>> mcchrystal: i do an hour, yeah.s not as many miles as it used to be. >> martin: he eats one meal a day; anything more makes him feel sluggish. in another life, he could have been a monk. the lap of luxury. >> mcchrystal: it is. it's good. i mean, what else do you need? it's functional and it's comfortable. you get very used to it. you have what you have, and that's all you need. and you realize you don't need a lot of other stuff. one thing, of course, you miss is family, but besides that, it's pretty much perfect. >> martin: he lived like this for five years as head of a top secret hunter-killer unit which captured saddam hussein and tracked down the infamous terrorist abu musab al zarqawi, calling in an air strike to kill him. being a general didn't stop him from going on commando raids. >> mcchrystal: i won't claim that i was ever any great help on the missions. it was really to go and see what the force does, and to understand just what their challenges are. and also, there's a value to the old man coming along,

general mcchrystal understands the corruption problems, general mcchrystal understands the role of tribal influence in afghanistan. i mean, it's not like he has introduced them to new ideas other than what he was asked to do, which is "tell me how many americans... give me your evaluation of what's necessary to do the job we charge you with doing." >> indeed. and he's laid it out in a very sober, clear-headed way. and, in fact, in some ways a very grim way. some might suggest that maybe general mcchrystal's done too good of a job here of trying to argue for more forces and may well have scared some people into thinking, well, mcchrystal's from-the-heart fall for me resources and his... the urgency that he lays out here may well be interpret bid some as, well, maybe this can't be done. but mcchrystal's clear in his assessment that he believes if he has the resources success is achievable. but maybe other people view it differently. >> rose: but he's got a year to do it, otherwise it will be too late. if he doesn't have the resources, a year from now it's going to be too late. >> that's the

and nato commander in afghanistan, general stanley mcchrystal. he said resources won't necessarily win the war but under resources may well be result in failure. the support has been submitted to washington but it does not specify the number of extra troops required. in a moment we will be live in kabul. first, mike will rich. >> general mcchrystal was charged with providing new thinking in president obama's strategy. with international forces experiencing the deadliest years since the war in afghanistan began eight years ago, the generals provide the obama administration with a grim analysis of the prospect if the initiative is not gained from the taliban insurgency. the number of american troops in afghanistan is already almost doubled this year to the current level of 62,000. general mcchrystal said the campaign has been historically under resource and remains so today. he is expected to make a formal request for more troops. without adequate resources, he warned bluntly, the risk is the mission will fail but the idea of sending more troops is

he broke the mcchrystal story. and joins us our powerhouse roundtable. >>> and as always, the sunday funnies. >> president obama made a big speech, he welcomed the members of the u.n. general assembly to new york and he said, i would like to encourage you to do some shopping. china immediately bought eight banks and the state of wyoming. china immediately bought eight banks and the state of wyoming. they bought it all. captions paid for by abc, inc. >>> and we begin with the secretary of defense robert gates. welcome back to "this week." >> thank you. >> national security was front and center all week long. let's begin with afghanistan. we saw the leak of general mcchrystal's review. and he concluded that the u.s. has about 12 months to reverse taliban momentum. and without new troops, the strategy laid out by the president would fail. i want to show what the president said back in march when he laid out that strategy. he called it new and comprehensive. >> this marks the conclusion of a careful policy review. my a

mcchrystal wrote about it. when president obama set out his strategy, he in fact, set out a counterinsurgency strategy. what he talked about. the changes that you have to make there. i was struck by what lyndon johnson said, i don't know what else to do. what else can they do is very limited. you got stanley mcchrystal there, who's the best man in counterinsurgency and intelligence and special operations and if he doesn't think that you can do it through drones and special forces on the ground, i don't know who you turn to. >> he take on the strategy they have given, counterinsurgency, protect the populations, get into the village, take care of the people. what the white house is now saying, we're going back and looking. maybe that's the wrong strategy. as george said, maybe we have to change our minds. but, there's a middle ground here. and people think, oh, no, there's never a middle ground. the middle ground has been presented by vice president biden. who says, have a strategy where you keep lots of troops t

stanley mcchrystal was but in charge of that war by president obama last may. in a confident report first obtained by "the washington post," general mcchrystal says the situation in afghanistan is serious. neither success nor failure can be taken for granted. mccyst stall asked for more troops. without them, he writes, the mission will likely result in failure. it is not clear, however, whether the president agrees. martha raddatz joins us. >> charlie, this is an enormous dilemma for president obama. he's now publicly pitted against his own handpicked military commanders. and it leaves him two choices. disregard the advice of his commanders or change the mission in afghanistan. in the confidential assessment, general mcchrystal warns the president the situation in afghanistan is deteriorating, saying "time matters -- we must act now. failure to gain the initiative in the near term, the next 12 months, risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible." mcchrystal prepared a separate troop request with numbers ranging from 10,000 to 45,000. b

general mcchrystal, look, we have to remember something about general mcchrystal.is obama's guy. they fired his predecessor, general mckiernen because they didn't think he was doing a good job, so they brought in mcchrystal. what is mcchrystal's backimrowndz? mcchrystal was the ultimate search and destroy guy in iraq. bret: special operations. >> special operations. you have your troops, send them out on missions every day and bring them back into the post in the evening. it is the opposite of counterinsurgency, but counterinsurgency is not mcchrystal's thing. it was search and destroy, which was failing in iraq. then the policy was changed and they brought in counterinsurgency to protect the population. it worked. mcchrystal, in particular, to come now and say the solution here is a counterinsurgency strategy that is bigger and stronger than the one that the president had decided on back in march is quite a change for mcchrystal to believe that, it means that -- i mean, i think that just adds so much emphasis and credibility to his request. bret: how long does it

the "washington post" was first to obtain mcchrystal's assessment.n it, he said the overall war effort is deteriorating. he said the u.s. risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible, unless it regains the momentum within 12 months. and he went on to warn: the general also repeated his previous calls for focusing u.s. strategy on reducing afghan civilian casualties. pentagon officials confirmed the details without formally releasing the report. and at the white house, it was unclear what response mcchrystal will get. on the sunday talk shows, before the general's assessment was published, president obama said he's skeptical about sending more troops, for now. >> i'm not interested in just being in afghanistan for the sake of being in afghanistan or saving face or, in some way, you know, sending a message that america is here for the duration. i think it's important that we match strategy to resources. what i'm not also going to do, though, is to put the resource question before the strategy question. until i'm satisfied that

mcchrystal is the world's expert on this.ucted exactly these surgical strikes, the late-night raids on al qaeda in iraq for four years. if there's anybody who knows -- and he was extremely successful. he killed hundreds of bad guys. if there's anybody on the planet who knows how to do it, knows all about it, knows its potential and its limitations, it's mcchrystal. he's the guy who says it can't be done. he's the guy who says unless we have the counterinsurgency strategy, boots on the ground to protect the population, like the surge in iraq, we will not succeed. so when i hear the vice president with his vast experience in this area give the counter-argument, i think i know which way i want to go. >> i don't know why the need to sort of insult vice president biden. the man was head of foreign relations. he has extensive experience in this arena. i would point out that this is a moment when you need to take stock. i disagree with dana. i don't think this is about repudiating the counterinsurgency strategy. the president is say

>> i believe he has the answer of the question he asked of general mcchrystal. why we need troops, we need troops now and he said if we failed to provide that assistance now it will be too late. >> chris: i want to play a clip from secretary of state clinton this week where she was asked about and discussed general mcchrystal's requests for more troops. >> there are other requests that are the exact opposite. >> we talked about the presidents is commander who he personally assigned to the mission six years ago. should he be one of a group of analysts that the president consults in a strategy review? >> of course, not and he isn't. he has submitted a full-blown counter insurgency structure, strategy, tactics. i have read it, too. to me, it is a ten year plan. i think the president is correct to take his time to really examine what the alternatives are at this time. true the afghanistan strategy so far has not gone well. true, about one third of afghanis are now living under some form of taliban control, that is untenable. true there is some nexxus between al-qaed

general mcchrystal made his report to president obama. one of the things he says is there's a year window in which the united states has to act in order to ensure that the insurgency doesn't basically take over the country. do you agree with that assessment? >> well, let me just put general mcchrystal's report into the broader context because it doesn't stand alone. it is part of a process. and let's look at what we've done during the last nine months under president obama's leadership. we inherited a situation. we didn't reject it out of hand. we didn't accept it out of hand. we engaged in a very thorough review. we reached some critical decisions including looking at both afghanistan and pakistan together because, of course, the threat goes back and forth across the borders. we also reaffirmed our commitment to going after al qaeda, to dismantling, defeating them. we believe and we've seen just this week here in new york, we believe that al qaeda poses a direct threat to the united states, to friends and allies throughout the world. so,

mcchrystal is this person out there. he replaced the commander on the recommendation of the secretary of defense, probably, but he replaced the commander who was in place out there. here is mcchrystal giving him the strategy that he says they need for the counterinsurgency strategy, but mcchrystal is telling him the truth. it is going to cost. now obama has to face the challenge of meeting that cost three i am not sure he has it in him to do it, quite frankly. >> colby's right. the war is being run by obama's on a general. on the 27th of march, obama made a speech flanked by the secretaries of defense and state, in which he began by saying, "today i enact a comprehensive new strategy on afghanistan." this was his strategy. for the last six months it has been his strategy. and yet he goes on all the networks and says, "we don't have a strategy -- until we have a strategy, i will not commit our troops." but he tells us six months ago that here is our new strategy, at the conclusion of our review. it is his strategy and his

i am sure you read this report by general mcchrystal. it is stunning to the bottom line is, we need troops, 30,000 to 40,000, and we need them fast. jennifer griffon is reporting today that it seems like the white house is trying to slow down the process, trying to slow down this process for as long as they can. one side says we need them and the other side says maybe we should pull back from the whole thing. >> what was in this report that a lot of people overlook is the date. it was given to the white house august 30. we're now toward the end of september. the administration has done nothing. he has been sitting on this for almost two months. it is a situation in which general mcchrystal,, you will remember was appointed by obama himself, in which general mcchrystal says this is very urgent and we have to move right now. the strategy he is proposing is very simple. it is we're in a downward spiral of violence. with a surge of american troops that can be reversed, and if it is reversed, then you can have the afghan army successfully tak

general mcchrystal will give him advice.dent obama will tell him what to do and general mcchrystal will execute that. so i'm not sure that -- why it was leaked, who leaked it, i have no idea. it was unfortunate, but it really doesn't change the relationship of the commander in chief and subordinate general. >> "the huffington post" reported today, a fellow named john perry wrote a column tuesday which later was pulled which in part said the following. imagine a bloodless coo to restore and defend the constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation, skilled military trained nation builders would replace accountability challenged radical left come sars having bonded with his twin teleprompters the president would be detailed for ceremonious speech making. is this just loony tune stuff? we all saw "seven days in may." i wonder if in this country anybody takes seriously the push for the military to grab power? >> having spent a long time in the military i do

where does al qaeda rank in mcchrystal list of who we are fighting in afghanistan?ned to hillary clinton, she said that al qaeda lies behind all of the taliban groups. there are three taliban groups outlined. it's probably the second network that has the closest affiliation not only with al qaeda but other jihadist groups. the issue is not just that. the issue is that al qaeda most people think is operating out of pakistan, operating on the outside. maybe even operating in other parts of the world. it is somewhat peripheral. you hear al qaeda less and less and less. what do you hear referenced are issues about how the taliban would run against the democracy that we hope would define a victory eventually in afghanistan. that's a very different kind of mission. something that general mcchrystal's report argues you need something on the order of near a doubling not only of afghan forces and police but also american military and european military that are deployed there. this would be a huge upgrade in america's responsibility for an outcome in afghanistan after eight y

they talked about general mcchrystal's troop requests.r griffon is at the pentagon and has a bit more information. >> essentially, that is true. we have confirmed that the meeting between mullen and mcchrystal is completed, and admiral mullein is on his way back to the united states. we understand that this was admiral mullen pose a decision at the beginning of this week, to meet mcchrystal -- this was admiral mullen's decision. so that admiral mullin could get a better sense of mcchrystal's troop request he will be putting forth for this way ahead in afghanistan. remember that the trooper class is expected to be given to defense secretary robert gates sometime today, and we're told it is likely that admiral mullein is personally hand carrying that request back with him as he returns to the united states -- it is likely that admiral mullen is personally hand carrying that request. but with all the controversy surrounding the perception, that the pentagon were asking to hold off on these troop request. admiral mullen wanted to go sit with

mcchrystal is asking for a surge. much the same way when general petraeus took command in iraq, he said, okay, president but shall i will do this this i will take this mess that is iraq right now, but i want an open checkbook, i want more men and i want to be able to do this my way. general mcchrystal saying a very similar assessment, we need to do things very differently in his opinion if there is going to be success in afghanistan, otherwise, expect failure. >> what is so interesting here, as you know, when the president took office, he ordered a top to bottom review of the strategy looking at afghanistan and pakistan, a big announcement, rolled out this strategy for afghanistan, brings mcchrystal in then mcchrystal does his assessment, now we have the president on all the sunday shows saying let me get the strategy right, figure out the resources, people saying, wait, what was that about? i thought we had a strategy. >> well what is the strategy? the strategy, according to the , is to prevent pakistan and primarily

either accept mcchrystal assessment or correct it or let's have a discussion. there is a frustration. a significant frustration. an election is marred by allegations of fraud and defined by them and the pentagon is not uniform on whether to send more troops. defense secretary gates having worried about the impact of too many u.s. troops there. let's turn to steve clemens. steve, thanks for your time tonight. >> good to be with you. >> mcchrystal's report gives the outline of one suggested strategy for which he says more troops are needed. namely focus on protecting afghans rather than use forces. is the president asking a question bigger than the strategy and namely what is the objective? >> i think that the president is. what we see mcchrystal doing and we all need to think about it is saying that the objective we're looking for is no longer just al qaeda and the way we go after bad guys is no longer just blowing them up. what's not written in the headlines is this is about a civil war. afghanis willing afghanis and afghanis we don't like setting up base for e

but that's basically what general mcchrystal has said. you give me this mission. what i need. it may be that the president's then going to rethink his strategy and say let's focus on counterterrorism. that will require less manpower, more remote type of attacks, targeted type of attacks against selected areas. but it's a risk, to be sure, to say that we're going to forego the counterinsurgency and just pursue counterterrorism. it may be a hybrid. perhaps he can reformulate it to be a hybrid so he's not locked into one or the other but some kind of combination of both. >> let me draw you to "the washington post" reporting, some of their reporting to ining tod afghanistan. really heartbreaking story on the mcchrystal strategy and the move toward protecting civilians, doing what was done in iraq, analogous to that, and not protecting the troops enough. apparently a letter was written by a retired marine corps first sergeant john bernard to one of your former colleagues, susan collins of maine. and he complained about the strategy, that it was putting the troops too m

mcchrystal wrote that he needs more forces within the next year. the 66 page document which the pentagon handed to president obama contains 16 uses of the word failure. we know this because the "the washington post" obtained a copy of it. fox news has confirmed it. mcchrystal summing up the assessment, warning, quote: trace: jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. the general putting this in some pretty blunt terms. >> that's right. but the commander is waiting to send a request for more troops, tens of thousands of them, we're told. here is what he warned in the document. quote. failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near term, next 12 months, while afghanistan security capacity matures, risks an outcome where defeating the

general mcchrystal's formal request for more troops could come by the week's end. we are trying to get jennifer griffin up on this and get some breaking information from her. ever since man landed on the moon, the big question has been, could we live on the moon? but until you hear about the new discovery that has the folks at nasa very excited. (announcer) carefree introduces protection, times ten. new carefree ultra protection liners, with wings! absorb ten times more, like a pad but feel thin and comfy, like a liner. new carefree® ultra protection™ martha: a grand jury has indicted one of three men at the center of an alleged terror plot to investigators said they found a bomb making instructions on najibullah zazi's computer. we will have the very latest in 90 seconds. one pack. 6 days. that's elations. new elations. clinically proven to improve joint comfort... in as little as six days. drinking it every day keeps it working. elations has clinically proven levels... of glucosamine and chondroitin, in a powerful form that's more absorbable... than joint supplem

general mcchrystal says without an increase the mission could fail. a report in today's washington post says president obama has not set a deadlin whether to give more troops. with us is barry mccaffrey. what's your take on this? would more troops be effective in trying to bring stability to the nation? >> contessa, the end of the day what the president has to sort out is what is his strategy. does he want to embed in the civilian population, provide local security and build an afghan army and take a decade to do it? if he does he needs more troops. >> all right. so, here we have defense secretary robert gates, he was on this week with george stephanopoulos. let me play his take on afghanistan. >> i think it's important to get the strategy right and then we can make the resources decisions, as i said i don't expect this to be a protracted process. the reality is that even if the president did decide to approve additional combat forces going into afghanistan the first forces couldn't arrive until january. >> the president said last week, general, that

general mcchrystal submitted that right here. i think the resource options peace will be in in a few days as well. before that, we also had a similar military planning conference. ambassador holbrooke and i chaired that here in washington. general mcchrystal was there as well. they have now produced a military campaign plan. that was one of the achievements of the month of july. that tactical directive that general mcchrystal refined was hugely imported. -- hugely important. strategic setbacks because of the numbers of civilians that are killed in them, in fact, the number of civilians killed has been dramatically reduced by the very rigorous implementation of that directive which governs, provides guidance on the use of close air support and other indirect fires and so on. he's also published a counter insurgency guidance that is, again, superb. you know, something similar, frankly, to what we did in iraq and we can give you copies of that at the door if you want them. there's still some in a couple of rucksacks back there, and

years of fighting, it has come to this: the american commander in afghanistan, general stanley mcchrystal, has told the president without more troops in the next 12 months the war could be lost. a grim assessment from a commander who, in front of a "60 minutes" camera, told his senior aides the reinforcements president obama has already sent have only made a slight impact on the level of violence. >> i do think that we probably have bottomed out in terms of that and it might be that we're starting to turn now, particularly in the south. >> reporter: mcchrystal's assessment, submitted five days after that meeting, says the taliban insurgency is resilient and growing and the afghan government shot through with widespread corruption and abuse of power. as for u.s. and allied forces, an overreliance on firepower has killed too many civilians and severely damaged their legitimacy in the eyes of the afghan people. >> this assessment is stark in every sense of the term. >> reporter: cbs news consultant juan zarate says mcchrystal is calling for a whole new level of commitment to afghanistan. >>

mcchrystal warns the real challenge is changing the way it's seen by afghans. unless it moves from killing insurgents to protecting the afghans, for many it will remain an occupying army. the nurnls cannot defeat us, mcchrystal says, but we can defeat ourselves. >> that was from our british partner itn. >>> now, to italy where this was a national day of mourning for six italian troops killed last week in afghanistan. in rome, thousands came to pay their respects at a state funeral for the soldiers. applauding in a traditional sign of respect as the coffins were brought into the basilica. in one of the most moving moments, a 7-year-old son of one of the soldiers touched his father's coffin while an elderly woman said good-bye in her own way. all of it a very public display not often seen in the united states, as the war hits home in italy, and the country finds itself in a period of soul searching which we hear about in this report from deutsche welle. spontaneous applause broke out as the coffins arrived at rome's military hospital. people gathered in the hundr

general mcchrystal, the head of u.s. forces here, issued orders in july that aircraft are not to fire unless they can confirm that no civilians are in the area. the statement by nato today said they observed that only insurgents were in the area. the observation was a combination of aerial observation by nato planes and local observation on the ground from afghan forces in the pitch dark. whether those orders by general mcchrystal were followed by the letter, i presume, will be part of the investigation. >> prime minister gordon brown will pledge that british troops will stay in afghanistan until the country can maintain its security. gordon brown visited british troops in afghanistan last weekend. he will try to convince the skeptical public that the mission is not just about protecting afghanistan from terrorism, but the whole international community. the defense correspondent of the london evening standard newspaper joins us in the studio. i suppose this shows how difficult a job gordon brown has. this is a controvers

general mcchrystal thinks one thing and president obama another thing. so this is a strategic mismatch here. a complicated problem and americans frankly don't pay a lot of attention to it. if americans aren't paying attention, the media is not really going to push it out there so i think this debate has gotten american's attention, it's political, it's interesting, but this has been a mainly strategic mismatch for a long time. >> we have to take break, but first, lots of extras available to you on our website, including some of the spirited discussions that erupt in here during our break. you can hear them after the show at foxnews.com/fox news watch. we'll be back in two minutes to talk about the president and his media blitz. >> a week long obama-thon comes to answered. >> he's been on everything, but the food channel. >> has the media given the president too much for too little? then the world's leaders and jokers converge on the u.n. as the new york press go to town. all next on news watch. . >> rick: the obama tv blitz started with the sunday talk s

mcchrystal was on "60 minutes" last night.e lost in afghanistan, how that would really help recruitment for al- qaeda. >> the taliban and al-qaeda, as far as they're concerned, defeated one superpower. for them to be seen to defeat a second would have catastrophic consequences in terms of energizing the extremist movement, al-qaeda recruitment, operations, fundraisingg, and so long. it would be a huge setback for the united states. steve: mcchrystal these more troops on the ground over there. why is the administration taking so long? >> first, i agree with bob gates. anything like kate black of withdrawal or a pullback in afghanistan would -- anything like a lack of withdrawal would reenergize al-qaeda and all related terrorist groups. what is happening now -- i think it was for the revealed in the statement apparently made by mcchrystal last night that only once in 70 days had he talked to the commander-in-chief. apparently, president obama is not comfortable with being commander-in-chief. he wants to dally on deciding whethe

he broke the mcchrystal story, of course. stay with us. have the must read opinion pages straight ahead. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. >> the president and others speaking on their behalf said to you, you should not run. >> i can't say that, david. there are people who have told me not to run. there are a lot of people who have told me not to run. >> but the white house specifically said don't run? >> i don't know that. >> you don't know that? you certainly know you don't have their support. >> well, david, the white house has a country to run, and i have a state to run. and there's politics that go on all the time. i'm blind, but i'm not oblivious. announcer: in today's markets how can you get your investments heading in the right direction? at oppenheimerfunds, our fund managers' perspective on the numbers helps uncover opportunities no matter which way the markets are moving. ask your advisor about oppenheimerfunds. call your advisor for a prospectus with complete fund information. read it carefully and carefully co

should general mcchrystal come to washington to make his case for more troops.ave very publicly the mcchrystal report that has been leaked suggesting failure without more troops. general petraeus in a speech in washington saying failure without more troops, yet on the front page of the "new york times" a story that says biden and others advising the president for a change in strategy and the president might not send more troops. does this put the president in a politically difficult situation if he ignores or does not take the advice of his own generals. >> no matter what happens here and jennifer will agree with me, the president is in a difficult political decision. many believe the leak strategy memo shows that the president -- that there are a lot of very tough options here. if anything, the president can then at least condition the political environment, can inform many of those who are opposed to him and some allies that there are no easy decisions here. when he does make one it will have at least shown on both sides that the president took all these argum

if mcchrystal has a number, the white house already knows it. and that is suspected to be one of the reasons that obama doesn't want to officially receive it, because he may not want to agree to put in that many more troops that mcchrystal is apparently requesting. >> and quickly, mick, correct me if i'm wrong, but for the past eight years, we've had a situation under president bush, where generally what the generals have requested, the president has said, okay, and signed off on those numbers. is that true? >> well, you know, not exactly. as general mcchrystal says in his report, the effort -- the war effort in afghanistan has been historically underresourced and he warns if it continues to be underresourced, then, in fact, it is likely that the u.s. policy there, the war effort, would fail. and during the campaign, you'll recall that candidate obama, and after that, president obama also agreed that the war effort in afghanistan had been underresourced, because much of the u.s. military efforts had been diverted to the war in iraq by the bush a

. >> general stanley mcchrystal, commander of u.s.s in afghanistan, believes without more troops his mission will fail. the number is largely known and republicans accuse the white house of slow walking the decision, likely to be unpopular with liberals. >> we all know that's around 30,000 or 40,000. not to send a 'em dation as to what is needed to make up the resources as to what is needed is not acceptable. >> mccain says the president promised in march to do whatever was necessary -- >> to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al qaeda in afghanistan and prevent their return to either country in the future. >> the pentagon says mr. obama also promised to regularly as assess the strategy in afghanistan. >> this is a natural reassessment point. this is a natural time to review how far we have come, what still needs to be done and what the best way of achieving our ultimate goals is. >> republicans believe mcchrystal's assessment suggests time is not on our side. >> what will happen is we will miss the window of getting more troops into the t

general stanley mcchrystal, the new american commander in afghanistan is about to ask president obama to send him tens of thousands more troops. senior military officers compare mcchrystal's expected request to the surge of 30,000 troops sent to iraq in 2007. that has clearly given the president pause. >> i'm going to take a very deliberate process in making those decisions and so i just want to be absolutely clear there is no immediate decision pending on resources. >> reporter: mcchrystal's request for everything from combat food to trainers to engineers could add up to more than the iraq surge and would take at least a year to carry out. before the president approves any of it, he first must sign off on mcchrystal's new counterinsurgency strategy. it focuses on protecting the population from the taliban and delivering services the afghan government has so far failed to provide. >> certainly you don't make determinations about sending young men and women into battle without having absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be. >> reporter: members of the president's own pa

to listen to general mcchrystal, he believes it is achievable and we can succeed. that said, it is complex and tough. we are losing people, as everybody knows. yet that is the mission that president has given us in the military, and it is the one that we are very fixed on carrying out. >> you don't fear that congress -- how do you feel that congress is going to respond to the resource request that will come? >> congress will respond as they see fit with respect to that. i am very aware of the debate. i'm a vietnam veteran, raised in a country that actually cherishes that debate. that said, for a military perspective, again, we have a mission that we are doing the best we possibly can to carry out. >> secretary gates, you have said repeatedly in the past that you are concerned about the size of our footprint in afghanistan. in the middle of all this talk about urgency, we have to prove ourselves free quickly are you changing your view on the size of the footprint as it is clear that general mcchrystal ask for more troops -- [unintelligible] >> i will not speculate a

bill: mcchrystal gets on there.ayed the sound bite earlier. >> i read the interview. >> he is asked, mcchrystal is asked how often do you talk to president obama and he says once, once in 70 days that i have been here. once. i just -- my neck whipped back in my chair. i went, what? now, today gates and the pentagon said look, that's the way we want it we want a chain of command. we don't want him calling mcchrystal. i just went whoa. do you have that reaction? >> i went on to say this about it. i don't think it's always necessary for the commander in chief to talk to the field commanders, but i do think in the situation that the president is in now, where he has this terrible dilemma on afghanistan, he and his party have been climbing out on this limb on afghanistan as being the necessary war for years now, it's not going to be that easy to retrench on that if they decide -- the commander in the field has now made this recommendation as to how to carry out of what obama indicated he wanted done. if he hasn't -- it m

general mcchrystal has been very clear about that in his report. but he does say that it is going to require more troops to train afghans. we've got some difficult pockets of the taliban in afghanistan that have got to be uprooted much like we did in ramadi and other provinces in iraq. and we can... we're going to have to do that ultimately to be successful militarily. but just sending more troops is not going to do it. but if general mcchrystal says he's got to have more troops with the new strategy in place, then i think we're going to have to send more troops to him. >> brown: let me ask senator levin, how much is hamid karzai and the election a complicating factor in the decision as to the american commitment here? how do you make the link between the political situation there and the military situation? >> well, it obviously complicates it. one of the reasons why the president wants to take some additional time is to hear not just from general mcchrystal about the impact of that election. also from others on that question. that was election wh

perhaps the agreement was that general mcchrystal would outline it as he saw them, whether that strategy was working or not. it is hard to tell who begins the report to or sends it to or what have you, but it is out there. in due course then, after the president of the united states and his administration had examined this, there would be a decision and a request even for more troops or we would not be sending more troops, we would be doing something else. that second letter or paper by general mcchrystal was not to be forthcoming, and the first one was therefore generally examined. those of us on the foreign relations committee in the senate were waiting at the time for the week in "the washington post" about what general mcchrystal had to say. we have bits and pieces of it now. but at the same time, we have not seen the whole thing. at some point, the political system in this country works in ways that reflect the public of the united states, so at this stage, i would suspect we will have to get that decision making process in the white house to go a little swifter and some recommendat

general mcchrystal says more are needed. he warned it is realistic to expect that afghan and coalition casualties will increase. this is the key to troop numbers. the training of afghans to fight the insurance themselves. the current plan is to boost the afghan national army to 134,000 by the end of 2011. the general says that needs to happen much more quickly, by october of next year. the sense of urgency is not limited to the military. >> we have to have an institution-building program. we have to demonstrate that over the next few months. , it is a hard sell. last month plus presidential elections were designed to entrench afghanistan's transition to democracy. there have been allegations of fraud. general mcchrystal's request for troops comes at a time of growing political skepticism in washington, which many asking why coalition troops are being asked to fight and die here in afghanistan for government whose democratic legitimacy is questionable. the military imperative may be urgent, but the political doubt is also acc

now, the mcchrystal can only wait, to see if the president accepts his conditions. the facts that 51% of americans do not believe the war is worth fighting, it appears that president obama is moving towards redefining the mission. martha raddatz, abc news, new york. >>> on capitol hill, a key senate committee takes up the long-delayed health care reform bill today. the head of the senate finance committee was refizing the measure to address concerns from fellow democrats and key republicans, about insurance costs. included in the changes is cutting in half the penalty people would pay if they don't buy insurance. >>> in massachusetts, state lawmakers could approve as early as today, a bill allowing the governor to name a replacement for the late ted kennedy. and speculation has centers around this man, former governor, michael dukakis. if chosen, he would serve until a special election next year. >> fall is beginning today. but it's looking like christmas in colorado. the last day of summer brought snow to the mountains in the western part of the state. it was accom

now, according to general mcchrystal, quote: general mcchrystal delivered this startling assessment to the secretary of defense on august 30th. yet, there have been no changes in our military strategy and it is only thanks to the post that the american public even knows of the report's contents. why is the situation that is so pairment receiving so little public attention from this president? perhaps, he is too occupied with passing a health care bill that the american people don't want has he put national security on the back burner? joining me now with reaction to all of this is arizona senator john mccain. senator, good to see you. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, sean. sean: that is a dire warning. your reaction, sir. >> i had the same warning when i visited afghanistan. and i have also -- we had the same dire warning from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and testimony before the senate armed services committee. it's serious and every day that goes by that we don't send the much-needed additional troops over there, it puts the 68,000 troops that are already there in