LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We're hopeful that the Afghan security forces will play the major role in stoppings the Taliban. And I know what we're seeing unfold is what we expected to unfold, increase pressure.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, NATIONAL RECONCILIATION HIGH COUNCIL: They're challenges will be huge. I wouldn't call it the end of the world for our people. I would say that it will be very challenging, and that's why I am of the opinion that the whole focus has to be on achieving piece. But this doesn't only take us. It takes the other side.
BAIER: Talking about Afghanistan there, the press conference today with the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the first since the inauguration, spending a lot of time about troops coming home and the concerns about that. Let's bring in our panel, Katie Pavlich, news editor at Townhall.com, Amy Walter, national editor for the "Cook Political Report," and Trey Gowdy, former Congressman from South Carolina. Amy, the political impetus for this is now solidified. You had a Republican president pushing for this, a Democratic president doing it, and the population in the U.S. is for it. But there are concerns.
AMY WALTER, NATIONAL EDITOR, "COOK POLITICAL REPORT": Well, absolutely. It's been pretty clear in the last few days about just how challenging it's going to be for the Afghan security forces on their own to hold back the Taliban. The attacks have increased from the Taliban on Afghan forces, and we expect that that is going to continue. The real question, though, is whether this is going to be a launching pad for terrorism, as many are afraid, or whether the threat for that is under control and that the focus instead should be looking for signs of potential terrorist threats in other parts of the world or the other threats that we are seeing to the U.S. from other parts of the world.
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