This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," September 28, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID RITTGERS, CATO INSTITUTE: They're going to continue to serve a surgical strike capability, and in particular the most recent attack attacks in north Waziristan, it's an area where the Pakistani government itself doesn't have great control of either.

RICHARD HOLBROOKE, AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN ENVOY: Every bridge is out, by the way, in the same area you were discussing a moment ago. There may or may not be a connection and I'll leave it to you to decide whether there is or not. But the bridges are all gone in that area. The flooding has washed away the roads.

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BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: U.S. officials don't talk about it publicly, but privately they concede there have been an increase in the number of strikes -- there has been an increase in the number of strikes, predator drone strikes along the north Waziristan section of Pakistan, in fact 20 within the last few days in September. There you see Waziristan along the Afghan-Pakistan border -- 20 drone attacks in just three airstrikes from military helicopters into Pakistan that killed some 125 people along that area in the past couple of weeks.

What about this, and what is behind it, and what is the politics and the policy fallout? Let's bring in our panel, Bill Kristol, editor of "The Weekly Standard," Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer -- Charles?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: I think there's several reasons why there's been this escalation. Number one, we heard from Holbrooke, it's a tactical one. If you have an opportunity with the bridges washed out and there isn't the mobility and these guys can't escape. If you've got them and you have the intelligence, apparently there's been an increase in intelligence, and they're immobile, you hit them.

Secondly, we see all of this, all of these scares in France, England and Germany and there is a lot of indication of near imminent or at least in the works, attacks within Europe, and by the fact they're protecting the Eiffel tower, obviously, this is a -- this would indicate something large hitting iconic targets, and apparently it's emanating out of Pakistan. That would be the second reason. And the third is, actually, there's a war on in Afghanistan. We're now beginning the phase where we are trying to retake Kandahar, and the hinterland for the people who control Kandahar and that area, obviously, is in Pakistan. And we are hitting the sanctuaries, essentially in a way--

It's an odd analogy, but I think it does hold which is the way that in the Vietnam War we went into the neighboring countries like Cambodia, which was also a place where there were sanctuaries and when we were having offenses in Vietnam.

So, I think that's probably why. The one thing I'm a little concerned about it is we know about it, we really shouldn't. It is an embarrassment, the Pakistanis aren't happy when the leak is made. And if this is all being leaked in private, it shouldn't be. It should not be an irritant which we already have a lot between us and Pakistan.

BAIER: You're usually very critical of the administration. Is this something they're doing right?

KRAUTHAMMER: Absolutely right. And it looks like its coordination with the land war happening in Kandahar and southern Afghanistan, so I think it makes a lot of tactical and strategic sense.

BAIER: Mara?

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Yeah, I think that for anybody who thought that President Obama wasn't going to prosecute the war vigorously, this is a pretty good example of why they might have been wrong or too pessimistic.

He's continued the Bush policy and doubled down on it. He'd done more drone attacks. Now he's taking advantage of the flooding there. Although the flooding is a terribly destabilizing thing for the Pakistani government, this is one of its positive side effects.

BAIER: Because as Holbrooke said, Bill, the bridges are washed out and some roads are washed out and perhaps tough for people to move. What about the talking about it? We've seen Pakistan release a couple of statements, but there hasn't been a lot of pushback like there was for just a few strikes in the Bush administration?

BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Yeah, for whatever reason, General Petraeus or -- and President Obama have the ability to go know into Pakistan to some degree so far without much pushback. Maybe the Pakistanis now understand what a threat a resurgent Al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan is to Pakistan.

You know the Pakistani government a year and a half ago sort of looked as if it might be teetering against the threat of the fundamentalists of the Taliban, and I think they may have -- some people at least in Pakistan may have second thoughts being very cute and playing games too much with the Taliban.

But look, General Petraeus went over there, and I think when he went over there he was assured by President Obama he would get to try to win the war. He wasn't going there to hang on for a year and find a fancy exit strategy. They've been working hard there in Kabul and they have planned this offensive in Kandahar where they're going into Kandahar City. There is also going to be an offensive by the marines next door in and Helmand province. They also are trying to do a lot of damage to the counterterrorism strikes by using the drones. So you know, the surge, I remember in June of 2007 with General Odierno under General Petraeus in Iraq said the surge of forces has been completed, the surge of operations is now beginning. The surge of forces has just been completed and there are 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, and I think we are going to see a surge of operations in the next few months.

BAIER: The New York Times attempted bomber [sic] was tied back to the Pakistani Taliban, and publicly when that was happening in the early stages, the administration talked about it was a clumsy attempt, the Pakistani Taliban perhaps wouldn't be able to launch something across the sea.

And yet now there's a lot of talk of possible attacks and possible imminent plans to launch something in Europe.

KRAUTHAMMER: Look, Al Qaeda is degraded. It's on the run. It's in hiding, but it's not destroyed. And they haven't had a major attack in years. They've had these one-offs here and there, which are not impressive if you're looking for something that will catch the attention of the world.

From what we hear from the Europeans and the threat level and the closings of these iconic areas and structures, it means that they're looking at something large, and if you hear about that these days, you don't wait. You strike. You strike particularly at headquarters, and that's where the northern Pakistan, the border regions, is headquarters.

BAIER: And Mara, the left has been fairly silent.

LIASSON: We haven't heard anything about this. I think that the left is against the escalation of the war. I don't think they're going to focus on drone attacks. They've never made that a kind of specific issue.

But I think that come December, especially next summer, you are going to see some demands for probably a greater pull down than there will be. But if it's successful and it looks like the war is working, I think a lot of that, those complaints go away.

BAIER: Last word, Bill.

KRISTOL: President Obama said something like "I can't afford to lose the Democratic Party." I hope personally he decides he can't afford to lose the war, and if he loses a bunch of Congressional Democrats, that doesn't matter as long as he's winning the war.

BAIER: Logon to our homepage at FoxNews.com/specialreport. You can check out the show notes portion of the page and keep up-to-date on the situation on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Up next, the president's chief of staff, will he stay or will he go? And who is in line to replace him?

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OBAMA: I think that Rahm will have to make a decision quickly because running for mayor in Chicago is a serious enterprise and I know this is something he's thinking about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has he told you what he wants to do?

OBAMA: He hasn't told me yet. But as soon as he does I'm sure we'll announce it.

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BAIER: President Obama speaking about his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel possibly running for mayor of Chicago. It is expected; at least our reporting is that a decision could come as early as Friday.

Here's the possible replacements' being talked about here in Washington. First, the insiders -- these are the folks who are under consideration, we're being told, and it's being reported.