and i'll ask seth jones. does bin laden's death change the equation and tip it more to the argument she's makeing? >> well i would just point out two things. someone that the united states was nearly targeted last year by faisal shahzad. he packed an s.u.v., moved it into times square on a saturday night. the bomb didn't go off but he was terrained by the taliban pakistan on the afghan/pakistan border, it was not al qaeda. it was an al qaeda allied group. that organization still exists as do several others. kashmiri has several plots going on. i think those issues continue and i would say in addition the u.s. footprint is coming down and has to come down. so i think celeste is right to some degree that the current amounts of money we are spending ins after are too much in this economy but they're actually probably not necessary. >> and, celeste, let me ask you about one more thing because the other debate that's been going on is whether to move towards more negotiations with the taliban. there seems to be som

seth jones is a senior political scientist at the rand corporation. is a well-known expert on afghanistan and the author of the book, in the graveyard of empires, america's war in afghanistan. stephen biddle is a senior fellow for defense policy at the council on foreign relations. an expert in defense policy and strategy. gentlemen, we look forward to your help in addressing many of the questions i have just posed. senator lugar. >> mr. chairman, i join you in welcoming our distinguished witnesses and we look forward to a very important hearing with them. afghanistan has been important and to still be a source of threat to the united states security. on that we are all agreed. the question before us is whether afghanistan is important enough to justify the lives, the massive resources that are being spent their, especially given our nation's debt crisis, or can we achieve the most important national security goals in afghanistan essentially preventing the taliban from taking over the government, and preventing afghan territory from being used as a te

the committee heard from david kilcullen who has advised nato in afghanistan and from seth jones, who's worked with the u.s. military. this portion of that foreign relations committee hearing is 45 minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. members of the committee i'm honored to be here in such distinguished company. i will keep my opening remarks fairly brief. and what i want to do is focus on fairly narrowly on the question of what actually has to happen on the ground inside afghanistan in order to get to the point where we need to be in 2014. the way that you see the problem depends very much on whether you think that the insurgency of the taliban is the problem or whether they're actually a symptom of a wider set of problems. i tend to the latter point of view. most of the work that i've done in the country over the last several years we're looking at a much broader cycle of instability of which the taliban is only part. and if you want to transition successfully, you need to address that whole cycle. the first element in the cycle is corruption and criminality which comes about in part

they are noel jones, camille grayson, and seth lennon. >> thank you. >> congratulations. >> thank you congratulations again. proud of you. >> thanks to a gift, the white house correspondents' association has established the deborah orrin scholarship to benefit qualified students at her alma mater northwestern university's madille school of journalism. two students will each receive a $5,000 scholarship and they are hrasregwand and alexandria rice. >> thank you so much. >> congratulations. >> we are now going to award a $5,000 tuition grant to a columbia university graduate student who intends to return to the middle east to continue her journalism career, and that student is atosa abrahimian. >> thank you. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> the white house correspondents' association supported nine graduate students at $2,500 per student to study in washington for a semester as part of the university's well-established program. these students are manu glandhar, elizabeth anne billingsley, jonathan hutchinson, june ma, kathleen majorski, virginia burns paisley, matthew pierce, garren

noel jones, camille grayson, and seth lennon. [applause] congratulations.you to a gift, the white house correspondents association has established the deborah owens scholarship to benefit qualified students at northwestern university's school of journalism. two students will each receive a $5,000 scholarship. alexandria wright and carl re dron. [applause] we are going to a war and bought thousand dollar grant to a student who intends to return to the middle east to continue our journalism career. [applause] the association supported nine graduate students at 2005 under dollars per student to study in boston for a semester as part of the university of aubrey -- university's well-established program. [applause] we also support students at the school of journalism for a $5,000 jetports a postgraduate degree for a student in the government and public affairs reporting class. this year that student is courtney. [applause] >> thank you, mrs. obama. congratulations to our scholarship winners. in addition to awarding scholarships, the association also helps local s

they are noel jones, camille grayson, and seth lennon. >> tnk you. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> very proud of you. >> congratulations again. proud of you. >> thanks to a gift, the white house correspondents' association has established the deborah orr scholarship to benefit qualified students at her alma mater northwestern university's madille school of journalism. two students will each receive a $5,000 scholarship and they are hrasregwand and alexandria rice. >> thank you so much. >> congratulations. >> we are now going to award a $5,000 tuition grant to a columbia university graduate student who intends to return to the middle east to continue her journalism career, and that student is atosa abrahimian. >> thank you. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> the white house correspondents' association supported nine graduate students at $2,500 per student to