Assessing the war in Afghanistan & NATO

Hour 1

On Veterans Day, we take stock of the Afghanistan war, now in its 10^th year and winding down, but still bloody and rife with uncertainty. President Obama met with the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) this week, discussing transition plans in advance of the upcoming end of the surge of 33,000 additional U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan, expected in mid-2012. Obama announced that move in June, and that has the end of foreign forces operating on a large scale in Afghanistan on the near horizon, with NATO announcing its own deadline for troop withdrawal by 2014. But what happens when U.S. and NATO troops leave? Joining us in studio is BRIAN KATULIS, senior fellow at Center for American Progress who’s in town to receive Villanova University’s distinguished alumni award. And we’ll also talk to a distinguished alumnus of another Philadelphia university, Temple graduate and  former U.S. Ambassador to NATO KURT VOLKER, senior fellow and managing director at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies’ Center for Transatlantic Relations.

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[audio: 111111_100630.mp3]