Week In The News: Afghanistan Woes, Santorum, Goldman's Black Eye

Afghanistan after the massacre. Santorum takes Dixie. Goldman Sachs takes a punch. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Shocks to the system in Afghanistan this week. Sixteen villagers – nine children – massacred, allegedly by an American staff sergeant. The Taliban walks away from negotiation talk. Karzai wants US troops confined to base. In the US, a record-breaking winter heat wave. In the south, Rick Santorum takes Mississippi, Alabama. Dogs Romney. On the stump, Joe Biden comes out swinging. Says Republicans would bankrupt the middle class. We’ve got a fiery departure from Goldman Sachs. Pink slime. March madness.

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

Major Garrett, White House correspondent for National Journal.

Chrystia Freeland, editor of Thomson Reuters Digital.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

The Guardian "Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran on how to handle the uprising against his rule, according to a cache of what appear to be several thousand emails received and sent by the Syrian leader and his wife."

New York Times "Prospects for an orderly withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan suffered two blows on Thursday as President Hamid Karzai demanded that the United States confine troops to major bases by next year, and the Taliban announced that they were suspending peace talks with the Americans."

Wall Street Journal "But the Republican presidential nominating contests so far have also highlighted an important Romney asset: He has shown the most muscle in states that will determine who takes the White House in November."