this is general mccrystal and general petraeus, who have dedicated a life not only to serving the nation but also to protecting the soldiers and marines and sailors in their commands, and they're the ones who think this is the most effective way to wage this fight. >> we hope you tune in for c-span's "newsmakers" program. senator jack reed and also the committee chair of the emerging threats subcommittee, the entire interview, at 10:00 and again this evening at 6:00, 3:00 for our west coast viewers. good morning, thanks for joining us. your piece this morning, obama press for a faster surge. 25 hours of meetings, ten sessions. what surprised you the most as you reported on this? guest: that there were a coupful of clear turning points. one of which was the determination in october that the taliban could not be defeated as general mccrystal has set out to do as he was told to do. and i was also surprised, although we knew some of this in real time, of the passions in that room, the real divisions between particularly between civilian and military advisers. and then the idea that obama, wh

and i would just ask you, are you saying to this committee that all general mccrystal ever wanted was 30,000 troops to wage the war that he is having to wage now? so mr. secretary, i'd give you that time and then admiral mullen. >> first of all, with respect to the 30-year aviation plan and ship-building plan, it was important for us to be able to get a five-year defense plan from the administration so that we had some predictability. and we are in the process of doing that. the five-year defense plan has been put forward. it was not for fy10. i can provide you that kind of -- i can provide you a list. it'll be meaningless because we don't know. we don't know what the resources will be until we get the -- >> mr. secretary, and again, i don't mean to bankrupt you. -- interrupt. the law is if you submit a plan, if we have a new plan we need to know it when we have a plan when we're voting for it. the reason the law requires it is because it's important that we know that, one, we have a plan and what this budget is trying to reach in that plan. so with all due respect, i would have appre

general mccrystal wrote on august 30 that the next 12 months were critical yet one quarter of that time is already gone. there are risks and costs to action. but, they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction. now that the president has articulated the approach, we must fully commit to doing everything possible to succeed there. i ask that our distinguished witnesses address the following. what are the key differences between the strategy that the president articulated yesterday and those that he articulated last march? what action is the administration taking to ensure that those who have pledged to provide multilateral and bilateral assistance to afghanistan actually fulfill their commitments? and what is our anti-corruption strategy in afghanistan? what is our strategy for promoting a more capable, accountable and effective government in afghanistan. what is the strategy for expanding the numbers and building the capacity of the afghan security forces? what is our strategy in supporting afghanistan in dismantling narcotics traffickers. i would like to refer to a

mccrystal -- general mcchrystal, excuse me, and the ambassador. >> we, of course, have done that in thepast. we will do our best in the future. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you so much. mr. andrews? >> thank you, mr. chairman. good morning, general, good morning, ambassador. thank you for your service. general, ambassador, do you agree with the statement that there is not a robust al qaeda presence in afghanistan today? >> in terms of numbers, there is not a robust al qaeda presence. in terms of the ability linkages to people like the hikani network through surrogates, in fact they do have significant linkage in influence. >> in your written testimony on page two, general, you say that our core goal of defeating al qaeda and preventing their return to afghanistan. return from where? >> there are many locations. their primary location in that area is pakistan. >> i thought you'd say that. and what's the plan with respect then to al qaeda sanctuaries in pakistan? let me just play a devil's advocate question right now. it's there is a robust al qaeda presence both qualitatively and quantita