ronald neumann: i agree with my colleague so i will try not to say the same things. ryan's point about the moral implications is very important. president obama in the last six months has made a number of incremental decisions that i would call positive and correct in terms of slightly extending the timeline for forces, allowing air support for afghans , and extending not largely but extending the time for diplomacy. in my judgment, those are very correct decisions. the way we are making them robs them of much of the psychological value. we have all made the point about the need for america to remain a long-term partner. a piece of that, a big piece of that, is the afghan a regional belief that that is so. the incremental way in which we are approaching policy continually undercuts the police -- undercuts the belief that we are there for the long haul. we will continue support for afghanistan, but we will do it in such incremental fashion that we will never get the political value of those decisions with either the afghan people or the insurgency. it is not the natur