[00:00.00]The Taliban carried out a brazen attack today against a military base in Southern Afghanistan. 
[00:05.50]Using a truck bomb, gunmen stormed the complex and killed an American soldier. 
[00:09.89]That followed an assault Friday that targeted a restaurant frequented by Westerners in Kabul; 
[00:15.19]21 civilians were killed, 13 of them non-Afghans, in the single deadliest attack against foreign citizens since the war started.
[00:24.33]Claiming responsibility, the Taliban said the attack was in retaliation for an airstrike last week against insurgents in the eastern Parwan province. 
[00:32.07]There is little agreement on the genesis of that attack. 
[00:34.57]There were a number of civilian causalities, but there are conflicting reports on how many were killed.
[00:39.05]For more on the instability in Afghanistan, we turn to Washington Post reporter Pamela Constable. 
[00:45.24]She recently returned from the country. And Omar Samad, a former Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman who also served as the country's ambassador to France and to Canada.
[00:54.81]Welcome to you both.
[00:56.21]What does this latest attack, Pam, tell us about how unstable things are right now security-wise in Afghanistan?
[01:05.35]I think it tells us, number one, that the Taliban are very deliberate, very precise, very well-organized.
[01:10.28]They target places that they know will have high symbolic value, especially to the international community. 
[01:17.31]At a time of great uncertainty about things like the security agreement, about future elections, everybody's very nervous already in the country, both foreigners and Afghans. 
[01:26.78]And I think an attack like this really focuses that fear and those uncertainties and crystallizes a lot of the concerns and, of course, makes them much more personal and much more -- much more emotional.
[01:39.39]Ambassador Samad, do you see it the same way?
[01:41.53]I do.
[01:42.37]I mean, I think that Afghanistan overall is going through a very difficult period. 
[01:48.77]And there are some very hard questions on the table right now. 
[01:53.21]So the timing of this attack, the target itself, the selection of this target, a soft target, but with high visibility, 
[02:03.28]these are things that they must have taken into account when they decided to send three suicide bombers who created mayhem.
[02:13.07]Now, on the other hand, I think the Afghan people have seen such tragedies occur at times in there. 
[02:20.69]And I hope this is not sort of a watershed moment for all of us, including the international presence in Afghanistan. 
[02:28.80]But Afghans are very resilient as well. And I think that they have also demonstrated over the past 24 hours that they came out on the streets, right next door to this -- the place where this incident took place.
[02:43.10]They demonstrated, they protested, and they said, we will not give up, and we will continue against terrorism.
[02:47.73]You talk about the soft target of this particular restaurant. Both of you have spent time there. It's a very popular place.
[02:53.47]Pam, tell us about it.
[02:56.20]It was really my home away from home on my trip, my many trips to Afghanistan in recent years.
[03:01.68]The owner was a wonderful Lebanese businessman, a friend to all of us, not only charming and a genial host, but a truly generous and kind person. 
[03:11.89]And he would never let us pay for dinner because he thought of us as his friends. 
[03:16.78]Every time I went to Afghanistan, I would always have a farewell dinner with my friends at his restaurant. I must have been there, you know, 50 times.
[03:23.81]And I always felt that it was my comfort zone. I always felt that it was a place of warmth and civility, and also safety, frankly.
[03:31.19]And the owner, of course, is one of the people killed in the attack.
[03:35.78]He indeed was killed, yes.
[03:36.87]As you -- when you think about these soft targets in restaurants like this or places that are high-profile for Westerners, 
[03:42.26]do you think the attack is geared to those places particularly to get that attention, in a way that an attack in Parwan province might not?
[03:50.71]Yes, absolutely.
[03:52.20]I mean, this is, in my opinion, part of a grand planning, grand design on the part of the Taliban, people who strategize for the Taliban. 
[04:05.16]Remember, this year is a very important year, 2014. This is a year not only of the end of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, including the U.S. mission, as we have known it. 
[04:17.03]It is the year of Afghan elections in just less than three months' time.
[04:21.59]It is the year of transitions in so many ways for Afghans, who are uncertain about the future. 
[04:27.17]So this is when the Taliban want to have the greatest impact possible. 
[04:32.94]They are against the BSA, this bilateral security agreement between the U.S. and Afghanistan. 
[04:38.50]And President Karzai has made it harder than everyone because he has been reluctant to sign it for his own reasons.
[04:44.34]So the Taliban want to send these messages. And I think that they may continue to send these messages. 
[04:49.87]I have to say, 24 hours just after this tragedy in Kabul, we heard that three young Afghans, young men, were killed when the Talibs fired a rocket on a soccer field in Kandahar.
[05:05.59]But that is not the example that President Karzai cited, for instance.
[05:08.61]No, but President Karzai didn't mention this incident. He mentioned basically this one in Parwan.
[05:15.24]Parwan is a complex situation. We have two different versions, as you mentioned earlier, 
[05:19.91]one which says that the Afghans were in the lead, that they were being -- that the joint operation was under duress and that they had to call in for air support.
[05:30.58]The other says that, well, you know, it was a NATO operation, that there wasn't much coordination and so on and so forth. 
[05:37.80]So, as far as I'm concerned, we have to get to the bottom of this, but we cannot politicize every event that takes place.
[05:46.11]You talk about the uncertainty.
[05:47.47]You have been there. You both have been there in the last couple of weeks. 
[05:51.10]How much does the political uncertainty, the refusal of signing the agreement, how much does that trickle down to the uncertainty on the ground, the lack -- or the sense that people are less safe?
[06:01.28]I think it trickles down very much.
[06:03.62]I know many Afghans who have already left the country or are planning or trying to leave the country, people who have good jobs, 
[06:10.34]people who were in good positions, not just poor people, but people who had some very strong prospects for success in that country, 
[06:18.32]who are now so genuinely worried about things falling apart, which we all hope won't happen.
[06:25.24]But there's so much fear that they will. And I'm not only talking about foreigners. 
[06:30.29]I'm really talking about Afghans here who know their country and know what is at stake. 
[06:33.80]So it's really -- it's almost like something in the water that I think has infected us all.
[06:38.22]But in order for this withdrawal to work, in order for this agreement to work, even if it were signed, doesn't it depend a lot on Westerners, 
[06:45.90]on foreigners, on these non-governmental organizations who are on the ground, who can feel secure enough to stay? 
[06:53.02]Do you have a sense that they are rethinking their missions?
[06:57.21]I'm sure there is always rethink taking place in Afghanistan because of one reason or another.
[07:01.35]But this incident obviously is going to make a lot of organizations, international organizations and presence rethink security arrangements. 
[07:11.77]I don't think that the engagement in the mission is going to change much, unless we turn into another Baghdad, for example. 
[07:20.34]And we look at what has happened in Iraq. And God forbid that Kabul becomes another Baghdad at this point.
[07:26.12]So, Afghans themselves will do everything possible.
[07:32.09]I think the Afghan security forces have again shown that they have the ability and the courage to go after these people and to do what is needed. 
[07:40.37]I think that needs to be worked on. This is why the BSA is so important, because the BSA is the only...
[07:47.30]BSA.
[07:47.95]The bilateral security agreement is the only way for the Afghan security forces to continue to develop and grow. 
[07:54.72]And, at the same time, it's the only way to fund Afghanistan for the next few years until it's able to fund itself.
[08:01.37]You mentioned a few moments ago that this might be a watershed moment. You both have been in and out of the country, very connected to what is happening on the ground. 
[08:10.15]Does it feel like a watershed moment to you, Pamela?
[08:12.29]It does, but maybe that's because I'm too close to it and it's only just happened. And, you know, friends of mine were killed, and that always makes you feel particularly vulnerable.
[08:23.79]I hope it's not. But many people I have talked to over the past two or three days feel as if it may never be the same for them again.
[08:31.60]I also hope it's not.
[08:33.99]I think that Afghans will overcome it. It is the international community that has to realize that there is much more at stake in Afghanistan, 
[08:44.02]and that tragedies such as at these that -- where our friends die and people we know need to be put in context. And I hope that's what they will do.
[08:54.31]Omar Samad, Pamela Constable, thank you both very much.
[08:58.54]And my condolences to you for the loss of your friends.
[09:00.08]Thank you very much.