Video: 2011: What will happen with Afghan war?

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   >>> news today that at least ten afghan civilians including women and children died today in a crowded intersection in afghanistan . nbc is live in kabul with the latest. ali, what happened?

   >> that's right, norah. roadside bomb blew up next to this minivan at this crowded intersection in southern afghanistan . government officials tell us that as many as 14 people have now died in the attack. the attack took place in one of the most dangerous areas in afghanistan . the hellmann province, a taliban stronghold and as seen some of the most severe fighting in the war. it was going to a local bizarrbazaar. president hamid karzai condemned the bombing saying it was a blood thirsty attack against the afghan people by the enemy of the afghan people , the reference to the taliban . the u.s. embassy here in kabul also condemned the attack saying it was a blatantly targeting afghan civilians and coward attack. there was a u.n. report earlier this month that said that casualties in 2010 were up 20% compared to 2009 . back to you.

   >> all right, ali there in kabul . thank you so much.

   >>> and so what will the new year bring for america's longest war ? president obama has pledged to start bridnging our troops home from afghanistan by july 2011 . the administration also acknowledges that all the progress made in afghanistan is, quote, fragile and reversible. senior national security koesht for the national journal and was embedded with the troops in kandahar this fall. we talked about this. the president saying that the progress made is fragile and reversible. a lot of this depends on the progress of training these afghan troops. you've got a stunning article where essentially our commanders are dealing with afghan troops who are high as a kite on hasheesh.

   >> high, lazy, poorly trained. when i went down i asked specifically what a good unit looked like. show me good afghans. i was told these guys were among the a agains had. these were people trying to smuggle eight-foot-high poppy plants on to the base. they never wore their body armor . they never really had their weapons correctly. what you saw among the american troops were real contempt for these afghans, open contempt and admiration for the taliban , which i found --

   >> why admiration? because they're such fierce fighters?

   >> and displened because the taliban fighters fight to the death. they don't fight after five hours, they don't take drugs. it wasn't a moral judgment. obviously they were there to kill them as much as they could. one warrior to another, taliban fought like serious fighters.

   >> that book, he describes in depth these taliban fighters that can scale a mountain in our an hour and take our best soldiers days. these taliban soldiers are fierce fighters. let me ask you then, given that, how do we start pulling our troops out in 2011 with a final date of 2014 ?

   >> one, i think 2011 is going to be very small. 2014 may also slide. afghan war is a history of -- to use a football analogy, the goal line keeps moving. we thought we would be out in a few years, 2009 , now 2011 . some people saying 2014 are saying --

   >> this is already the longest war now, afghanistan . osama bin laden plot and trained soldiers and people for 9/11 from afghanistan and hit wall street . also hit the pentagon. in order to bankrupt us in many ways. . hit the heart in the financial system . isn't the yuts spending so many billions of dollars and blood and treasure in afghanistan , isn't osama bin laden achieving the goal that he set out to do on 9/11?

   >> there's that a. great quote about war being the continuation of politics by other means . you could argue that one of the parts of war is to bankrupt your enemy. we're spending about $15 billion a month, if you assume we'll be there in 2014 , i think we'll be there longer, do the math. almost half a trillion dollars.

   >> do you think we will be there longer? joe biden , the vice president, intimately involved in this strategy said on "meet the press" some hell or high water , we'll be out by 2014 . don't you think there's a consensus though now, a high level here in the united states and among most political figures that this war has got to end?

   >> on the plital side, yes. on the military side, no. general petraeus is an absolute master of playing one off the other. general petraeus , his view is 2014 could be most of the troops but not most of them. he is a hard man that president obama is discovering.

   >> great reporting. i think it's on the ground report that explains just how difficult this is, if those afghan troops that we are hoping are going to keep the peace are high as a kite on hasheesh.

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