. >> jeff merkely wrote an op-ed in the new york times on tuesday titled let's not linger in afghanistan. he joins us tonight on capitol hill. thank you for your time. >> is great to be with you. when you say that we are lingering in afghanistan, can you define the word "lingering" for me? >> that means that our mission has been completed. in this case, the mission was to take the taliban out of power in afghanistan, to destroy al qaeda training camps, and to find those responsible for 9/11. the nation-building mission turned out to be very problematic. we need to pull the plug on that experiment and redeploy our forces and redeploy our resources. tavis: this is the all hell will break out if we pull out completely. what is your response? >> let me explain a little bit further. there are those who talk about staying to build an effective police. but literacy is very low. the police numbers are completely added. there is an enormous amount of carson. the police in afghanistan are fugs. we eatow they are -- we them and train them and now we have a trained and equipped thugs. you think via