i have michael o'hanlon who will weigh in as well. he may be earlier point that the fact that this vote even happened made it significant. guest: that's right. a lot of people give president karzai credit for that. he has earned their faith in recent months. down,voluntarily stepping which is a huge achievement and afghanistan. there is a history of installed leaders, with taliban rule at monarchy. i agree.: resident karzai, we put him on a pedestal in 2002 and decided he would be the man in afghanistan. we did not help them build a strong army but we gave them a lot of money. we gave him more lords to make the country -- we get the money to buy off warlords to keep the country stable but then we call this corruption. the american views on karzai have changed more than karzai himself. he is a leader whose time has come and gone, he has had some accomplishments but it is good he is stepping down. he has done some good things and one more thing with letting the hastion process unfold, he also cap and ethnic cohesion in the country, he h

i have michael o'hanlon who will weigh in as well. he may be earlier point that the fact that this vote even happened made it significant. guest: that's right. a lot of people give president karzai credit for that. he has earned their faith in recent months. down,voluntarily stepping which is a huge achievement and afghanistan. there is a history of installed leaders, with taliban rule at monarchy. i agree.: resident karzai, we put him on a pedestal in 2002 and decided he would be the man in afghanistan. we did not help them build a strong army but we gave them a lot of money. we gave him more lords to make the country -- we get the money to buy off warlords to keep the country stable but then we call this corruption. the american views on karzai have changed more than karzai himself. he is a leader whose time has come and gone, he has had some accomplishments but it is good he is stepping down. he has done some good things and one more thing with letting the hastion process unfold, he also cap and ethnic cohesion in the country, he h

later, a look at the recent afghan presidential election with the brookings institution's michael o'hanlon. >> this week on q&a, author and former rolling stone columnist matt taibbi discusses his new book, "the divide, american justice in the wealth gap". >>

host: i have michael o'hanlon who will weigh in as well. he may be earlier point that the fact that this vote even happened made it significant. guest: that's right. a lot of people give president karzai credit for that. he has earned their faith in recent months. he is voluntarily stepping down, which is a huge achievement and afghanistan. there is a history of installed leaders, with taliban rule at monarchy. host:guest: i agree. resident karzai, we put him on a pedestal in 2002 and decided he would be the man in afghanistan. we did not help them build a strong army but we gave them a lot of money. we gave him more lords to make the country -- we get the money to buy off warlords to keep the country stable but then we call this corruption. the american views on karzai have changed more than karzai himself. he is a leader whose time has come and gone, he has had some accomplishments but it is good he is stepping down. he has done some good things and one more thing with letting the election process unfold, he has also cap and ethnic cohesi

michael o'hanlon, you have written about the crimean peninsula. i want to talk about another topic. this is from the "new york times ," chuck hagel is in japan. this ties in the crimean situation with new concerns in long promised's to support japan from hostile nations has suddenly come under the microscope, the american response to the russian takeover of crimea, which the president condemned while ruling out american military action, has caused deep concerns among the already skittish japanese officials. know, i think i will give the obama administration some good credit. they had to strike a balance and you had to be firm in dealing has donen and what he but you also did not want to so overdo it that you created a complete rift between moscow and washington. andneeded to show americans asian allies and european allies, if he does this in a place we don't have an alliance with, like the ukraine, and even if the russians think they have claim to this area, at some level, this kind of forcible annexation is not tolerable. but there is no point in disrupting our agreements with russ

later, a look at the recent afghan presidential election with the brookings institution's michael o'hanlon. >> this week on q&a, author and former rolling stone columnist matt taibbi discusses his new book, "the divide, american justice in the wealth gap". >> i just want to read a couple post" did an article about you in 2005 and lines. tell us what your approach is. ohio.sswoman from who called martha a courd. a wrinkly d to her >> >> one of the things that happens when you try to cover inside politics, a lot of these pics are basically inaccessible to broad audiences. if you want to talk about congressional procedure. inaccessible to >> is this person that's that sort of character and there is a good guy over here and it allows them to follow the story . there is a term paper which will >> is this person that's that sort of character and there is a good guy over here and it allows them to follow the story . there is a term paper which will put them to sleep. >> the other side of the political system gets the same treatment, you say on harry reid, the senate democratic leader from nevada,

i am michael o'hanlon, we have a very distinguished group of american and afghan individuals and officialso talk with us -- former officials and continued scholars and experts on afghanistan to talk about the transitions underway. this upcoming saturday is afghanistan's presidential election. it will probably not be a conclusive first round, there will more likely than not be a runoff. one will ultimately get a majority in the late spring or even sooner. we will talk more about those details in a second. we have -- seatedd from your left to right, former ambassador ron nuemann, career foreign service officer and ambassador also in bahrain and algeria. he and his father were both ambassadors to afghanistan, making them along with the adams the only father-son team to be ambassador to the same country. it indicates the depth of commitment by this family to this important country. ron continues to be very active in his interests in afghanistan. he and i were there recently on a research trip and he has been many times since being ambassador. general john allen was the commander of internation

security challenges in pakistan today the brookings institution foreign-policy research to victor michael o'hanlon moderated the discussion yesterday. >> good afternoon everyone. i'm froi am from the brookings institution foreign-policy program and we are here at an event in carnegie space and we are grateful to our friends for hosting us today. to my right is another scholar who is an expert on afghanistan and is one of the countries all in difficult parts of the world and difficult challenges she spent much of her career working on including a couple of excellent books about counternarcotics into the topic of the current research project she wrote a book about afghanistan called aspiration and end of the lens and was going to be an observer in last month's first round until violence precluded that which is a natural starting point for some of the discussion i know she is going to get into it about what has been going on in these last few weeks. next to her is the ambassador retired foreign service officer who spent more of the difficult years and most difficult place you could imagine as u.s. am

next to me is michael o'hanlon, a director of research here at foreign-policy studies and has published many books, more than i have actually read. even this week his most recent book is out which is resolving relation to the 21st century. he could wait for the movie but i think you probably should not. of my other side is ken lieberthal. he was. the director of our it torrent and china center and a professor at the university of michigan. he is also the signature chipper asia during the clinton administration. and oh my far left is jonathan pollack, a senior fellow at the thornton center in east asia studies. and an expert on chinese national security strategy and u.s./china relations. to start off, i'm going to ask the panel a few question and see if there are any connections between the issues. i would like to start with you if you do not mind. the crisis and crimea and ukraine is occupying a lots of the time and attention of u.s. officials. i think it is coming into question some of the declared strategic trailer tease of the obama administration including the pivot to asia. do you