president, about an interview i did with former president musharraf a few months ago. asked him specifically about whether or not he believed that you were somebody who could be partnered with and trusted. and as you know, he is still quite influential within the pakistani military establishment. and he essentially said no. what would be your response to that? >> well, i -- i said pakistan is a twin brother, and president musharraf when he was the president had a fairly good working relationship with us. and i have respect for him. and i think the trust between the two nations is something that's the verdict of -- of history and one that we need to have among us. >> you're a better diplomat than he is, mr. president. >> oh, i'm -- he's a capable person, too. very capable. >> mr. president, if you could just hold on a minute, we will be back. and when we're back, we will have more of this conversation with president hamid karzai about afghanistan, pakistan, the american drawdown. but also a troubling case -- a woman who was raped and then sentenced to 12 years for being

>> i never had reason to believe that president musharraf was involved in neglect like that. i think there was a general view that bin laden was in remote -- some remote section of pakistan, not just a short ways from islamabad. i think what was startling was to find he was living where he was. he wasn't hiding in a cave someplace. there was a lot of the imagery that somehow he had gone underground figuratively. i had no -- in my dealings with president musharraf -- and i dealt with him quite a bit -- to question his commitment to the work he was doing with us, to help us deal with the threat that had emerged from pakistan. i think he came to believe that al qaeda types threatened him personally as well as his regime as much as it did the united states, and that was true. two or three attempts on his life in a matter of weeks by al qaeda or al qaeda affiliated organizations, while he was still president. >> another question? yes, sir. right down here in front: >> mr. vice president, my name is jason stern. i'm a graduate student of middle east studies at george washington uni

nearly every road there is covered with snow because musharraf much . anyone venturing across this. has to make their way through snowy forests over the rivers and lakes in the old days local people use dog sleds it was the only reliable means of transportation. people managing. both the owners and the drivers of the dogs together with the tourists they were about to set expedition for with many extreme challenges. the goal is to call the way to fun tame snow to a designated point in the arctic circle. will they cope with the rigors of the journey to reach their destination. the small village of color valor is the starting point to the arduous expedition it stretches along the bank of lake quito in the north of the republic of korea. early in the morning twenty people driving five dog teams and nine snowmobiles are ready to set off season travelers and thirty sled dog huskies are joined by journalists and extreme tourism enthusiastic the snowmobiles will take the lead. their task is to look for a convenient track and pave the way over deep snow dr james then followed in their wake.

and then we had president muinsum muinsum mu -- musharraf asking us not to make him choose.aadam hussein said he would ruward the families of su -- reward the families of suicide bombees for their acts. people in every country of the world part of democracies that were saying "u.s.a., u.s.a.." the world did unite after the attacks on september 11. the world challenged saddam hussein to live up to the promises to end the first gulf world. president bush said there has to be a consequence. no one was surprised when it arrived. >> even if there wasn't the faulty intelligence on the weapon in mass destruction. we probably would have went to war in iraq. >> reeember, the entire world thought he did have the weapons of mass destruction or means to get them quickly help he used them against his own people and easily said to the weapons inspectors, take a look. meet with ho you want to meet with. don't be locked in your hotel -proom all the time. take a look. he wanted a perception that he had them. i am convinced the entire world thought he did. there was a healthy debate, kind of

>> i never had reason to believe that president musharraf was involved in neglect like that.think there was a general view that bin laden was in remote -- some remote section of pakistan, not just a short ways from islamabad. i think what was startling was to find he was living where he was. he wasn't hiding in a cave someplace. there was a lot of the imagery that somehow he had gone underground figuratively. i had no -- in my dealings with president musharraf -- and i dealt with him quite a bit -- to question his commitment to the work he was doing with us, to help us deal with the threat that had emerged from pakistan. i think he came to believe that al qaeda types threatened him personally as well as his regime as much as it did the united states, and that was true. two or three attempts on his life in a matter of weeks by al qaeda or al qaeda affiliated organizations, while he was still president. >> another question? yes, sir. right down here in front: >> mr. vice president, my name is jason stern. i'm a graduate student of middle east studies at george washington univer

>> i never had reason to believe that president musharraf was involved in neglect like that.i think there was a general view that bin laden was in remote -- some remote section of pakistan, not just a short ways from islamabad. i think what was startling was to find he was living where he was. he wasn't hiding in a cave someplace. there was a lot of the imagery that somehow he had gone underground figuratively. i had no -- in my dealings with president musharraf -- and i dealt with him quite a bit -- to question his commitment to the work he was doing with us, to help us deal with the threat that had emerged from pakistan. i think he came to believe that al qaeda types threatened him personally as well as his regime as much as it did the united states, and that was true. two or three attempts on his life in a matter of weeks by al qaeda or al qaeda affiliated organizations, while he was still president. >> another question? yes, sir. right down here in front: >> mr. vice president, my name is jason stern. i'm a graduate student of middle east studies at george washington univ

in other words we don' have a musharraf running the government but it isn't far from that in terms of the inuence the military has. i know people pointed to the isi but you know who ran the isi before the general. >> charlie: yes. >> so i've had many conversations with general -- >> charlie: what does he say. somebody explain to me when you bring this up does he say you don't understand our problems or does he say simply not true, general, i promise you if i knew about it i would not allow this to happen. >> a combination of things. the third one would be you left us hanging in the most and we have no faith in you that you're going to stay and you're going to do what -- >> charlie: and you'll do your best. >> we're covering our best and play all sides against the middle. >> charlie:he says that. >> the last part is mine but the first part was his. >> charlie: right. the implication is clear. >> exactly. we talked, we talked at great length about the opportunity that existed with president obama, prime minister shingh in india. there were a network of leaders willing to do a lot of thi

"if we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and president musharraf won't act, we will." how can romney possibly hope to have a leg up on president obama when it comes to national security when there are such distinct examples about credentials and acting on them? >> he can't possibly hope to have a leg up. the fact is that if you look at any opinion polling, even in times when the president's had difficulties over the economy, although that's getting better, people have given him enormous credit as commander in chief. they have huge trust in him to conduct this fight against terrorism. and romney himself i think -- you know, he was governor of massachusetts. he's relatively unschooled in foreign policy. he kind of makes it up as it goes along. the thing that's interesting about the president is people worried that he didn't have enough experience, that that phone was going to ring at 3:00 in the morning, he wasn't going to give the right answer. on question after question after question, whether it's going after bin laden, finally keeping the commitment to

it was clear under president musharraf's leadership that pakistan was not dealing effectively with a number of problems. one of the many paradoxes with pakistan is there are more than enough pakistanis. i did not think his leadership was effective or that he could overcome institutional barriers. pakistan is important for many reasons. the project that led to this vote was an attempt to look ahead beyond the immediate crisis. i have written that pakistan is mired in crisis. it has been one crisis after another. we wanted to take a medium-range look at pakistan, so there were pakistanis, americans, indians. some were ambassadors. some were academics and young scholars as well. to each i posed two questions. in their judgment, what were the key factors that might shape pakistan's future? the answers are in the book. we want to thank the key is building foundation and several individuals for their support. i want to thank the contributors to this book. we are fortunate to have several contributors with us and several who have written their own books on pakistan. they have all recently p

that is not going to be a repeat of the musharraf era or it will be something more subtle and more nuanced than that. but i think in many ways it is another military dictatorship and dictatorship means there's a group in power that makes decisions irrelevant to what the popular vote, what the popular majority is and what the elected government is and i think that that's a phenomena we're increasingly seeing in today's pakistan. she laid out the notion of the four-legged pakistani political system which has been in essence for the last three years. i think we're seeing a qualitative change in the power of those four legs underway today. now some will say this was always inevitable, that the zadari government because of the nature who the president was, nature how it came to power was probably doom to fail but that's clear in retrospect as it was in 2008 or 2009. some with will say sadari's weaknesses and they're profound and go to the very core of the politician that he is made all of this inevitable but that i think too is the benefit of to/20 hindsight. the new military dictatorship that