Nightly News   |  February 26, 2012

Anger intensifies in Afghanistan

President Obama’s apology to Afghanistan for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base may become a campaign issue. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> we want to bring in andrea mitchell , our chief foreign affairs correspondent. what is the level of worry over this in washington about the u.s. mission going forward?

>> it is extreme because the eruption of this violence is really alarming. it undercuts the whole rational for the u.s. mission in afghanistan , lester. suggesting that after all these years, the lives lost, the money spent, we still have not forthed a real partnership of trust with the afghans who are supposed to be training them so they can carry on without us. now the prospect that an afghan intelligence officer could have murdered those two american officers, if that is proved that will make it even worse . our ambassador to afghanistan ryan crocker who you just saw in atia's report has also withdrawn embedded u.s. civilians. there now is also going to be pressure on the white house to announce i think a more rapid withdraw from afghanistan when nato meets in chicago in may. and this is, of course, going to be a campaign issue. finally, we should point out that even though the burning of the korans was reportedly inadvertent and no-in no way justifies murdering americans, they have to be asking themselves, how can that kind of mistake be made this