they have, quote, struck a blow at the core of the relationship but he believes afghan president hamad karzai is committed to partnering with the u.s. and nato. here is part of the opening comments at the hearing. >> chairman levin, senator mccain, distinguished members of the committee, i take this opportunity to appear before you today to discuss our operations in afghanistan. it is a pleasure to be here with my friend, dr. jim miller, the acting under secretary of defense for policy, and it has been a pleasure for me to get to know him over the last several weeks as he has been a very important ally of mine in helping to explain some of the policy issues with which we deal on a daily basis. let me begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to all of you for the support you provide to our men and women in uniform every day. , that they are well equipped, well trained, and well led is a great testament to the efforts of this committee and to the work of this congress. on behalf of those troops, and on behalf of their families, thank you for all that you have done for them. in the past eight mo

counterinsurgency strategy when you're propping up a government that is as corrupt and inept as hamad karzai government is and that said i do think there have been areas where the u.s. military pockets where the military has been able to bring stability however there is there are real questions about the sustainability of that stability so i think we're looking at a strategy now that lacks political direction and which really needs to be dramatically reshaped i would not however call for a precipitous withdrawal from the region entirely i think. from mary but it just from afghanistan ok just from afghanistan i mean everything you've just said says we should just leave right now i mean it's pointless to keep stay there because it gets worse and worse and worse or maybe the last couple of months are just an exception that's hard to believe. well i wouldn't suggest staying there in that capacity or this or that or continuing the current strategy i think that. the united states is looking at a rapidly changing threat portrait from the region groups that act much more like transnational organized