Spc. Ryan Howard of Niles, Mich., right, and Spc. David Straub of Ardmore, Okla., wait for news of fellow soldiers while waiting at the gate of the Fort Hood, Texas, Army base on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. (AP)

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A shock out of Texas at the end of this week, and a day of horror.

Thirteen killed, thirty wounded at Fort Hood in a shooting rampage in the heart of an American military base. Apparently by a uniformed Army major, Nidal Malik Hasan.

It’s a tragedy and horror the country is still taking on board — overshadowing the economy, where unemployment has hit 10.2 percent. Overshadowing state elections and their fallout. An imminent health care vote. Hard news in Afghan and Palestinian politics.

This hour, On Point: The killings at Fort Hood, and the news of the week in review.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Dallas, Texas, is Bill McKenzie, editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News.

Joining us from New York is Hendrick Hertzberg, staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is “Obamanos!: The Birth of a New Political Era.”

And from Hanover, N.H., is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

It’s a topic for our news roundtable today. What do you make of the letter?

President Barack Obama salutes as the remains of Army Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., are carried from a plane at Dover Air Force Base on Thursday morning, Oct. 29, 2009. According to the Department of Defense, Sgt. Griffin died in Afghanistan. (AP)

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Recession? What recession? We’ve got 3.5 percent growth in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said this week — so maybe that’s over. Or maybe not.

In Pakistan, Hillary Clinton took jabs — until she hit back. Pakistan must know where Al Qaeda is, she said, and could get them if they wanted to.

We’ve got a health plan from the House this week, an all-night vigil by the president at Dover Air Base, no decision yet on troops and Afghanistan, and no flu vaccine for lots of people in line. A skinny rocket goes up. Michael Jackson’s back.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Anne Kornblut, White House correspondent for The Washington Post. Her forthcoming book is “Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win.”

Also from Washington we’re joined by Howard Fineman, senior Washington correspondent and columnist at Newsweek. His latest  book, now out in paperback, is “The Thirteen Arguments.”

And from Hanover, N.H., we’re joined by Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

More links:

In today’s roundtable we talked about Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain who became the first foreign service official serving in Afghanistan to publicly resign in protest over the war. The Washington Post reported on the story and posted Hoh’s resignation letter.

In this photo taken Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, new Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, left, sits with his comrade Waliur Rehman during a meeting with media in Sararogha in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan along the Afghanistan border. (AP)

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Full boil in Afghanistan today. Helicopters down. Fourteen Americans dead. Anti-American protest in the streets of Kabul.

The Taliban crowing. But what is the Taliban? Is it a patched-together crew of outback opportunists that might be bought off, brought in, worked with to defuse Afghanistan and let the U.S. and NATO ramp down?

Is it a stone-cold ally of Al Qaeda committed to global war with the United States that must defeated?

Is it something else? The answer is central to America’s decision on troop levels for Afghanistan.

This hour, On Point: We’re looking again at the Taliban.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Peter Bergen, longtime journalist and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, where he co-directs the Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative. He’s author of “The Osama Bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader,” and editor of the Af-Pak Channel, at ForeignPolicy.com.  Read Peter’s piece on the Taliban-al-Qaeda merger in The New Republic.

Michael Semple, regional specialist on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and currently a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard. He’s worked in the Af-Pak region for more than 20 years, most recently as the deputy head of the EU Mission to Afghanistan.  His new book is “Reconciliation in Afghanistan.”  Read Michael’s piece on “Flipping the Taliban” in Foreign Affairs.

Read journalist David Rohde’s account of being held hostage by the Taliban for 7 months,  in the New York Times.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) whispers with Kai Eide, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, looks on during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. Afghanistan's election commission Tuesday ordered a Nov. 7 runoff in the disputed presidential poll. (AP)

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Two pilots may have been asleep this week with 147 passengers onboard. The pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, was not.

New pay cuts rolled out for top execs at bailed-out banks, and Fed oversight for pay at thousands of banks across the country.

In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai bows to election fraud charges and a likely runoff vote. Pakistan and the Taliban go bloody nose to nose.

On Capitol Hill, the health care “public option” comes back. Bad polls for the GOP. And the White House tangles with Dick Cheney and Fox News.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Jay Newton-Small, congressional correspondent for Time magazine. She also writes for Time’s “Swampland” politics blog.

Tom Gjelten, NPR correspondent covering national security and intelligence. His new book, just out in paperback, is: “Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: A Biography of a Cause.”

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor for The Atlantic.

Lt. Col. William McCollough, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion 5th Marines, talks with local elders during a planned meeting, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Oct. 6. (AP)

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Decision time is looming on U.S. troops and Afghanistan. Again this week, the White House war council meets in the Situation Room. On the table, a Pentagon request for 40,000 — maybe 60,000 or 80,000 – more troops in the field.

This is a watershed decision. Huge. Yet much of the public debate seems far from realities on the ground: the bomb-scarred streets and mountain passes and distant outposts up against the Taliban.

This hour, On Point: We’ll go to correspondents reporting from the heart of the conflict, for ground truth, on-the-ground reality, in Afghanistan.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan, is Laura King, foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. She reported recently on an attack on U.S. bases near the Pakistani border that left eight Americans dead.

Joining us from Essex, Connecticut, is Pam Constable, foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. She has been covering India, Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1998. She is now based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and reported recently on Afghan attitudes toward the U.S. troop presence.

And from New York, we’re joined by Martin Smith, documentary filmmaker and correspondent for the PBS series Frontline. Winner of four Emmys and three George Polk Awards, his many Frontline documentaries include “Return of the Taliban” (2006), “In Search of Al Qaeda” (2002), and “Hunting bin Laden” (1999/2001). His new documentary, “Obama’s War,” based on his on-the-ground reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, premieres tonight on PBS.

President Barack Obama listens during a meeting about the current situation in Pakistan on Oct. 7, 2009 in the Situation Room of the White House. (White House Photo/Pete Souza)

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A stunner from Oslo.  Eight and a half months into his presidency, President Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize.  For creating, said the committee, “a new international climate.” 

The news tops a week in which the White House was hunkered down in war council over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. 

A week of bombings in Kabul and Peshawar.  A swooning US dollar.  A green light on the cost of health care reform. Letterman in shame.  And NASA blasting the moon. 

This hour, On Point:  Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor of The Financial Times.

Jonathan Martin, senior political writer for Politico.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, left, is seen with Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, right, at the opening of the Geneva talks between Iran, the U.S., and five world powers in Geneva, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. (AP)

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Earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra and Samoa this week. Elsewhere, battling on.

In Geneva, no earthquake, but the big powers — the U.S. included — did sit down with Iran for nuclear talks, and made some progress.

In Copenhagen, it was all Olympics. At the White House, real debate over whether to boost troops in Afghanistan. In the Senate, no public option.

Saturn, the great motor hope, will die. The Dow wobbles. And September unemployment, up not down: 9.8 percent.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Jill Dougherty, foreign affairs correspondent for CNN.

Also from Washington we’re joined by Margaret Talev, White House correspondent for McClatchy.

And from Hanover, N.H., is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and Adm. Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. (AP)

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Dire warnings, made public today, by the top U.S. general in Afghanistan. “More Forces or ‘Mission Failure,’” is the headline in The Washington Post. Taliban victory. U.S. defeat.

My guests today say listen carefully, past the headline. Daniel Ellsberg, in 1971, leaked the Pentagon Papers that changed the country’s understanding of the Vietnam War.

Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s right-hand man at the State Department, called the case for war in Iraq a hoax.

This hour, On Point: The push for more troops in Afghanistan.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Daniel Ellsberg joins us from Berkeley, Calif. He had been a top-level defense analyst at the Defense Department and State Department and was working as an analyst at the RAND Corporation in 1971, when he leaked the so-called Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. He served as a rifle platoon leader in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 1950s. He is the subject of a new documentary called “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.”

Joining us from Williamsburg, Va., is Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (U.S. Army-Ret.). He was chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005. A former director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, he’s now a professor of national security studies at George Washington University and of government and policy at the College of William & Mary. He has been an outspoken critic of the George W. Bush administration and its case for the Iraq war.

Joining us from Berlin is George Packer, staff writer at The New Yorker. His article “The Last Mission” — about Richard Holbrooke, Afghanistan, and the ghosts of Vietnam — appears in current issue. His most recent book is “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq” (2005).
 

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, gestures during his news conference on health care legislation, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. (AP)

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Healthcare moves and missile-shield news this week.

In the Senate, Max Baucus finally delivers his proposal on healthcare reform. Questions now: Will he get a single Republican vote? Will enough Democrats sign on to pass or change the bill? Was it worth trying to compromise?

Poland and the Czech Republic will not have American missiles aimed over Russia at Iran. There are better ways to defend, says President Obama — and George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates.

We’ve got trade war talk. Carter on race. This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Michael Gerson, columnist for The Washington Post, contributor to Newsweek, and senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation. You can read her latest writings on politics at her “Editor’s Cut” blog.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), July 2009.

Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said in our first hour today that President Obama’s strategy for the war in Afghanistan is “unwise” and that the administration should not increase the U.S. military commitment there. The President has already boosted troop levels in Afghanistan, and he is now contemplating sending an even larger force to deal with a resurgent Taliban.

“I’m trying to persuade the President, who I think is a fine man and a very good leader, that this is not a good course,” Feingold told host Tom Ashbrook. “I’m trying to point out to him the problems with the course. And I assume he takes it in that spirit.”

Feingold went on to say, “It is an unwise strategy that does not reflect the President’s very words about the centrality of Pakistan versus Afghanistan.”

Listen to Feingold’s full interview:

In recent weeks, Feingold has become a leading Democratic voice advocating a “road home” from Afghanistan. Some foreign policy experts, however, maintain that the U.S. still has a chance at success if the right resources are marshalled. 

Feingold said that President Obama needs to listen to voices other than those in the military calling for more resources:

TOM ASHBROOK: President Obama has already bumped up the level by 21,000. And now with General McChrystal’s recommendation apparently very seriously considering a very significant further bump. You’re saying your Democratic President is wrong. What do you think is wrong with his analysis?

SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: You know, I was very hesitant to start saying this because I think President Obama has a much better concept of what’s going on in that region. He’s taken the lead in talking about how Pakistan is so central to the issue. But the problem is that at the same time, I did not understand why he accepted the advice of military people to beef up our military presence in Afghanistan when the much greater problem is in Pakistan. In fact, I think — and it’s basically not denied, by either the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, or Richard Holbrooke, our special envoy -- they did not deny that this may push more radicals into Pakistan, which is actually a bigger deal. So, when I heard about the 21,000 I was troubled. And I’m even more troubled now at the idea of a much bigger troop build-up. I think it’s a mistake. I think the President needs to listen a little bit less to the people that are talking about the military side, [and] listen more to people who are thinking about the whole region and the diplomatic side.

Senator Feingold appeared today along with former Pentagon official Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress, who supports an increased troop commitment, and Prof. Stephen Walt of Harvard University, a prominent skeptic of the president’s strategy. You can listen to the full hour here.

A member of the Afghan National Police stands guard at his post, in Khowst province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. (AP)

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Nobody calls the situation in Afghanistan good. Election results are a mess. The top U.S. commander says the American and NATO war effort faces serious trouble. The Taliban controls much of the country, and Al Qaeda still sits next door.

The question is what to do about it. President Obama calls the Afghan war a “war of necessity” — and is weighing a big, imminent decision on whether to send even more troops. Many in his own party say no.

This hour, On Point: to go deep or scale back in Afghanistan. We’ll hear voices on both sides, and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, who says no to escalation.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Kabul is Carlotta Gall, reporter for The New York Times. She’s been covering Afghanistan since November 2001.

Joining us in our studio is Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He’s an active blogger for Foreign Policy magazine and is one of the most prominent skeptical voices on the notion of getting deeper into Afghanistan.

From Lewis, Delaware, we’re joined by Lawrence Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He served as assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan. He advocates increasing U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan to perhaps 100,000. He was an informal advisor to the Obama campaign during the election, and he continues to give informal advice to Congress members of both parties about national security issues. You can read his thoughts on Afghanistan here.

And joining us from Washington is U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin. He is a leading Democratic voice calling for bringing home U.S. troops from Afghanistan, along what he calls a “flexible timetable.”

An Afghan woman voter walks past male voters lining up to cast their ballots, as she heads towards the women's side of a mosque made into a polling station in Kabul on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. (AP)

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Rocket attacks didn’t stop the vote in Afghanistan this week. And town hall fireworks haven’t stopped the health care push at home.

In Kabul and beyond, Afghans braved Taliban threats and went to the polls, though in smaller numbers than five years ago. It’s been a long war.

At home, Democrats pushed back on health care, but pushed each other, too, in debate over the “public option.”

We’ve got Blackwater back in the news, a new human speed record, and Cash for Clunkers’ last hurrah.

This hour, our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Tom Braithwaite, business and politics correspondent for The Financial Times.

Joining us from Philadelphia is Trudy Rubin, foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

And from Hanover, N.H., we’re joined by Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

A burqa clad woman walks past a poster of Afghan President Hamid Karzai pasted on the back of a vehicle in Herat, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009. Afghans will head to the polls on Aug. 20 to elect the new president. (AP)

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The people of Afghanistan go to the polls tomorrow to elect a president — if they have the courage. At least one Taliban commander has threatened to cut off any finger he sees daubed with the blue ink of the voter.

British diplomat, soldier, and scholar Rory Stewart knows Afghanistan far better than most. He walked across it. Learned it up close. He’s an adviser to the U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke.

But Rory Stewart says we’ve got our vision wrong for Afghanistan, the war, and nation-building. We need a rethink.

This hour, on election eve, a reality check on Afghanistan.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us first from Kabul is Laura King, reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Joining us from London is Rory Stewart, professor and director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He has served as a British soldier and diplomat, has been an outside adviser to U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, and is executive chairman of the Afghanistan-based  Turquoise Mountain Foundation. He’s author of “The Places in Between,” about his 2002 trek across Afghanistan, and of “The Prince of the Marshes,” about his time as coalition deputy governor of two southern Iraqi provinces in 2003 and 2004.

Stewart’s recent essay, “The Irresistible Illusion” (in the July 9 issue of the London Review of Books), offers an extended critique of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy.

The Washington Post’s Pamela Constable joined us today from Kabul. The Post’s video blog of the battle for Helmand is a must-see. Also, this photo gallery by Post photographer Nikki Kahn, on the ground in Helmand.  Another good photo gallery from Helmand is by NPR photographer (yes, NPR photographer) David Gilkey.

The Associated Press offers this video of Marines in Helmand Province last month:

The BBC is at the front lines, too, with this video of British troops:

CNN’s Ivan Watson watched recently as U.S. forces blew up an opium poppy cache in Taliban territory:

U.S. Marines from the 2nd MEB, 1st Battalion 5th Marines, run out to assist after a helicopter dropped an emergency water resupply outside a compound in Afghanistan's Helmand province, on July 8, 2009. (AP)

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It’s full battle time in Afghanistan. American troop levels surging. Daily firefights, roadside bombings, suicide attacks. Planes and helicopters going down. Poppy fields and opium stores ablaze.

Coalition forces are on the move, fighting, dying. Just three weeks in, this month, July, is already the deadliest for U.S. troops in nearly eight years of Afghan war.

A new top U.S. commander is armed with a new strategy: “clear, hold and build.” But the Taliban has strategies, too. And critics now call the war “Obama’s Vietnam.”

This hour, On Point: We’ll go to the heart of the fighting, and thinking, in Afghanistan.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan, is Laura King, reporter for The Los Angeles Times. She’s recently been in the country’s far eastern region, near the Pakistan border, at Forward Operating Base Salerno. Her piece in today’s LA Times reports on a new wave of coordinated Taliban attacks.

Also from Kabul we’re joined by Pamela Constable, reporter for The Washington Post. She’s just back from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, the focal point of the current coalition push. She’s also been in Faizabad recently, in the country’s remote northeast.

From Hardin, Montana, we’re joined by Gretchen Peters, a journalist who has covered the Afghanistan-Pakistan region for more than decade with the Associated Press and ABC News. She is author of the new book, “Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda.”

From Monterey, California, we’re joined by Kalev Sepp, professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. He is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and special forces officer. From 2007 to January 2009, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Capabilities, helping to oversee global counterterrorism policy.

More links:

We’ve posted a roundup of videos and photo galleries on the recent fighting in Helmand and elsewhere in Afghanistan.

Clockwise from top left: U.S. Marines move into Afghanistan's Helmand province on Thursday; Senator-elect Al Franken on Tuesday, shortly after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in his favor; South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday; people wait in line at a job fair in Seattle earlier this month. (AP)

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Jobs, jobs, jobs. And war. As Americans mark another Independence Day, the news at the end of the week reminds us where the nation stands.

In Washington, the White House responds to new unemployment numbers — now at 9.5 percent — and to critics of its stimulus plan.

In Afghanistan, 4,000 Marines move into Taliban territory. While in Iraq, U.S. troops move out of the cities — as bombings increase.

In Minnesota, the Democrats gain a 60th U.S. senator. In South Carolina, Republicans look to get rid of a governor.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Guests:

Steve Chapman, columnist and editorial writer for The Chicago Tribune.

Gebe Martinez, political columnist and contributor to Politico.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

A U.S soldier of 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division patrol, seen during a search operation for members of the Taliban, in Tangi valley of Wardak province west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, April 26, 2009. (AP)

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Memorial Day is a day to honor service and sacrifice.

It is also a day, in the so-called “Long War” years that have followed what was called the “War on Terror” — with American troops still deeply deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan — for all Americans to think about what we’re doing, what we’re asking, what we’re fighting for.

Onetime soldier, now scholar, Andrew Bacevich knows service — his own in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. He knows sacrifice — his soldier son’s life in Iraq. And he is asking the biggest questions.

This hour, On Point: Andrew Bacevich on America and war.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Andrew Bacevich joins us in our studio. Professor of international relations and history at Boston University, he is a West Point graduate and a veteran of the Vietnam War and Persian Gulf War. His latest book is “The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.”

President Barack Obama listens as he is introduced before speaking at the Arizona State University commencement ceremony at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., Wednesday, May 13, 2009. (AP)

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News popping on many fronts this week. In Afghanistan, a top U.S. commander is fired. In Tehran, journalist Roxanna Saberi is freed.

In Detroit, Chrysler announces it will close nearly 800 dealerships. In the future, we’re told, Medicare and Social Security will go broke sooner than we thought.

In Washington, President Obama reneges on releasing photos of detainee abuse. Nancy Pelosi says the CIA lied to her on torture. And the health care industry says it will cut its own costs, big time.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for Time magazine. She’s reported extensively on health care, and wrote this week about the way costs are driving the debate.  She also blogs at Time.com’s “Swampland.”

Also from Washington we’re joined by Gerald Seib, executive Washington editor and “Capital Journal” columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He’s co-author of “Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power.”

And from Hanover, N.H., is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

A Pakistani paramilitary soldier with a rocket launcher stands guard as local residents gather close to the site of suicide bombing on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. (AP)

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The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan are sitting down with Barack Obama today at the White House. One with a country in desperate trouble. One with a country in desperate trouble — plus nuclear weapons.

Pakistan is a significant nuclear power, with maybe a hundred very real nuclear bombs. It also has a Taliban insurgency on the march only 60 miles from its capitol, a military of uncertain capacity and uncertain loyalty, and a hovering Al Qaeda that all assume would love to have its own nukes for terror.

This hour, On Point: Pakistan’s frightening instability, and Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

What do you see coming from Pakistan? If the country blows up, what about its bombs? Do you fear they will be everywhere? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

 Joining us from Islamabad is Mosharraf Zaidi, columnist for Pakistan’s biggest English-language newspaper, The News, and for the Egyptian paper al-Shorouk. His work also appears in the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Joining us from Washington is David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times. He reported earlier this week on increasing U.S. concerns over Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

In our studio we’re joined by Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former director of intelligence and counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he tracked Al Qaeda’s efforts to obtain nuclear arms. Before that he spent 23 years at the CIA, where he was a senior officer sent to Pakistan to determine whether nuclear technology had been passed to Osama bin Laden. He is currently senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Mowatt-Larssen contributes to an online discussion, “Pakistan’s Nuclear Scenarios, U.S. Solutions,” at NYTimes.com.

And from Washington we’re joined by Stephen Cohen, senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. His books include “Four Crises and a Peace Process: American Engagement in South Asia” and “The Idea of Pakistan.”

More links:

As Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari heads to the White House today, The New York Times reports this morning on his efforts to reassure Washington about his government’s stability and its campaign to repel the Taliban.

In an opinion piece in yesterday’s Washington Post titled “Pakistan’s Critical Hour,” Pakistani journalist (and past On Point guest) Ahmed Rashid writes: “Pakistan is on the brink of chaos, and Congress is in a critical position: U.S. lawmakers can hasten that fateful process, halt it or even help turn things around.”