U.S. General Killed in Afghanistan; Ann Coulter Talks Israel
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Alisyn Camerota in New York. All eyes on the Middle East tonight, but not Israel this time. The tragedy is in Afghanistan, where a deadly ambush claims a top American general, the first killed in overseas combat since Vietnam. How will the White House respond? Meanwhile, tens of thousands of troops massing on the border. Appears that a dangerous situation is about to spin out of control. We're talking about Eastern Europe. Is Vladimir Putin on the verge of another land grab in Ukraine?</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jake Tapper in Jerusalem. It's just before sunrise in Gaza, Israel and Hamas eyeball to eyeball as day two of this fragile cease-fire begins. The big question, what comes next, and what is the price of peace? Should the United States consider recognizing Hamas as something other than a terrorist organization?</s>CAMEROTA: Plus, the congressman who says Democrats are waging a war on white people. Ann Coulter will be here, and you can bet she has some thoughts on that one. But let's begin with the latest on the Middle East and my colleague Jake Tapper. Jake, tell us what is happening at this hour.</s>TAPPER: Alisyn, it's just before sunrise here in Jerusalem. We are almost one-third of the way through the 72-hour cease-fire with so far no violations of it yet. Israel has sent a delegation to Cairo, where this deal was of course hashed out under the leadership of the Egyptian government. All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, which both Israel and the U.S. consider to be a terrorist group, all have voiced support for sticking by this respite in the violence, and the hope is that the cease-fire can morph into something bigger and more sustained soon. One other note, Alisyn. A new poll in the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" suggests that most voters in Israel consider this conflict to be something of a tie, with Israel only having achieved partial success in dealing a big blow to Hamas, this despite the claims of triumph by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet. The other big story, of course, comes out of Afghanistan, where an ambush believed to be an Afghan soldier killed a U.S. Army major general and wounded up to 15 coalition troops. And CNN's Jim Sciutto has more on that story. Jim, what happened?</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, this took place at Afghanistan's premier university in effect for senior military officers, their equivalent of West Point. It's been a real focus for coalition forces there, including U.S. forces, in terms of training the next generation of Afghan leaders. General Greene was visiting there along with a German general, senior Afghan commanders, when an Afghan soldier, one who had been with his unit for some time, one who had been through a serious vetting process that has been put into place of Afghan soldiers to prevent exactly this kind of attack, he opened fire on that senior delegation. He killed General Greene. He wounded 15 others, including eight American soldiers, as well as a German general. An investigation is going to be under way now to see how that vetting process failed. But it also raises questions because, as you know, of course, U.S. troops, coalition troops pulling out of Afghanistan in a number of months. And they're going to be focused on -- the onus for security focused on Afghan forces. Here is what Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said when I asked whether it undermines confidence in Afghan forces going forward.</s>SCIUTTO: We're months away from Afghan -- from the U.S. handing over security responsibility for Afghanistan -- to Afghan forces like these. Does this undermine your confidence in their ability to take over that role?</s>REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: The Afghan national security forces continue to perform at a very strong level of competence and confidence and warfare capability. They have had a good year securing not one, but two national elections.</s>SCIUTTO: To be fair, the number of the so-called green on blue attacks, that's Afghan soldiers attacking coalition troops, has dropped significantly since 2012, when it peaked. There hadn't been one for a number of months. Only two killed this year so far in these attacks. But as Admiral Kirby said, the steps they have taken, including vetting Afghan soldiers, have mitigated the risk. They have not eliminated this risk. Afghanistan still very much a battlefield, and we saw proof of that today, Jake.</s>TAPPER: Thanks, Jim -- back to you, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, Jake. We want to talk more about General Greene. Joining us now is Colonel Duane Myers. He lives next door to Major General Greene's family. Colonel Myers, thanks for being with us.</s>COL. DUANE MYERS, U.S. ARMY: I'm glad to be here.</s>CAMEROTA: Colonel, can you tell us how you got the news that General Greene had been killed?</s>MYERS: Well, we heard on the TV this morning that a general had been killed. And it fit the description of a major general in logistics. But we then saw a black car pull up outside their door and talk to a woman who drove up next to them and confirmed that it was he.</s>CAMEROTA: I can only imagine that feeling of having a black car pull up in front of your neighbor's house and knowing that they were about to deliver that news. Even I, Colonel, today felt a pang when I heard General Greene's name, because I had occasion to interview him almost a year ago last summer. I interviewed him. He was in Afghanistan and I talked to him about an element of the -- his mission there. You see on the screen there my interview with him. And even I felt the loss. I was just a reporter thousands of miles away from him. So tell me what it was like to live next door to him and what his family is like and what General Greene was like.</s>MYERS: Well, you know what a nice boy he was. And the community a is fairly tight community and it's in the cul-de-sac in</s>CAMEROTA: I think we're having trouble with colonel Duane Myers' cell phone there. But what he was saying is they lived on a cul-de-sac together and it was a really tight-knit community and that they all spent Christmases together. And it's a real loss for that family and for that neighborhood. And we thank Colonel Myers for joining us. I want to go back to Jake Tapper now. Jake, I know you have spent a lot of time in Afghanistan. You have even written a book about the fight there called "The Outpost." What do you make of how this could have happened?</s>TAPPER: Well, there are so many complicated reasons as to why these green on blue incidents happen. Part of it, of course, is infiltration by the Taliban with their allies in Pakistan pulling strings. Part of it is just how complicated war can be. It's a very obviously difficult situation. And people's opinions of the United States and the coalition forces change based on things that happen in their own lives. The army, as Jim mentioned, this is something they have taken very seriously. There was a peak of 61 deaths. It was 15 percent of all U.S. casualties in Afghanistan in 2012 -- 15 percent of them were from green on blue events. Now that's been reduced significantly. But it can't be eliminated entirely, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, of course. I understand. And, I mean, there must be some soul-searching in the Army today of how to do things differently?</s>TAPPER: Yes. I mean, look, they do a lot of vetting, obviously, and this is, as Jim mentioned, the West Point of Afghanistan. This is where officers were being trained. Obviously, they're going to redouble their efforts when it comes to vetting people. And they may have more, take more seriously -- there was something they did in 2012. They started a process called guardian angels. When U.S. soldiers were Afghan soldiers, there would be a U.S. soldier whose job it was to just watch the Afghan soldiers. They may bring that back in full force, I would think. But it's very, very complicated. Now let's turn subjects to the price of peace in this part of the world, the Middle East. Joining me now, we have a team of heavy hitters, Aaron David Miller, who advised six secretaries of state and helped formulate American policy in the Middle East. His latest book is "The End of Greatness." We also have Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, and, of course, former General Wesley Clark, retired General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us tonight. Ambassador Kurtzer, I want to start with you. Israel has had some tough things to say to U.S. official, most notably perhaps when Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly told the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, that he should -- quote -- "never, ever second-guess" him again when it came to dealing with Hamas. Have you heard that kind of talk when you were ambassador here or when you were ambassador in Egypt?</s>DANIEL KURTZER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO EGYPT: Well, we have experienced tough talk in the past. I dealt with Ariel Sharon as prime minister. He was quite tough on occasion. And so it's not unusual when the United States and Israel get into these spats. What is unusual is the fact that we have had these recurring fights for the entire period of the Obama and Netanyahu administrations. And the tenor of the discussion has really gotten nasty. So it's the length of time that these two sides are fighting with each other that makes this unusual.</s>TAPPER: Do you think that it undermines the influence that the United States has when there are such tensions between Netanyahu and President Obama?</s>KURTZER: Oh, it surely does. You know, countries in the region have always looked upon the United States-Israel relationship as a solid bedrock. And when they see this kind of consistent fighting and the words coming out of Jerusalem directed at American officials, it certainly undermines American credibility, and it hurts our ability to help Israel. And therefore it's not quite understandable why the Israelis are venting their frustrations in public. They have problems, let's talk about it. But I don't understand the public diplomacy going on here.</s>TAPPER: Aaron David Miller, let me bring you in. We still do hear a lot of public talk from officials on both sides about the strength of Israel's ties with the U.S. Just last week, Congress passed more hundreds of millions to fund the Iron Dome here. You have advised so many secretaries of state on this conflict. Do you think we're going to have to wait a couple of years almost for new administrations in the U.S. and here in Israel in order to make a fresh start and move forward with the alliance stronger?</s>AARON DAVID MILLER, WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS: You know, unlike Lehman Brothers, I think the U.S.-Israeli relationship really is too big to fail. But I do agree with Dan that there is a lot of dysfunction at the top. There is a lot of mistrust. There is a lot of suspicion. In life, where you stand has a lot to do with where you sit. And Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama are sitting in two very different places with two differing set of conflicting pressures. I think, when Obama looks at Netanyahu, he sees a guy who doesn't respect American interests, who is primarily concerned about his own political survival. And when Netanyahu looks at Obama, he sees a guy who is insensitive, from his point of view, to Israeli security needs, and almost bloodless. So you really do need, I think -- as Dan knows, we have seen tough times before. George H.W. Bush and Yitzhak Shamir, that was a real rough period. Dan and I both lived through that period. But the reality then was that Shamir and Baker and Bush found a way to cooperate with one another. And until Netanyahu and Obama find a common enterprise -- I don't know what it will be. Iran? That doesn't look so great. The Arab-Israeli peace process. I think Dan is right. I think it's going to be very difficult for the less than thousand days that remains in the Obama presidency to work out a really functional relationship between these two.</s>TAPPER: General Clark, the United States, as I mentioned, just OKed another $225 million for the Iron Dome missile defense system here and agreed to restock Israel's weapons during the operation. How critical to the United States is the military relationship? Obviously, it's vital to Israel.</s>GEN. WESLEY CLARK, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Well, we look at Israel as a very, very important and vital ally in the region. It's in America's vital interest that Israel be safe and secure. So we're going to support them. They're an outpost of democracy in the region. They show what can be done with modern technology. They're entrepreneurial. They're going to be energy-independent when they develop their offshore gas and oil. They have got lots of future and lots of potential. And if we can get a Middle East peace process and get nations working together, that will be the keystone for economic progress in the region. And so Israel's security and safety is vital to the United States.</s>TAPPER: It's been over a decade of controversial wars in the Middle East. Do you think, General Clark, that the reality is that U.S. influence in the world is waning?</s>CLARK: Well, I think what has happened is that other powers have gotten stronger relative to the United States economically. And they're asserting themselves. But I think the United States is still the great power. It's ours to win or lose in the Middle East. We do have to be careful the instruments of power we choose, because, military power, once it's used, when it's used, if there is no exit strategy, if it's not accompanied by the right diplomacy, if you don't take the leverage from the military power to achieve your overriding diplomatic and political aims, then the military power as an instrument, it is frittered away. Our problem in the Middle East -- I was one of those who didn't agree with going into Iraq. I didn't think it was necessary. When we did go in, we had a brief window of enormous diplomatic leverage. We didn't use it with Iran. We didn't use it effectively with the other nations in the region. And it soon became clear that we weren't really prepared for the occupation of Iraq which ensued. And so from that point and from then on, it's been very difficult for us to manage the military power that we had there in a way that is most constructive and most effective for the outcomes we seek.</s>TAPPER: All right. I have to leave it there. Ambassador Kurtzer, Wesley Clark and Aaron David Miller, thank you so much. We appreciate your time. And, General Clark, you will be back a little later in the show. When we come back, a former president's surprising call for action on Hamas, Alan Dershowitz will weigh in on that. Also, with the West's attention on the Middle East, is Vladimir Putin about to make a move in Eastern Europe? And practically speaking, is there anything the White House can do to stop him? We will ask our team of experts about Ukraine coming up.