Clinton On AfPak

WASHINGTON, DC
Thursday, October 27, 2011
There are currently 98,000 U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan that are involved in conflicts that extend to country's eastern border with Pakistan. Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offers her testimony on the progress and plans for U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Lawmakers on the House Foreign affairs Committee are asking Sec. Clinton to outline her agency's diplomatic and development strategies in the region, and how these goals align with U.S. military goals.
Committee members are also discussing the reduction of U.S. aid to Pakistan. Sec. Clinton has previously stated that cutting foreign aid to the region, as some congressional Republicans have proposed, would be "a grave mistake." 
Example of questions/comments:- 
Congressman Berman: "The Taliban are so ideologically driven. How do we get them to change how they see the world?" !!!!!!
Congressman Faleomavaega: "We go after the Talibans".
Congressman Turner '' The divide between what we want and the Afghanis''

Over the summer, the Secretary testified to Congress that the U.S. is in the preliminary stages of diplomatic outreach to the Taliban in an effort to find a political solution to the war in Afghanistan, saying reconciliation is "not a pleasant business, but a necessary one." She also spoke in full support of President Obama's plan to bring home 33,000 troops by September 2012.