembodied legs of a suicide bomber and the hand placed on the shoulder of a u.s. soldier, that hand belonging to the hand of a dead insurgent. it remains to be seen exactly how the afghan population are going to react when these images begin to get more wide circulation. >> nick paton walsh updating us. thank you. we appreciate it. we'll check back in as we get access to these photos. >>> i want to introduce everyone to our panel. i nearly fell off my stool. >> careful. >> thank you for caring, will. will cain is a columnist for blaze.com back with us. amy cremor is a chairman of the tea party express. and a political reporter for "the wall street journal" joining me on the panel this morning. we're talking this morning with senator bill

i was in afghanistan, i was with our general, general allen and ryan crocker and i was with hundreds of troops. i was in the number one trauma hospital which is camp leather neck down by helman province and went to the united emirate. >> greta: and give a top nurse in the hospital because where are they from? >> they are from my district. i was absolutely thrilled. i had no idea. number one trauma hospital in the world are serving our guys and gals and top doctor is dr. morris and top nurse is lisa from minnesota. >> greta: it's tough to go to afghanistan in over the weekend. >> it's a good 14 hour trip. >> greta: but when you get there and see it, it makes, whether you understand, it helps you understand to do your job? >> it really does because the big question is it the right thing to be there. my opinion when president obama we are going to be out by 2014, come hell or high water, i thought if your goal isn't to win and be successful, why even expend one more human life if that is not your goal? when i went over this weekend and literally i spoke with hundreds and hundreds of our

. >> rose: that's general allen's point. >> well, i'm going back in another month and i'll see the improvement. >> rose: and if it's not happening, if you come to a conclusion that the... whatever effort there is to train the afghan and to enable them to do it on their own has failed, what would be your recommendation? >> i don't think it would be failing, no. i mean, the... the fact is that it's a long haul. literacy. a lot of them have to learn to read to protect people to even read instructions on their manuals and the rest but remember this. >> for 2001 to around 2009 there was no plan in afghanistan. we went in; we routed the taliban. we did not necessarily really defeat them. we routed them. they headed for the hills. we headed for iraq. then they started coming back and when president obama went in he said we need a plan. >> rose: and then he decided they needed a surge. >> they needed a surge and that was almost right from the start and that is reaping benefits. but you can't measure it from 2001. you have to measure it from when we had a plan and i see a big difference in terms of the

it is an area that i know my boss at the time, general allen, and general was my commander, had been working very hard at. but it is difficult to seven and helmand provinces have afghanistan and pakistan as their borders. a long way away from the helmand river valley. in order to provide forces down here to interdict and stop that, it just detracts and takes away from efforts. if i had the pakistani army support to lee's conduct patrols along the border and limit the amount of movement across, it would really help. that's been my focus, but i haven't been able to get that kind of support. >> just another example of how critical pakistan is to us. >> general, a couple of questions. first, you mentioned that it is important to sideline those you were referring to who is a senator now. how do you think it is most effective way to do that, and how difficult do you think it will be for the nsf and the remaining coalition forces in helmand to maintain those progress points that you described in september when there will be a significant number of millions that will be withdrawn at that poi