and what you are finding in terms of, i think morale of the unaccompanied tours because the turnover as i understand it is about 600, 700 service members every month. is that normal? is that what we would anticipate, and what kind of resources are there then, and how is that affecting readiness in any way on the base? >> yes, ma'am. congresswoman davis, first off, most of the turnover we see that is occurring out of that 600 to 700 are the lower enlisted greats which are predominantly over there on a one-year assignment. and that's, as you can imagine, that constant turnover affects the crew stability inside the 2nd infantry division and so that's something that commander has to deal with. in regard to the number on tour normalization, we have roughly today around 3,800 families that are command sponsored. there's another 1,700 where soldiers elected to bring their family members over there that are noncommand sponsored. so that's really what we have. we have not achieved the 4,645 as of yet. so that's why, based on the current fiscal environment, i looked at, number one, could we af

we were unaccompanied at riyadh for 5 1/2 years, my wife janet was the first spouse to come back in 5 1/2 years. well guess what? the world doesn't like a void. who filled it? the south korea and chinese. if you want it cheap, go to china. but here's the problem. china wants to be the world's manufacturer and they are doing exceptionally good job of that. what is saudi arabia's problem? jobs. if you're what technology transfer, if you want training and education, if you want to develop your own infrastructure, you're not going to get that from the chinese. you won't get it from the south koreans, you will get it from americans. so i repeatedly talk about the value proposition they are offering and if they ever let a competition result in a price competition with the chinese, they will lose. if they can present a value proposition that comes with education and training package where you will create an entity the saudis can worun, you have winning combination. it's very competitive because of that value proposition. >> others? >> i do hear the perception and i think maybe it's sometimes

question on the dot com touches that so much a commission called his wife unaccompanied children in voting for the future in two days' time russians will go to the polls to elect their next president what is the nature of russia's political system how is it changed.

and maybe in this case, how did that soldier get off the base in the middle of the morning una unaccompaniedthat's a question that has to be asked here at the pentagon and there in afghanistan as to whether the focus of those u.s. military forces is centered on afghanistan and that war. >> and joe and i have heard republicans quietly talking about how this is just becoming more and more difficult to defend any type of prolonged presence there. mike barnicle, we'll move on to politics, but i just want to know what crossed your mind when you saw this cross the wires? >> let's try and sum this up. we've been in this country for 10 1/2 years at the cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars. militarily, if you ask yourself can you define win or victory in afghanistan, militarily, and if you can, good luck to you. can you achieve that goal that you've set for yourself militarily? i would submit that the answers to both are no, and i would submit that during the course of a presidential campaign here in the united states, the weight of afghanistan and the weight of what happened over this

washington, d.c., and we were told that the only exceptions to night deportations are pregnant women, unaccompaniedhts that we observed the deportations from 11:00 at night till 3:00 in the morning on the arizona and texas borders, we saw no such thing. wolf? >> so it looks like this situation is going to continue, is that right? >> it sure does, wolf. and you know, they say it's realot

washington, d.c., and we were told that the only exceptions to night deportations are pregnant women, unaccompaniedhts that we observed the deportations from 11:00 at night till 3:00 in the morning on the arizona and texas borders, we saw no such thing. wolf? >> so it looks like this situation is going to continue, is that right? >> it sure does, wolf. and you know, they say it's really not about whether or not they should be deported. it's really about the manner in which they're deported. does it have to happen after dark? >> stay on top of this story and update us if we get new information, thelma. good report. appreciate it very much. that's it for me. thanks very much for joining us. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news cin

i mean, we were unaccompanied at riyadh for five-and-a-half years.y wife, janet, was the first spouse to come back in five-and-a-half years. well, guess what? the world doesn't like a void. so who filled it? the south koreans and the chinese. and if you want it cheap, go to china. but here's the problem. china wants to be the world's manufacturer, and they're doing an exceptionally good job of that. what is saudi arabia's problem? jobs. and if you want technology transfer, if you want training and education, if you want to develop your own infrastructure, you're not going to get that from the chinese. you're not going to get it from the south koreans. you will get it from americans. so i repeatedly talk to american business withmen about the value -- businessmen about the value proposition that they're offering. and if they ever let a competition result in a price competition with the chinese, they are going to lose. if they can present a value prop is decision that come -- proposition that comes with an education and training package where you're go

the -- we were unaccompanied for five and a half years. my wife, janet, was the first spouse to come back in five and a half years. well, guess what? the world doesn't like a void. who filled it? the south koreans and the chinese. if you want it cheep, go to china. here's the problem. china wants to be the world's manufacturer. they are doing exceptionally good job of that. what's saudi arabia's problem? jobs. if you want technology transfer, training and education, if you want to develop your own infrastructure, you're not going to get that from the chinese or the south koreans. you will get that from americans. i repeatedly talked to american businessmen about the value proposition that they are offering. if they ever let a competition result in a price competition with the chinese, they are beginning to lose. if they can present a valued proposition that comes with the education and training package where you're going to create an entity that the saudis run over time and increase an industry there where you create a job here as you're c

i want to extend the discussion and what you are finding in terms of the morale of these unaccompanied tors. the turnover is about 600 or 700 service members every month. is that normal? >> first off, most of the turnover we see that is occurring out of that 600-700 are the lower in listed great. as you imagine, that constant turnover affects the crew stability inside the second division. that is something that the commander has to deal with. in regard to the normalization, we have roughly around 3800 families that are command's sponsored. there are another 1700 s soldiers that are non command's sponsored. that is really what we have. we have not achieve that as of yet. i looked at could we afford more families over there be on the 4645? i determined that is not feasible at this time. >> do you have other concerns that are affecting the quality of life for service members that are there? e do not necessarily see those numbers getting to that level. do you see major differences? >> we have a threat to the north. we have a well stated mission. i have not seen a decline in any morale issu