robert: nancy youssef our friend covers the pentagon and joins us from washington. this was a dramatic about face for the president. who convinced him to change course? nancy: there were a number of factors that came into play for the president. remember, and as he said himself, that it's quite different when you're in office versus campaigning. he came into an afghanistan that while a strategy wasn't yielding any definitive measures of success, there had not been any major, 9/11 planned attacks from afghanistan. and so that, coupled with the fact that he had a general, general nicholson the commander in afghanistan, asking for 4,000 troops and not say 30,000 troops as president obama confronted in 2009, allowed for an incremental increase in the troop presence there. that coupled with the fact that he gave greater responsibility to the pentagon to determine the number of troops and the way the war was prosecuted puts the burden back on the pentagon and not just on him. so from the president's perspective it was less risky to have this incremental increase than to w

we explore it awful with yeganeh torbati of reuters, nancy youssef of buzzfeed, michael duffy of time magazine, and alexis simendinger of real clear politics. >> celebrating 50 years this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> we've all been affected by cancer. some way, some how. dana-farber cancer institutes is pursuing break throughs every day like identifying genetic mutations for targeted therapies and teaching your immune system to attack cancer cells by using information in completely new ways. we're cracking the cancer cold. learn more at discover, care believe.org. >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today. and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen through the ue -- yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. th

this is nancy youssef saying -- dean, louisville, kentucky, independent line p hi.eterani'm a vietnam and i think we are to get out because [indiscernible] and when is the war going to and? 100 years from now? they need to do what they did during the vietnam war, have a draft. [indiscernible] donald trump is getting deferments. they are more interested in making their millions and us being killed. thank you. host: here is helen, hi. .aller: hi my first comment on trump's speech is he led in with the old with the axis of evil will congress. -- will conquer us. is, our biggest war is not fighting afghanistan. it is fighting the war to win back our republic. we need to fight for our republic come our nation. it is internal. we are going to disappear into a we have nothing but self-serving politicians in washington dc -- and washington, d.c. we the people have been marginalized. as for all those people who called in and said my family is in the military and i support trump at my son was in the marines from 2004 2008. you tell me an 18-year-old is fully copper handing wh