National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones

appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" with John King Sunday morning. Here's an excerpt from the full transcript:

KING: Set the stage. So you don't see the end in sight now?

JONES: Well, I think the end is much more complex than just about adding "X" number of troops. Afghanistan is a country that's quite large and swallows up a lot of people. The key in Afghanistan, as we said back in March, is to have a triad of things happen simultaneously.

Security is obviously one reason, one important thing to take care of. But these -- the other two are economic development and good governance and the rule of law. And on that -- on that score, we have a lot more work to do in, and the Karzai government is going to have to pitch in and do much better than they have.

But underlying that is, of course, the effort to build up the Afghan national security force, the police and the army, and that will -- that will be an important part of whatever we decide to do.


Economic development; a secure culture; good governance and the rule of law; a robust and well-trained police and army. In that part of the world those conditions have never existed at the same time except maybe in times of ruthless dictatorship. Success in the mission in Afghanistan seems like a pipedream.

I have to add that I believe that one former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO talked about these elements 6-7 years ago. It might have been possible then, and we might have gotten more help than we're getting now.

"Supreme Allied Commander of NATO" he was referring too could have been General Clark?

Been wondering and hoping that they'd recognise his advice.

Besides the cool name and swagger, he really seems to be a cool head with a seat at the table regarding foreign policy. President Obama chose well. Mr Jones understands there needs to be healthy debate and dialogue before we start escalating foreign excursions.