seth jones. >> that's a good question. and a good. i would note that if you look at the last 100 years and afghanistan, there are and have been stable periods so part of the question for the united states for nato, countries operating in afghanistan, and for the afghan government more broadly, is to find ways as has been done in afghanistan's history, of ensuring long-term stability. what i would note in posh to areas of the country, the bill that goes from herat to western afghanistan down to the south and into the piece, pashtuns are the largest tribal groups in afghanistan. power has been very decentralized there. the posh didn't have a tendency and will areas to want to do a lot of the policing at the lowest level. on their own. we see them use security forces. i think part of it as we move forward, as a look toward more stable solutions, we've got to think about top down efforts to build a stronger central government, as mark noted earlier, with nash canned security forces. and with a velv

joining us are two afghanistan war arthur's, mark moyar and seth jones seth jones america's war in afghanistan" and "a question of command: counterinsurgency from the civil war to iraq". seth jones told me you just returned from afghanistan. what are your impressions? >> my impressions have changed since i got back because we obviously had the capture of the taliban's second-in-command. what i will say as we move into the late winter and early spring, there will be nato offenses where we're seeing u.s. marine corps forces in the river valley as well as over the past week the offensive by pakistani intelligence agencies and u.s. intelligence agencies against senior taliban official in pakistan. we are seeing an offensive on both sides of the border. >> has our mission in afghanistan changed since president obama came to office? how would you define our mission? >> the fundamental mission of trying to provide a stable and secure afghanistan has remained the same. how we do that has changed with a large infusion of troops. seeing a lot of activity this year. the most prominent example we are maki

seth jones. i have read your book and i commend you. one major problem is that we are still dealing with the conflict of north and south, just like in many other places. the center for global crisis in 2003 put out an excellent paper called, disenchantment of posh pastuns. how are you going to win the hearts and minds of afghans when the afghan province says, you probably know it, says you can make an afghan go to a house with you with kindness, but you will not be able to take them to heaven by force. >> guest: well, that's a great question and a great point. i would say that one of the things that the afghan government and nato, more probably, has to do better, including in pastuns areas is to recognize again that power is very vocal estimates areas. and that they may not have according to the interest of outsiders, whether it's u.s. or nato governments, even whether it is essential governments. they will act in their own interests. and that's okay because what we've seen, i would argue, when you look across the east in the south is a

seth jones. i have read your book, and commend you. one major problem is that you are still dealing with the conflict of north and south, just like many other places. the center for global crisis in 2003 put out an excellent paper called-- of pashtun. how are you going to win the hearts and minds of the afghans, when the well-known afghan proverb says, you probably know it, it says you can make-- go to hell with you with kindness but you will not be able to take him to have done by force. >> guest: well it is a great question and a great point. i would say that one of the things that the afghan government and nato more broadly has to do better, including in pashtun areas is to recognize again that the power is very localized in these areas, and that they may not act according to the interests of outsiders, whether it is u.s. or nato governments, even whether it is the central government. they will act in their own interests and that is okay because i would argue when you look across the east in the south there is a range of tribes and

seth jones. i have read your book and i commend you. one major problem is that we are still dealing with the conflict of north and south, just like in many other places. the center for global crisis in 2003 put out an excellent paper called, disenchantment of posh pastuns. how are you going to win the hearts and minds of afghans when the afghan province says, you probably know it, says you can make an afghan go to a house with you with kindness, but you will not be able to take them to heaven by force. >> guest: well, that's a great question and a great point. i would say that one of the things that the afghan government and nato, more probably, has to do better, including in pastuns areas is to recognize again that power is very vocal estimates areas. and that they may not have according to the interest of outsiders, whether it's u.s. or nato governments, even whether it is essential governments. they will act in their own interests. and that's okay because what we've seen, i would argue, when you look across the east in the south is a

seth jones, we thank you. tom johnson and steve coll, gentlemen, thank you all. >> ifill: now, with the other news of the day, here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: the u.s. military presence in iraq has fallen below 100,000 for the first time since the war began in 2003. a spokesman in baghdad said today the total force now numbers 98,000. all but 50,000 american troops in iraq are due to leave by the end of august. the rest are scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2011. the war of words over iran's nuclear program kept heating up today. in tehran, president mahmoud ahmadinejad warned other countries against trying to impose new sanctions on his government. >> ( translated ): if someone wants to act against iran, our response would not be like previous times. we will not advise or clarify or explain anymore. definitely, there will be a counter action that will make them regret, as usual. >> sreenivasan: at the same time, russia, france and the u.s. called for iran to stop enriching uranium t

joining us are to afghanistan war authors, mark moyar in seth jones. mr. jones' book is in the graveyard of empires: america's war in afghanistan. mark moyar, his book, the question of command: counterinsurgency from the so were. seth jones, before gets started you told me you just returned from afghanistan. what are your impressions? >> my impression is actually having changed since i got back because we obviously had the capture of the taliban second-in-command this weekend, what i will say though is as we move into the late winter and early spring there will be nato offensives in helmand province where we see u.s. marine corps forces in the central holland river valley as well as over the past week the offensive by pakistan intelligence agencies and u.s. intelligence agencies against the senior taliban officials in pakistan. we are really now seeing in offensive on both sides of the border. >> mark moyar, has our mission in afghanistan changed since president obama came to office and how would you define our mission? >> i think the fundamental mission of

seth jones. >> guest: my book looks at the question why the insurgency began in afghanistan after the u.s. overthrow. i look at a couple of sectors. one is the collapsing governments in afghanistan including corruption issues and then focus in particular on highways in the last chapter to stem the insurgency and develop more effective counter insurgency efforts. >> host: mr. moyar? >> guest: mine is a series of case studies being afghanistan. it argues leadership comes down to a question which side has better leaders in certain areas of leadership, and identifying how do we get those kind of people into positions of authority. >> host: mark moyar come seth jones, thank you for being on booktv prime time to discuss the afghanistan war. >> guest: thank you. >> host: coming up, two more hours of book tv in prime time this evening. up next is michael steele the chairman of the gop. he was at the reagan library recently talking about his new book the 12 step program for defeating the obama agenda. following that you will hear from pulitzer prize-winning economist joseph stieglitz on our af

we will have seth jones and mike moyer, author of "a question of demand." he was in afghanistan, where he met with gen. mccrystal. for other programs, go online to "booktv.org." >> your onw-stop shop -- your one-stop shop for everything c- span is at c-span.org. . ulia from: tauscher, followed by the russian ambassador or to the united states. this is one hour. >> i am the president of the exchange publication, the publisher of nuclear weapons and materials. welcome to you all to that, to talk about an issue that should be front-page and we need to bring attention to, and that is looking at what we are going to do with nuclear weapons stockpiles. the leadership in this area is, ñras it always has been, when we started dealing with nuclear weapons, between the u.s. and russia. today we are starting off with news from the u.s. and russia. i just wanted to point out our first speaker today will be sitting next to the russian ambassador and not on this side, at a sign that we need to have a partnership. i would like to think today's supporting partners such as

. >> seth jones 11 is a political scientist at the rand corporation and professor at georgetown university. for more information visit rand.org. mark moyar is professor at the marine corps university. visit mark moyar.com. chicago parents transform their neighborhood school. jacqueline l. berger addresses this in how to walk to school. this event is an hour. >> my name is jeff smith, executive director of d.c. voice. i want to tell those of you who are not volunteers or affiliated with our work a little bit about what we do and why it relates to the book we are here to hear about this evening. there is a brief story i would like to share, related to our work and what we are about to hear. we do community action research. we organize community members, volunteers from across the city and in the region to go in schools and in their view principals and teachers and collect data and bring that data back to talk to policymakers about what principals and teachers are saying need improved. one time when we were out of school at north beach i was walking through the back of a classroom and this yo

. >> joined art like conversation with seth jones and mark moyer, a professor at the marine corps universityauthor of ago a question of command." mr. moyer was recently in afghanistan, where he met with general mcchrystal. we will take your phone calls, e-mail's, and tweets. for our other prime-time programs this week, go online to booktv.org. >> with your wildest imagination, you would not have made this story up. >> this weekend, the death of american virtue author on "afterwords." >> president obama says the economic stimulus plan has prevented another depression. he spoke at the white house on the anniversary of the bill signing. this is a little less than a half hour. >> good morning, folks. thank you all for being here. it has been one year to date since the president sign the recovery act into law. >> i am probably preaching to the choir as to how beneficial it has been. i stand before you one day, the exact day to a year that we signed this act. what i want to talk about is what we have accomplished, where were back then. i think where we are now and where we're going. you and i know

eastern, join our live discussion on afghanistan with seth jones, political scientist at the rand corporationand author of "in the grave yard of empires. and mark moir, a professor at the marine corps university, author of "a question of command." mr. moir was recently in afghanistan where he met with general mcchrystal. we'llñr take your phone calls, emails and tweets. for our other prime time programs this week, go online to booktv.org. >> with your wildest begination, you could have not made this story up. >> this weekend, on "the death of american virtue clinton versus starr" on "after words" part of c-span 2's book tv weekend. >> now christopher hill, the u.s. ambassador to iraq looks to the march 7 elections there. from the u.s. institute of peace, this is a little less than two hours. president here at the united states institute of peace. >> i'm delighted to welcome you all o we can move around the room as quickly as possible. to introduce our guest of honor, i turn to ambassador richard solomon, president of the u.s. institute of peace. >> good morning and thank you all for turning o