>> quite frankly, that is part of general mchrystal's strategy is initiate those tall bab -- i guessy are not the central corps most other doxed taliban leadership but, instead, they join with the taliban either out of financial necessity, or out of their own self-preservation because when the taliban moves into an area, you're either with him wthem or you're against them and it could become very dangerous, if not deadly, for any of the locals who have no security of their own to resist the taliban efforts. so generally mchrystal believes that you can actually bring some of those part-time into the fold but you have to provide reasonable -- so that they will in fact, come over to the other side and therein lies the rub. that is very man power intensify meaning additional forces and that is exactly what general mchrystal is expected to ask for pretty soon. >> thank you. >> listen up. >>> new information how your child should be imu nised against the swine flu. protection kicks in within eight to ten days. the study shows children under age 10 should get two shots, 21 days apart. obvio

they have great admiration for the general mchrystal. the army is concerned about the stress on the force with just now troops are just beginning to draw down in iraq and what will happen now after eight years of work. he has done more to afghanistan. so there's a lot of discussion even within the military about this. i should say that the chairman of the joint chiefs is jech behind general mchrystal on this question. >> the two of them just met in germany when he received that request. thank you so much for sharing your reporting today. >> a second wave of the swine flu slams the united states much so that some hospitals are actually forced to set up tents to handle the patients. it hasn't been the headline but the story has not gone away. a lot of people are asking, though, where is that vaccine? >>> a mother finds out she's pregnant with two babies, but they may not be twins so what is the deal and how will they be delivered? >>> plus a new show joins the nbc lineup and no lack of drama in this one. one of those new stars of "trauma"

what general mchrystal has recommended is ramping up that effort very quickly and with significantlyopt a full counterinsurgency strategy that would build up the afghan government, build up the afghan economy, whale, while, at the same time, proceeding security for afghans and do that in a very comprehensive way, that we can't win. >> and to do that in a comprehensive way, though, seems to call for not only far more troops but far more time. we hear more and more about the afghan government being ripe with corruption. how could you possibly reform in 12 months' time? >> this is the major fly in the ointment right now, because of the disputed afghan elections and the fact that it doesn't look like there is going to be a government that is recognized by the united states and its allies or, more significantly, by the afghan people that is legitimate any time soon. on the one hand it gives the administration a little bit more breathing room to make a decision. on the other hand, it eliminates a lot of possibilities because whatever strategy they decide on depends, in a large part, on hav

so mchrystal is not operating in a vacuum in afghanistan alone.ne attacks against al qaeda targets inside pakistan, and some indication that the pakistani military is, in fact, becoming more aggressive and trying to take down some of those militant organizations within pakistan because they see that as a threat to their own government and stability of their country. so it's just not afghanistan. this is a pakistan/afghanistan strategy, a war which president obama has said the u.s. must win. >> understood. bringing in the panel, most notely, retired army general mont gomry meeks. mike allen and ann cornblue here. general, if the mission of u.s. forces in afghanistan or in the middle east in general is to protect u.s. interests from direct attack from nuclear, chemical and biological is the current strategy the best to protect all of us that live in new york, washington, los angeles, or around the world from a nuclear chemical and biological attack and is there a better way to do? >> there is a better way to do it because that is not the objective a

general stanley mchrystal telling "60 minutes" quote. white house is now admitting it's self-imposed deadline to close guantanamo bay may not have been realistic. four months left to reach its goal the administration is trying to regroup and cover from earlier missteps that have put the process behind skaul schedule. nbc correspondents jim miklaszewski is at the pentagon. sort of a shake-up here. the man who had been in charge of the process, gregory craig has been removed from the moth. now what is he doing? >> the white house is going to come up with all sorts of reasons why they are going to miss that one-year deadline to close guantanamo bay but there is really only one factor at play here. and that is the fact that after many months of searching, the u.s. military, the pentagon, the administration, could not find a single state in all 50 to be willing to accept these detainees. now, ultimately, right now, they are holding 225 day teen yeas at guantanamo bay and they ultimately hope to put many on trial, ship many more off to other c

munition we decided not the way to do it and the guy running the whole operation now, general stan mchrystal, an old special operations guy, was hired specifically because he has a great deal of experience not just dropping bombs to kill bad guys, but, instead coalesce in certain areas to shore up the local governments and the local tribal chieftains and to eliminate through work in that reason, not just military work, but also social work and economic work to increase the capability of the local -- the local chieftains to control their area and keep the taliban and al qaeda away. just dropping bombs on people has already proved to the defense department's satisfaction, that isn't going to work. >> retired army colonel jack jacobs, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >>> in massachusetts, they are gearing up for a contentious hearing over whether the governor should be allowed to appoint interim replacement for ted kennedy's senate seat. the governor says the state should have two voices in the senate now and not have to wait until that special election which has been scheduled

. >>> over the weekend, secretary gates refused to back general mchrystal's request to add thousandss. troops. instead, gates said getting the strategy right is of the utmost importance. he says the president will make that determination within weeks. >>> a story breaking first on nbc news. president obama will travel to denmark to try to help chicago get the bid for 2016 olympics. the city will be awarded the rights this week. >>> here is some interesting video. the pope speaking saturday afternoon. you can see we circled it there. it's a spider! it's crawling all over the pontiff. it crawled on the pope's shoulder and other shoulder, then made his way towards his face before the pope finally swatted god's little creature away. we love bugs here. they are always crawling over the big screen behind you, dylan. why not show them in all of their glory? >> i don't know that we love bugs. >> we do! we love bugs! >> they certainly love us. >> that's true. >>> straight ahead on the "morning meeting," the iranian threat has not changed. if anything, it's escalated since the bush years. so h

it comes as the president waits for general mchrystal's official request for thousands more troops.oins us from the pentagon. was this really surprising how quickly the violence spread? >> well, you know, the u.s. military strategy is aimed at actually trying to tamp down that increase in violence and as 21,000 additional troops were put into iraq or are being put into afghanistan, i'm sorry, we're in the process of doing that, it was expected that the violence would rise because u.s. military forces are venturing out into areas, enemy territory where they really had no presence before, so that's not unexpected. however, what was unexpected is they are confronting a much more sophisticated taliban enemy than they had before and some of that violence has spread to areas in the west and northwest where the taliban had no presence before and it's estimated, as a matter of fact, that taliban, they have some control over 80% of afghanistan right now. >> jim, thank you. >>> u.s. strategy in afghanistan will be a key topic on "meet the press" this sunday. moderator david gregory brings jon