Video: America and terrorism: 11 years later

>> much. of course, after the 9/11 attacks america went to war in afghanistan . today there are nearly 90,000 american troops deployed in afghanistan , more than 2,000 have died in what is america's longest war . it this morning the president and the first lady visited arlington national cemetery to horne those whose lives have been lost. joining me live now is nbc news mill father analyst and retired army colonel jack jacobs . rog roger cressy, let's start off with you before we talk about the troops. there's a cbs and "new york times" poll 54% said the economy and jobs were the most important issues, 37% of voters called terrorism and security extremely important. i would assume that's because we haven't had anything as devastating or close to what we all witnessed 11 years ago.

>> i think that's a large part of it. it's also the ending of the war in iraq , and in effect how the war in afghanistan is no longer front page news the way it should be and the way it was in the past. certainly the main reason why terrorism has receded as a priority is basically because of the success the administration had against al qaeda . we see a threat far different than on 9/11, it's aa far different and weaker threat. most americans while they deal with some of the annoyance of tsa and other security measures put in place since 9/11, i don't think they feel the press of the threat the way they did a number of years ago.

>> roger, i imagine there's not one thing you can name, but obviously people wonder. it is the improvement that is we've seen with tsa, some of the other counterterrorism measures in place and even the viewpoint of the cia, the fbi and counterterrorism agencies now working together? i guess the core of my question is, can you say why we have been so fortunate, so blessed, whatever term you choose to describe it for the attack like on 9/11?

>> tamron, it's all of the above. the point everyone needs to keep in montt is the u.s. government has learned a lot in the past 11 years and is doing a better job. we went on the offensive and destroyed al qaeda as an organization. there's intent by the remit nanna remnants of al qaeda and all the other groups. they lack the capability. we have done extremely well against them militarily, politically in terms of the international community and also domestically. the end result makes us safer than 12 years ago.

>> let's bring in colonel jack jacobs . we have video out of kabul, afghanistan with the troops there marking the solemn day, they're there, 88,000 swrr around that number. we're not talking a lot about afghanistan , what our role is. we know the president's pledge to have these troops out and we know the roll for our troops in iraq is now over but we have people on the ground there, many thousands.

>> we will for a while. i think the withdrawal from afghanistan is going to accelerate after election day and surely after inauguration day .

>> you said that for some time. why do you feel so confident?

>> it's very easy to avoid politicizing the war, but, in fact, the war is politicized. we're not going to have a draft and fight the war with as few people as we possibly can. the american public has not been engaged in our fight. i think the decision is going to continue to keep the war away from the political sphere as much as possible.

>> how difficult is that? it seems many lawmakers are afraid to delve into this. you talk about the american public not necessarily engaged. it is by many accounts because our lawmakers are afraid to dip a toe in the water. the president has his position and mitt romney is not vocal. many lawmakers both representatives and in the senate and higher up have avoided this war.

>> i think you're absolutely right. i think everybody is trying hard not to politicize it, which is why nothing will happen until after the election. though the president has said he wants to remove people beginning in 2014 , there are already rumbling that there's an accelerated withdrawal. i think the american public, it if you asked them, would say, look, we either go in there and fight it to the death or get out. i think getting out is probably the consensus of opinion.

>> obviously, if the president is re-elected it would be his last four years. would that give him more confidence to do perhaps things that republicans might certainly try to use as a political hot point or political football , as they like to say, within the beltway with something like this war?

>> it's interesting. the president will find it easy to accelerate withdrawal. it's his policy to withdrawal. i think if romney gets elected, it's going to be much more difficult for him to do anything except that, because the american public is satisfied with the fact that the bad guys have not attacked us anymore and they're not coming back, and the faster we get out of southwest asia the happier they're going to be. the american public has been disengaged, and i think they will remain disengaged.

>> roger, talking about disengaged, we do take so many things for grants. as you pointed out, some people complain about taking off shoes. there were seerps concerns about the kind of scanners we would walk through. some felt it was an invasion of their privacy, but there are so many things that we disengage or don't notice are happening. think about new york city , for example. all of these cameras in the middle of times square when we see things happen in that area, an attempted bombing that have kept us safe.

>> that's exactly right, tamron. it's not for lack of trying by al qaeda and its sympathizers. there's over a dozen attempts in new york city alone. even though we fortunately have not been attacked, it's not because of lack of effort by the adversary. as we saw with the underwear bomber in 2010 , with times square in 2009 , there are still attempts being made that were things to break a different way, they would have been successful. so there's still a long way to go here.

>> absolutely, roger. thank you. colonel,

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/48990656/

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