i want to bring in former assistant secretary of state for public affairs, jamie rubin, currently advising governor mario cuomo. nice to see you. >> nice to be here. >> "the new york times" wasn't so crazy about the president's speech last night. today they called it a missed opportunity. here's part of what they wrote. "we have long supported the war in afghanistan as a painful but necessary fight to ensure that al qaeda does not again have a major launching pad for attacking the united states. but we are increasingly concerned that mr. obama does not have a clear policy to ensure that the country does not implode once the americans are gone." do you think there is a clear plan here? he just didn't necessarily detail it last night or -- >> well, i think there is a general plan, yes. the plan is that over the next year and a half u.s. combat forces will slowly leave the count country at the end of 2014 from will be a supporting role only and not combat forces. >> can i put those numbers up? 88,000 u.s. troops approximately are there now. 23,000 will come home by september so do the math. 6

here now jamie rubin, former assistant secretary of state to form affairs. and andrew tabler. let me start with you, jamie. russia has -- there is a means question and a will question. let's talk about the will because sure they have come around to condemning the massacre of children. but they still seem to be with a ship going in reportedly now with weapons very much still supporting bashar al assad. >> i don't see a lot of evidence that the russians feel pressure from the world, from these crises and the massacres on the ground to suddenly do what i know washington and some of our allies in europe are hoping which is to engage and convince the leadership in syria they need to change assad and move him out. what they are calling the yemen option where the united states was able to do in yemen was to help with the saudi arabian involvement to get that leader out and that calmed a civil unrest. i don't see russia having what you mentioned the will to do this. they have as you said a good military relationship with the syrians. they don't feel the pressure that we feel when they