Karl Eikenberry: “It's essential that the Government of Afghanistan has a capable army that is able to reach throughout the country.”

When we hear ourselves being called occupiers and worse, and our generous aid programs are being dismissed as totally ineffective and the source of all corruption, our pride is offended, and we begin to lose our inspiration to carry on.

Success for all of us in Afghanistan, of course, is the point when the Government of Afghanistan is able to provide for the security of its own people.

I believe the course the President outlined offers the best path to stabilize Afghanistan and to ensure al-Qaeda cannot regain a foothold to plan new attacks against us.

Our strategic objective inside of Afghanistan and Pakistan is to disrupt and eventually defeat the international terrorist networks that still threaten our homeland.