Details on the Afghan agreement

>> new agreement between the united states and afghanistan is short on a lot of specifics. but it does make one thing clear. the u.s. will have a role to play in that country. tony is a national security advisor to vice president biden at the white house . let me start with last night's speech by the president. what did he announce? did he announce the end of the war or did he announce a path to how the war is going to end and when is that going to end?

>> i think thet president was very clear last night. we are ending the war in afghanistan responsibly. next year we will transition to afghan lead and by 2014 the afghans will be responsible for their country throughout the country and american forces will be coming out of afghanistan . this is really a very important moment marking the end of the war but ending it responsibly in a way that allows afghanistan to move forward on its own two feet.

>> there were a lot of caveats in the president's speech. you talked about as afghan security forces stand up the role of both american forces and nato forces in general stand down. what if some of these things don't happen. he talked about negotiating with the foot soldiers of the taliban for reconciliation. if these things don't happen does this agreement mean the united states could end up sending more troops back into afghanistan ?

>> no. this agreement is very clear. it is very similar to iraq before. as we bring our troops home we want to build a comprehensive partnership with afghanistan to help build its own capacity to deal with its own problems going forward. we will have a relationship beyond 2014 . and that's very important because remember what happened in 1989 . the world abandoned afghanistan entirely. we know the result. civil war , the taliban, 9/11. we'll be building a partnership with the afghan people to help them deal with the problems they'll face beyond and to continue to help us with the interests that we have in the region particularly dealing with any problems of terrorism, making sure that al qaeda which is on its heels and the president has done so much to defeat doesn't come back.

>> one of the things that didn't take place in iraq is that you couldn't negotiate an extension of the so-called s.o. fmpt a., a forces agreement that would be ea residual force in iraq . couldn't get the details done to make that safe for u.s. soldiers , rules of engagement , etc. what makes you kuconvinced you'll be able to do this with afghanistan .

>> this calls for working with afghanistan and negotiating an on going agreement with them over the next year. if we decide together that we want to have some kind of residual force after 2014 . we'll see where that goes over the coming months and over the next year. if there is anything after 2014 it will be much smaller and very narrowly focused on training the afghans and on counter terrorism . that is what we'll be doing if we do anything beyond 2014 . that remains to be decided by the president and remains to be negotiated by the afghans. presumably if they decide that they would like to have some on going presence and we decide it's in our interest then we'll work on it and get it done.

>> is it fair to say that there could be u.s. forces in afghanistan even in some if in a supportive capacity in afghanistan until 2024 ?

>> i think what is fair to say is that we are on a very clear path to end the war and to end it responsibly, to transition to afghan control over the next year and a half first giving the control throughout the country next year and then full responsibility in 2014 . after 2014 we are going to have an enduring partnership with the afghan people and the afghan government . what the substance is and the details and the nature of any security relationship is remains to be seen. there is no commitment to have troops in afghanistan beyond 2014 . that chapter remains to be written.

>> part of the entire white house national security team thanks for coming on this morning.