former diplomat
American ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under George W. Bush; US citizen born in Afghanistan; Assistant Deputy Undersecretary for Policy Planning in the Defense Departments of Presidents Bush, Sr. and Reagan; author of The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey through a Turbulent World
Defeating ISIS might be just the beginning With the votes still coming in, we’ll look ahead at one of the major challenges facing the next President of the United States: the fight against ISIS. It’s a legacy of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, one that Barack Obama has struggled unsuccessfully to leave behind. The battle to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State has been raging for the past month. The US is backing an unlikely coalition of forces who’ve come together despite ancient grievances between one another.
Obama's War: Is there Any Way to Make Progress? NATO and Afghan forces claim they killed a senior Taliban commander today, Hamid Karzai picked a former President of his country to chair a peace council that's reaching out to the Taliban, Pakistan says it's re-opening a border crossing into Afghanistan.
Obama's War: Is there Any Way to Make Progress? The war with the Taliban involves the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but there's growing evidence that all three have different objectives. Neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan has trust in the other and neither expects the US to be around for the long run. And this weekend's New York Times raised a disturbing question: "can the war succeed if one of [America's] principal allies is in cahoots with the enemy?" We hear from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and from one of America's senior diplomats.
President Karzai Comes to Washington A rebroadcast of Today's To The Point At the White House today, President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged cooperation and friendship based on long term mutual interests. Responding to a reporter’s question, Obama said what he called “perceived tensions” during the past few weeks were “overstated…”
President Karzai Comes to Washington After a campaign of tough love that appeared to go nowhere, President Obama has turned on the charm for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. At the White House today, he said reported tensions were “overstated.” Karzai thanked him for American resources and sacrifice on behalf of his country. But both presidents acknowledged a rough road ahead—well beyond July of next year, when Obama plans to begin a drawdown of US forces. Karzai said disagreements are normal after 10 years of warfare against the Taliban. An Afghan reporter asked him about planned peace talks with the Taliban. Will they include upper-level leaders who have refused to meet US demands that they lay down their arms, recognize the country’s constitution and respect human rights. Has Karzai’s visit produced a plan for what happens next?
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.