advisor to afghan president hamid karzai, and the author of" walking in the footsteps of lions," and tony schafer who served two combat tours in afghanistan and awarded the bronze star, and david, a defense department official on afghanistan and pakistan. welcome to "the stream." >> tony, americans have invested $700 billion, endless amounts of resources, 2,000 lives lost. how much of that hinges are on the election coming up this weekend. >> it comes down to selection, to be blunt. we talked before the opening of the show about the zero option. it is something that would leave afghanistan in a huge lurch. there's two reasons why. so much of what afghanistan depends upon right now is foreign aid coming in. about 30% of the economy is fuelled by illegal drug sales, and i don't think it's the way to go. what you need to look at is economic sovereignty. pentagon has been working on this. my friend who was working on this was trying to find a way to have afghanistan become economically soft. n.a.t.o. has done, they have left pretty much, and we are left holding the bag and trying to help them get on