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MR. ROMNEY: Well, we're going to be finished by 2014. And when I'm president, we'll make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014. The commanders and the generals there are on track to do so. We've seen progress over the past several years. The surge has been successful, and the training program is proceeding at pace. There are now a large number of Afghan security forces, 350,000, that are—are ready to step in to provide security. And—and we're going to be able to make that transition by the end of—of 2014. So our troops'll come home at that point.
I—I can tell you, at the same time, that—that we will make sure that we—we look at what's happening in Pakistan and recognize that what's happening in Pakistan is going to have a major impact on the success in Afghanistan. And—and I say that because I know a lot of people just feel like we should just brush our hands and walk away. And I don't mean you, Mr. President, but some people in the—in our nation feel that Pakistan (doesn't ?)—being nice to us and that we should just walk away from them.
But Pakistan is important to the region, to the world and to us, because Pakistan has 100 nuclear warheads, and they're rushing to build a lot more. They'll have more than Great Britain sometime in the—in the relatively near future. They also have the Haqqani network and—and the Taliban existent within their country. And so a—a Pakistan that falls apart, becomes a failed state would be of extraordinary danger to Afghanistan and us. And so we're going to have to remain helpful in encouraging Pakistan to move towards a—a more stable government and—and rebuild a relationship with us. And that means that—that—that our aid that we provide to Pakistan is going to have to be conditioned upon certain benchmarks being met.
So for me, I look at this as both a—a—a need to help move Pakistan in the right direction and also to get Afghanistan to be ready. And they will be ready by the end of 2014.
MR. SCHIEFFER: Mr. President
President OBAMA: You know, when I came into office, we were still bogged down in Iraq, and Afghanistan had been drifting for a decade. We ended the war in Iraq, refocused our attention on Afghanistan. And we did deliver a surge of troops. That was facilitated in part because we had ended the war in Iraq.
