we got the search proposed by president bush and secretary rumsfeld and it is not any thing but an honestdifference of opinion between ourselves and the president of united states. the withdrawal of u.s. text must be based on conditions at the time. , not an arbitrary date. >> thank you. because general stanley mcchrystal is a brave war fighter and has been a strong leader of the multinational forces in afghanistan, the unfortunate and inappropriate comments he made in the article presented president obama with a difficult decision. i think the president today stepped up and dealt with it directly and strongly and made the right decision in accepting general mcchrystal's offer of resignation. we are very fortunate indeed that david petraeus responded to the president's call to him to go and take up these responsibilities of command in afghanistan. if there has ever been an example of someone putting national interest ahead of personal interest, it is general p'o except the command of our forces in afghanistan. i hope that the announcement that the president made today has taken a crisis a

we stood up for the surge that was proposed by president bush and secretary rumsfeld. it is an honest difference of opinion between us and the president that the withdrawal of troops has to be based on conditions at the time, not an arbitrary date. >> general stanley mcchrystal is a brief war fighter and has been a very strong leader of -- is a brave war fighter and has been a very strong leader of multinational forces in afghanistan. unfortunately, the comment in the article presented president obama with a hard decision and i think he dealt with it directly and strong yen made the right decision in accepting general resignation. if there has ever been an example of somebody putting national interest ahead of personal interests, it is general david patraeus' willingness to except command over our forces in afghanistan. i hope the announcement today has taken a crisis and turned it into an expression by the president of the strong support of the strategy that he adopted the early last year and announced it at west point december 1. to afghanistan is of vital national s

certainly cert steps and other parts of the muslim world so to do wonder for what degree as donald rumsfeldonce asked are we generating more recruits for the global jihad and we are capturing or killing and if you look at the curve of al-awlaki influence he is a case study so that we stopped right there. >> thank you very much. i think in many ways any discussion of al-awlaki raises more quesons than answers and both of you were hiting on not just the language skills or the ability on the switch of english and arabic and there has been a good deal of discussion about how his ability to speak in clear went idiomatic english and switch into arabic is a real sense of authenticity and from the many senses it is for pople going in a certain direction it is all i need to get even further. i have a number of questions on of the things on often think about is how popular he is in yemen or has he become because of what was done i think is something both of you touched on. i would like to open up to questions now and again, please introduce yourself before you start and please ask a question. who wou

and long before the supreme court issued its ruling in the fair versus rumsfeld case, we were doing exactly what dod asked us to do. >> so it is your testimony that the decision you made immediately after the third circuit opinion, you concluded was inappropriate? you and president summers and you reversed that policy later? >> senator sessions, what i did after the third circuit decision was to say, look, the only appellate court to have considered this question has struck down the statute. we have always thought that our policy was in compliance with the statute. the appropriate thing for me to do, really the obligation that i owed to my school and its long-standing policy was to go back to our old accommodation policy, which allowed the military full access, but through the veterans organization. when dod came to us and said it thought that was insufficient, that it wanted to essentially ignore the third circuit decision because it was taking it up to the supreme court when they came back to us, we went through a discussion of a couple of months, and made a decision to do exactly what do

they are for profligate spending and but basically rumsfeld is a hockey and favo t war in iraq and afghanistanhose mission of values around the rld? it is not the anti-government idea and the teaparty people the people them to say you in favor of social security or medicare, the graveline the old dy kazakhstan said ke sure the carefree keeps their hands off of my social security. is a country that believes in vernnt that works. they want to roll the back as the deficits seem to run away although i think it can be hdled. >> there was a that is right but also the way the politicaclimate is ming, i am not sure w much it tells us because i agree and. has aonderful new bok called the liberal welfare state and we need to start means testing becausee will never get rid of it. ome ways thathe heart of the paul brian road map was the idea youever get rid of goverent so inste talk aut government rk. but i am notsure at this plant twin teapartiers are such the opposition movement whether or notake sense to suddentart talking about was rollback govnment except for this or this orú? nea imicions o hezbolla

the conclusion of one of those tours, after standing up the training mission in iraq, secretary rumsfeldsked me to go to afghanistan on the way home from iraq. we did. we spent time over there. and, indeed, identified -- shared what we learned but also, frankly, identified a number of areas in which improvements could be made there at that time. some of those were made. some still, frankly, are being addressed now that general caldwell is in command. he's been in command about six months now. lirally, the establishment of the nato training mission in afghanistan itself, which is an input, not an output, but that is a hugely significant development for all of this. but there are a number of initiatives that have been already begun now. just toive you one example. instead of a three-year afghan police for officers training program, they've now got an officer candidate school to complement this because there's a war going on out there and we need officers in the interim as well. it's a six-month program which we think will be good and will provide leadership on a more immediate basis to en

the conclusion of one of those tours, after standing up the training mission in iraq, secretary rumsfeld asked me to go to afghanistan on the way home from iraq. we did. we spent time over there. and, indeed, identified -- shared what we learned but also, frankly, identified a number of areas in which improvements could be made there at that time. some of those were made. some still, frankly, are being addressed now that general caldwell is in command. he's been in command about six months now. literally, the establishment of the nato training mission in afghanistan itself, which is an input, not an output, but that is a hugely significant development for all of this. but there are a number of initiatives that have been already begun now. just to give you one example. instead of a three-year afghan police for officers training program, they've now got an officer candidate school to complement this because there's a war going on out there and we need officers in the interim as well. it's a six-month program which we think will be good and will provide leadership on a more immediate basis