stephen hadley, welcome to "washington journal." could you give context of president karzai and what is going on in afghanistan. guest: president karzai is the elected leader of afghan and he will be the representative. and the president will treat karzai as that elected leader and give him the respect he deserves and build a personal leadership. they face great challenges and personal leadership matters and this will be a candid meeting for them to build a stronger relationship. host: you use the word candid and stronger relationship, is it that their relationship is not strong in your opinion? guest: it's been a bumpy relationship and there are public reflections and doubt about karzai's leadership and not fighting corruption. and to make the hard decisions and it was unfortunate that was such a public issue. a rule of thumb when you deal with allies is to praise in public and criticize in private. early on in the administration it got that reversed. but i think they have taken some good steps and i think that president obama is r

stephen hadley, welcome to washington journal. u give context about today's meeting with presidentoe karzai not only what happened as far as the individual but what it means to the larger context of what is going on in to afghanistan? could >> guest: of the is the president karzai is the elected leader of the afghan people.sidk he is argoing to be the partner for the country in dealing with the challenges in afghanistan and i think what is important here is the president is going to treat karzai as that elected leader and give him the respectb he deserves and also hopefully e build a personal relationship ancause these two leaders face great common challenges and personal relations among leaders matters and hopefully this will be an opportunity for the two oa them to have recanted understanding of the discussion of the challenges they face and build a stronger relationshipeae between the two of them. >> you use the word candor that relationship isn't strong in your opinion?tronge >> i think if you read the papers the last year or

you're on with stephen hadley. >> caller: yes, hi. i wanted to ask you about russia's recent offer to destroy the poppy fields that make the owpy yum. and i guess the u.s. declined, saying it would disrupt the local agricultural income and that we had to protect that i kind of curious when the taliban was ruling poppy growing was not allowed. it was against their religion. and it seems we're giving the impression that we're supporting the poppy fields and, i think we all agree that this money is funding the terrorists. so if we're to take a strong position on the terrorists we should also take a strong position on getting rid of the poppy fields. could you comment on that please? >> guest: you're absolutely right. the link between poppies and the terrorism, poppy and illegal drugs as a source of funding for terrorists and for the taliban is exactly right and it is an enormous problem. the government halls been working on that problem but, the united states government in close coordination with the afghan government. obviously we've no

security with former national security adviser stephen hadley. "washington journal," each morning at 7:00 eastern. british prime minister gordon brown announced he will resign by september. this comes as party leaders continue to work on forming a new government after no clear winner emerged from last week's national elections. here is an update from bbc's newsnight. >> gordon brown announces he will step aside. caller: ♪ caller: caller: ♪ >> it has been extraordinary day. this afternoon, gordon brown's dramatic resignation announcement. >> i have no desire to stay in my position longer than is needed to ensure economic growth and the process of political reform we have agreed to move forward quickly. >> the conservatives were making a new, improved bid. >> we will offer to the liberal democrats and a coalition government, the holding of a referendum on alternative voting systems. >> and ward, with meetings continuing into this evening. michael is at westminster. >> talks broke up tonight just a short while ago after a dramatic and exciting day.

stephen hadley, welcome to "washington journal." could you give context of president karzai and what is going on in afghanistan. guest: president karzai is the elected leader of afghan and he will be the representative and the president will treat karzai as that elected leader and give him the respect he deserves and build a personal leadership. they face great challenges and personal leadership matters and this will be a candid meeting for them to build a stronger relationship. host: you use the word candid and stronger relationship, is it that their relationship is not strong in your opinion? guest: it's been a bumpy relationship and there are public reflections and doubt about karzai's leadership and not fighting corruption. and to make the hard decisions and it was unfortunate that was such a public issue. a rule of thumbhen you deal with allies is to praise in public and criticize in private. early on in the administration it got that reversed. but i think they have taken some good steps and i think that president obama is righ

host: we have a few minutes left with our guest, stephen hadley. our independent line. caller: good morning, after 9/11 it seems that chasing bin laden wouldn't cut it. we needed to go over and get the attention of the whole middle east people. and my question is, what do you think that china and russia and europe not helping us, if they would have happed with soldiers and everything, this whole thing could be wrapped up by now. and to give a shout-out to george bush, and others hated us because we are the world's policemen. guest: if you look at the coalition in iraq and afghanistan, most european countries with the exception of russia, france and germany and a couple of others, remember overwhelmingly with us in iraq and on the ground with us in iraq. and i terms of the afghanistan, the military mission is done under the nato umbrella. and it's all the nato countries, 26 at last count, and a number of european countries. the european countries are standing up and there are estions about performance. and questions of effectiveness of our performance. the important thin