1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:03,200 Speaker 1: When I came in office, I inherited a deal to 2 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: President Trump negotiated with the Taliban. Under his agreement, Nataliban 3 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:11,440 Speaker 1: was at its strongest militarily since two thousand and one. 4 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: We were clear eyed about the risk. We planned for 5 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: every contingency, but I always promised the American people that 6 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,600 Speaker 1: I would be straight with you. The truth is this 7 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated. American troops 8 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,680 Speaker 1: cannot and should not be fighting in the war and 9 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 1: dining in the war that Afghan forces are not willing 10 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,280 Speaker 1: to fight for themselves. I know there are concerns about 11 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:40,880 Speaker 1: why we did not begin evacuating Afghans civilians sooner. Part 12 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: of the answer and some of the Afghans did not 13 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:45,920 Speaker 1: want to leave earlier, and part of it because the 14 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a 15 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 1: mass extorists to avoid triggering, as they said, a crisis 16 00:00:54,040 --> 00:01:06,600 Speaker 1: of confidence. I stand squarely behind my decision. On this 17 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: episode of News World, I'm going to take some time 18 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:14,039 Speaker 1: to talk about Afghanistan and context. I'm tempted to just 19 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:18,959 Speaker 1: spend an hour bashing President Biden. Is total mishandling of 20 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:22,640 Speaker 1: this and the pathetic nature of his speech, But I 21 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 1: don't think that's what we really need is a national conversation, 22 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: because we have big challenges and we have to recognize 23 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 1: it at a time when our southern border is wide open, 24 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: at a time when worldwide television is carrying the message 25 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: to every would be terrorist on the planet that the 26 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 1: US is backing down, at a time when the Chinese 27 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: and the Russians, and the Venezuelans and the Cubans and 28 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 1: others would like to make as much trouble for America 29 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:54,800 Speaker 1: as they can. We have challenges beyond a speech by 30 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 1: President Biden, and that we need to think about as 31 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 1: a country, as a people. If we've invested twenty years 32 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: in trying to change a country, in twenty years in 33 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:13,679 Speaker 1: trying to defeat a local organization that's really based on 34 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: the values of the seventh century, and we didn't succeed 35 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:21,320 Speaker 1: by definition, then there's a lot of thinking that needs 36 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: to go into this. And Frankly, as a former Speaker 37 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 1: of the House, I think that the Congress, both House 38 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,320 Speaker 1: and Senate, both Democrat and Republican, should be laying out 39 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:35,399 Speaker 1: a very intensive and exhaustive review of both the intelligence 40 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,680 Speaker 1: community and the Pentagon and the State Department. I mean, 41 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: if you go back and you look at some of 42 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,359 Speaker 1: the things that President Biden and his team said not 43 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 1: very long ago, like weeks, and then you think about 44 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:52,519 Speaker 1: a lot of that was based on what people were 45 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: telling him. He wasn't just making it up himself, and 46 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 1: so you have to ask yourself if they were really 47 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,120 Speaker 1: that confident to three, four or five weeks ago, then 48 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,919 Speaker 1: I think you've got to ask what's wrong with our 49 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 1: system because we've had people now who've been in country 50 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:14,160 Speaker 1: since the fall of two thousand and one. Our initial 51 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: reaction was to send a relatively small number of special forces, 52 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: but to back them up with huge amounts of air power, 53 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:23,960 Speaker 1: and the result was they did a devastating a good job, 54 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,119 Speaker 1: which was actually captured in a book called The Harsh Soldiers, 55 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: and it was quite funny. One of the major requirements 56 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: for emergency logistics when they first went in was to 57 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,840 Speaker 1: get extra large pantyhose because they were doing so much 58 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: riding that they were being rubbed raw and they needed 59 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: something to protect their legs. So it sounds weird, but 60 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: I happened to be involved at the time, and it 61 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: was literally true. It was one of the stories that 62 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: was making the rounds at the time, But they did 63 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: an amazing job of allying with our friends in the 64 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,480 Speaker 1: North who were anti Taliban and collectively using power in 65 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: using on the ground intelligence and laser designation to basically 66 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: destroy the Taliban's ability to fight the forces that have 67 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: been narrated against him. So let's talk about Afghanistan. Afghanistan 68 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: from some standpoint, really grew to prominence when the Soviets 69 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:44,239 Speaker 1: intervened to prop up a pro Soviet leader in nineteen 70 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:48,760 Speaker 1: seventy nine, and Jimmy Carter went on television and in 71 00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:51,600 Speaker 1: an interview admitted that for the first time he's been 72 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: to think the Soviets weren't our friends, because he was 73 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: so surprised at the way that they had occupied and 74 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: it basically invaded after and at the time, Carter's reaction 75 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 1: part was a grain embargo against Russia, which actually hurt 76 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:11,680 Speaker 1: the American farmers more than the Russians, and also to 77 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:17,120 Speaker 1: boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow, which cumulatively the average 78 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 1: American combined all that with the Iranian hostage crisis and 79 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: decided that Carter really didn't quite know what he was doing, 80 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: and it was a significant part of why he was defeated. 81 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:29,880 Speaker 1: Reagan came along, and of course Reagan was a very 82 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 1: stolen Shanti Communist, and Reagan understood that the Soviet occupation 83 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:39,960 Speaker 1: of Afghanistan was an enormous advantage. And I always thought 84 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: this was odd in terms of what we ended up 85 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,920 Speaker 1: doing later, because it was quite clear that the Afghans 86 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 1: have a very, very long history, probably going back at 87 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: least to Alexander the Great of throwing out foreigners, and 88 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: that they were not intimidated by the Siviet Union. And remember, 89 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: the Siviet Union was physically so than we are to Afghanistan. 90 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: The Soviet Union had a big military in nineteen eighty 91 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 1: eighty one, and the Soviet Union was willing to be 92 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:14,600 Speaker 1: vastly more vicious than we would ever dream of. For example, 93 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: as part of their effort to break the morale of 94 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: the rebels, they would put tiny bombs inside children's toys 95 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:27,000 Speaker 1: and distribute them around the countryside, knowing that they were 96 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 1: going to either kill or maim young Afghans who picked 97 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,640 Speaker 1: up the toys. I mean, the kind of stuff. You 98 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:36,200 Speaker 1: sort of understood that the Soviets would do it. But 99 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 1: what was amazing was the Afghans just kept coming, they 100 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: wouldn't back off, and we decided finally that we would 101 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: get engaged on the side of the Afghan of rebels 102 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,159 Speaker 1: who were called Mojahadeen. The key thing we gave them 103 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:53,039 Speaker 1: was Stinger missiles, and the reason that mattered was that 104 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 1: the Soviets, just like the Americans, were using air power 105 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: and particularly using very large helicopters that were very heavily 106 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: armored and very hard to knock down, and Stinger missiles 107 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: one shot, one kill. So the Singer missile, in fact, 108 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: suddenly gave the Afghans the tactical advantage and allowed them 109 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: to use American technology to offset the Russians, and automaly 110 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:20,680 Speaker 1: broke the back of the Soviet world to fight. The 111 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:24,240 Speaker 1: withdrawal from Afghanistan was one of the first signs of 112 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:27,800 Speaker 1: the beginning of the end for the Soviet Empire. That 113 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:32,440 Speaker 1: was a context in which people then tried to find 114 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: a way to manage the chaos of Afghanistan. And it's 115 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 1: important to remember that for most of the Afghan history 116 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: you've had local regional centers with a very weak central government, 117 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: and that's exactly what began to follow when the Soviets 118 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 1: left because the Taliban was the dominant single group, partially 119 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:58,360 Speaker 1: because the Taliban represents the Pashto and the Pashto who 120 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:02,400 Speaker 1: are in the southern Kandahar are the largest population group, 121 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:06,600 Speaker 1: so they had certain advantages just in terms of sheer population. 122 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: But the fact was that the Taliban didn't control the country. 123 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,960 Speaker 1: No one controlled the country. There was an emerging effort. 124 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: Taliban meant students in the Pashto language. They emerged in 125 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,560 Speaker 1: the early nineteen nineties in northern Pakistan, and that's a 126 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: very important part of the story that we have to 127 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:31,920 Speaker 1: come back to. The Taliban would not have survived if 128 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: they had not been able to go into Pakistan as 129 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:40,600 Speaker 1: a sanctuary, and in fact, precisely has happened in the 130 00:08:40,679 --> 00:08:44,200 Speaker 1: Vietnam War where when things got too hot, of the 131 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:48,520 Speaker 1: Vietcong and later the North Vietnamese Army would go across 132 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: the border and Delayos and Cambodia, which turned out to 133 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:57,360 Speaker 1: be sanctuaries for psychological reasons. Similarly, Pakistan, which is a 134 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: big country, it has nuclear weapons, it is focused very 135 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: heavily on India and on the province of Kashmir, which 136 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:08,960 Speaker 1: is the opposite side of the country from Afghanistan, but 137 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: it also has a secret police and intelligence component which 138 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:20,920 Speaker 1: is very, very heavily focused on Islamism and really very 139 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:24,440 Speaker 1: sympathetic to the Taliban, which is why when we finally 140 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,880 Speaker 1: found Ben Ladden, he was in Pakistan. He wasn't just 141 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: in Pakistan. He was in the city which has the 142 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,880 Speaker 1: Pakistani Command in General Staff College, and he was actually 143 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,199 Speaker 1: living within a mile of the Command in General Staff College. Now, 144 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:42,960 Speaker 1: nobody believed that Ben Ladden could have been hiding there 145 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:47,040 Speaker 1: without somebody in Pakistan knowing it, but he was being 146 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,439 Speaker 1: protected by the Pakistanis which is why when we decided 147 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: to go after him, we didn't do it as a 148 00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:55,720 Speaker 1: joint US Pakistan operation because we knew that if they 149 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,320 Speaker 1: knew we were coming, they would have moved him. So 150 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,720 Speaker 1: you have the emerged of the Taliban, or students in 151 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:07,200 Speaker 1: the Pashto language, who begin to be organized and they 152 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,720 Speaker 1: begin to As the Soviets pull out, leaving a vacuum 153 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:15,640 Speaker 1: of power behind, the Taliban begins to capture significant parts 154 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:17,840 Speaker 1: of the country. They never capture all of it in 155 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:22,000 Speaker 1: this phase, but they capture significant parts. By nineteen ninety six, 156 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: they've captured the capital of Kabul and they've overthrown the 157 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:29,679 Speaker 1: regime of President Robani, who was one of the founding 158 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: fathers of the Afghan Mujahadeen that had resisted the Soviets. 159 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: So you begin to see a shift of power away 160 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:43,080 Speaker 1: from the anti Soviet Afghans towards the pro religious, fanatic Afghans. 161 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: By nineteen ninety eight, they control about ninety percent of Afghanistan, 162 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:51,360 Speaker 1: which was becoming a leading supplier of heroin, was a 163 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,560 Speaker 1: major part of the Afghan economy and which makes our 164 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 1: work they're much more complicated. They also at that time 165 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:02,920 Speaker 1: were gradually squee easing the various tribes in the north, 166 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:08,560 Speaker 1: but there was still some significant opposition to the Taliban, 167 00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:12,720 Speaker 1: particularly in the northern provinces that were near the former 168 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:19,160 Speaker 1: Soviet areas like Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. The Taliban had gotten 169 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:25,319 Speaker 1: to know the Arabs because when the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan, 170 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 1: they had particularly infuriated the Saudis. The Saudis were offended 171 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: that the Soviets would invade a Muslim country, and there 172 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:40,040 Speaker 1: was a very substantial number of Saudis and others, but 173 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: particularly Saudis, who went to help fight the Soviets and 174 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:46,960 Speaker 1: so they actually formed the equivalent of a small brigade 175 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:51,079 Speaker 1: of foreigners who were quite prepared to fight. And as 176 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:55,959 Speaker 1: a result, the Taliban had a sympathetic attitude towards these foreigners. 177 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:59,920 Speaker 1: And once the Soviets had collapsed, the very same foreigners 178 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,360 Speaker 1: who were against the Soviets in Afghanistan were against the 179 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: Americans on the Arabian Peninsula, and their view to have Americans, 180 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 1: who are infidels on the holiest areas of Islam was 181 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:20,880 Speaker 1: simply unacceptable, undermined their respect for the Saudi monarchy and 182 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:24,880 Speaker 1: led them to want to fight the Americans. So combine 183 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:29,160 Speaker 1: that with what had been at large the Egyptian developed 184 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 1: Muslim brotherhood approach, which also wanted to fight the Europeans 185 00:12:32,679 --> 00:12:36,680 Speaker 1: and the Americans. And as the Soviets disappear, which of 186 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:40,520 Speaker 1: course by December of nineteen ninety one, they have literally disappeared, 187 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: and the vacuum, you begin to get a transition towards 188 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:48,320 Speaker 1: willingness to take on the Americans and a belief, and 189 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:52,120 Speaker 1: this was said fairly often that look, we defeated the Soviets, 190 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: they were the second most powerful country in the world. 191 00:12:54,480 --> 00:13:14,679 Speaker 1: Of course we can defeat the Americans and so there 192 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:17,200 Speaker 1: was a certain kind of pride to Hubris, if you will. 193 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:20,480 Speaker 1: And there were bombings. There were attacks in Africa, in 194 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:23,960 Speaker 1: particular where two American embassies were bombed. There was a 195 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,360 Speaker 1: clear effort on the part of organizations like al Qaeda, 196 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:32,440 Speaker 1: which was largely Arab but deeply fundamentalist and again quite 197 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:36,760 Speaker 1: happy to live in the seventh century, to really engage 198 00:13:36,840 --> 00:13:41,440 Speaker 1: in war against the West and particularly against America. And 199 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,520 Speaker 1: they were helped clandestinely by the Iranians. I mean, I 200 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: think there's no question nowadays that the Iranians were a 201 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:53,920 Speaker 1: major part of supporting al Kaheda, in some cases allowing 202 00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:57,080 Speaker 1: them to come to irand for hospitalization if they were sick, 203 00:13:57,559 --> 00:13:59,439 Speaker 1: in other cases allowing them to come to Rand to 204 00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:04,400 Speaker 1: rest and recuperate. So there were a lot of interesting relationships. Well, 205 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,640 Speaker 1: the Taliban was part of that. The Taliban attitude was 206 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:10,960 Speaker 1: that you know, these are our friends, these are our allies. 207 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:13,679 Speaker 1: We our salves, don't want to go pick a fight, 208 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,640 Speaker 1: but if they want to go pick a fight, as 209 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:19,520 Speaker 1: good hosts, we're not going to kick our guests out. 210 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:23,920 Speaker 1: And this became a very tense position when you got 211 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,040 Speaker 1: into the attack on nine to eleven. And remember the 212 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: attack on nine to eleven is Saudis. It's not Afghans, 213 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:34,000 Speaker 1: it's not even Iranians. I mean that logical people for 214 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:36,560 Speaker 1: us to focus on. These were people from the Saudi 215 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:41,120 Speaker 1: Arabian system, and they were as much anti the Saudi 216 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: monarchy as they were anti the United States. They pulled 217 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:49,440 Speaker 1: off what we still today I think underestimate is an 218 00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:55,680 Speaker 1: absolutely brilliant both tactical and strategic strike. As we approached 219 00:14:55,720 --> 00:15:00,000 Speaker 1: the twentieth anniversary of nine to eleven, it would really 220 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:04,480 Speaker 1: be helpful to America and helpful to our system to 221 00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 1: recognize that this was an amazing achievement. You had a 222 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: very small number of people using commercial airliners, exactly as 223 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:16,760 Speaker 1: Tom Clancy had written about in one of his novels, 224 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:20,280 Speaker 1: and the amount of damage they did, the number of 225 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:24,760 Speaker 1: people they killed, the degree to which that then triggered 226 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:28,320 Speaker 1: their strategic goal, which was to suck the United States 227 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:31,800 Speaker 1: into the Middle East. They wanted the Americans to come 228 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:34,280 Speaker 1: into the Middle East because they thought they could kill 229 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: them more easily, and they thought that a part of 230 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:41,680 Speaker 1: their strategy for destroying American civilization was to so debilitated 231 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:45,720 Speaker 1: both financially and in human lives that in fact, the 232 00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:50,800 Speaker 1: Americans couldn't sustain it well. President Bush responded to nine 233 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:55,560 Speaker 1: to eleven with great intense militancy. In the first phase, 234 00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: we sent troops in, we sent combat power and very 235 00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:03,880 Speaker 1: real ways in terms of air power, and we built 236 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of intelligence capability, and in a very 237 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:12,840 Speaker 1: short time the Taliban collapsed. By October seventh, we were 238 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: in Afghanistan launching attacks, and by the first week of December, 239 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: the Taliban regime had collapsed. So at the end of 240 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:25,200 Speaker 1: two thousand and one, things look pretty good, and then 241 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:30,240 Speaker 1: things start to get muddier. April seventeenth of two thousand 242 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: and two, President George W. Bush calls for a Marshall 243 00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:36,440 Speaker 1: Plan for Afghanistan. Now, I personally believe in. At the time, 244 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: I was working with people like Richard Starr and JOHNS. 245 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:43,320 Speaker 1: Hopkins on what he called his eighteen wheeler theory, which 246 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:45,800 Speaker 1: was that you wanted to build roads north and south, 247 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: open up the stands Tazikistan and Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and have 248 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: a huge flow of commerce through Afghanistan, which would modernize 249 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 1: the country, bring it into the twenty first century, et cetera. 250 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 1: And had we followed through on that kind of a 251 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,040 Speaker 1: martial plan, you know, it might have been a very 252 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:09,880 Speaker 1: different world. The fact was most of the Afghan tribes 253 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: did not want to be opened up, and they weren't stupid. 254 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:17,959 Speaker 1: They understood that if we were successful in building these roads, 255 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:21,479 Speaker 1: that their way of life was going to collapse, and 256 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:24,520 Speaker 1: so there was great resistance to doing this, including a 257 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: fair amount of fighting. We sent in some National Guard units, 258 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 1: we had some contracts with civilian contractors, but then, in 259 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,760 Speaker 1: what may have been a fatal mistake, on March twentieth 260 00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:38,919 Speaker 1: of two thousand and three, we invaded Iraq. And the 261 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:42,639 Speaker 1: reason that matters is we diverted military resources and we 262 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:47,960 Speaker 1: diverted senior leadership attention away from Afghanistan. We were not 263 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,359 Speaker 1: prepared to build up the American military enough to wage 264 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:56,439 Speaker 1: two fights simultaneously. We weren't prepared to invest intellectually and 265 00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 1: how to do it. And so in many ways, Afghanistan 266 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,399 Speaker 1: and Sudden they went from the front burner to the 267 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:06,000 Speaker 1: back burner and became less and less relevant. And we 268 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,359 Speaker 1: didn't have a theory. All wars start with the theory, 269 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,280 Speaker 1: What is it you think you're going to do in 270 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:14,440 Speaker 1: order to get your opponent to do what you want. 271 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,920 Speaker 1: We didn't really have a very good theory. We'd come 272 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,760 Speaker 1: out of Vietnam without really understanding how to fight that 273 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: kind of war. We didn't like fighting those kind of wars. 274 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 1: And so we're in Afghanistan. We have wonderful, brilliant, amazingly 275 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:34,960 Speaker 1: courageous soldiers, sailors, marines, Air Force, and coast Guard. But 276 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:38,719 Speaker 1: at the top, they don't have a structured thought for 277 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:41,879 Speaker 1: how to win, and that began to be a problem. 278 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:44,480 Speaker 1: We could gradually build an Afghan government, and the truth 279 00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:48,160 Speaker 1: is we did. We could recruit lots of other countries 280 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:51,520 Speaker 1: to help us, and the truth is we did. NATO, 281 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:54,159 Speaker 1: in fact, stepped up to the plate. A lot of 282 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:58,320 Speaker 1: countries sent various forces. They sent an ability to help 283 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,879 Speaker 1: organize the country and ability to If you look at 284 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,680 Speaker 1: Cobble today compared to Kabble twenty five years ago, it's 285 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: amazingly more modern. We had a very substantial effort to 286 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:13,160 Speaker 1: liberate women and it was working. We had women serving 287 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 1: in parliament, we had women serving as mayors. In fact, 288 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:20,200 Speaker 1: as a tragic interview today with a woman mayor who 289 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 1: fully expects to be killed by the Taliban because she 290 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,119 Speaker 1: dresses in a Western way. She's not going to back down. 291 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:28,600 Speaker 1: And whether or not they'll tolerate her, I think it 292 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:33,120 Speaker 1: is very, very dubious. Remember that the Taliban at its 293 00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:37,159 Speaker 1: peak did not allow music, It didn't allow women to 294 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,120 Speaker 1: appear in public without their husband or some male who 295 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:44,680 Speaker 1: could escort them. You're talking here about a reversion. We 296 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,800 Speaker 1: had literally had a strategy to help bring women from 297 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,840 Speaker 1: the seventh century to the twenty first century, and now 298 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:56,160 Speaker 1: you're about to see a terrible move in the opposite direction. 299 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:00,600 Speaker 1: And I felt this particularly because when my wife Kloster 300 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 1: was the ambassador to the Vatican, she hosted a conference 301 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:08,879 Speaker 1: on religious liberty and we had a woman from Iraq, 302 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:13,320 Speaker 1: a Yazidi, and the Yazi are a heretical form who 303 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:18,919 Speaker 1: attract the hatred of the kind of fundamentalist Islamists that 304 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,720 Speaker 1: we were fighting, and the Isis warriors would seize the 305 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:26,000 Speaker 1: women and basically turn them into slaves and share them 306 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:30,440 Speaker 1: around and use them sexually and saw the Azidious people 307 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,639 Speaker 1: to be destroyed. Well, I think there's a certain amount 308 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:39,640 Speaker 1: of desire built into the average Taliban. Now they are 309 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:45,399 Speaker 1: currently saying good things. Apparently their Taliban spokesperson who has 310 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: come back from the time he'd spend in the Persian 311 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:50,919 Speaker 1: golf is explaining that they really want women to have 312 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:54,480 Speaker 1: a role and that they have no intention of suppressing them. 313 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 1: On the other hand, the word on the street is 314 00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:00,240 Speaker 1: that their idea of modernization they've moved up from ten 315 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: year old girls to fifteen year old girls, but they 316 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:07,640 Speaker 1: reserved the right to tell any woman or girl fifteen 317 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,520 Speaker 1: to forty that they have to marry a Taliban warrior. 318 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:13,560 Speaker 1: How that plays out, we don't know yet, but it 319 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:17,600 Speaker 1: would be very unlikely that the Taliban would suddenly decide 320 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,160 Speaker 1: that they really were all in favor of women having 321 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 1: full rights. So I think there's likely to be a 322 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:27,440 Speaker 1: huge wrenching period. They have always attacked women's schools, they've 323 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,080 Speaker 1: always tried to burn them down, and there's a really 324 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: deep sense of hatred for any kind of effort to 325 00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:37,240 Speaker 1: create a modern system that involves women. So that's the 326 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,119 Speaker 1: context in which we got to where we are. We 327 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:45,200 Speaker 1: had built, over eighteen nineteen year period, a very strong military. 328 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: We had put a huge amount of resources into it. 329 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,800 Speaker 1: We had advisors, we had a very sophisticated intelligence community. 330 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: We had used air power, brilliantly. And the fact is 331 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,199 Speaker 1: that we had basically fought to a draw. If we 332 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: were not prepared to go into Pakistan, and we were 333 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,800 Speaker 1: prepared to allow the Taliban to have Pakistan as a sanctuary, 334 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:13,119 Speaker 1: it was very unlikely that we could defeat the Taliban permanently, 335 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:16,200 Speaker 1: because they would always be able to pull back and 336 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:20,360 Speaker 1: spend time rebuilding, retraining. On the other hand, as long 337 00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:23,200 Speaker 1: as we were prepared to keep a very small number 338 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 1: of people running the intelligence community, making sure that Bagram 339 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: Air Force Base was available and useful, and applying air 340 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:37,480 Speaker 1: power with enormous power, enormous provision, and inasmuch as we needed, 341 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: it was very unlikely that the Taliban would be capable 342 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 1: of winning the war. So there was, in fact, i think, 343 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:50,440 Speaker 1: a balance of power that had developed, and over time 344 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:54,840 Speaker 1: that balance of power was allowing businesses and women in 345 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:58,960 Speaker 1: particular to develop greater and greater prosperity, to develop greater 346 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:19,040 Speaker 1: and greater freedom, to develop more and more cohesion. Now 347 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,280 Speaker 1: there were two core problems in the middle of all this. 348 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:26,600 Speaker 1: Remembering that Afghanistan is not a singular country, that there 349 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,280 Speaker 1: are different languages, there are different tribal relationships, there are 350 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:34,439 Speaker 1: different networks of leadership. All of that's true, and all 351 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,600 Speaker 1: that makes it much more complicated. The other two things 352 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,480 Speaker 1: that makes it more complicated are the degree to which 353 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 1: this is a country which generates a huge amount of 354 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:48,520 Speaker 1: its total resources from the sale of heroine, particularly into 355 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:53,520 Speaker 1: Western Europe. And second that corruption has been the norm 356 00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:57,119 Speaker 1: for virtually all of modern Afghan life. It's not that 357 00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,280 Speaker 1: corruption is a crime in the American sense. If that, 358 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,320 Speaker 1: it's sort of what one does, and if you want 359 00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:05,720 Speaker 1: me to do something for you, I expect you to 360 00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:08,400 Speaker 1: give me a sort of a gift. You might think 361 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,159 Speaker 1: of it as the way we would tip the bellman 362 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:15,080 Speaker 1: at a hotel, might tip the bartender at a local bar, 363 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: or the waitress or waiter. Well, you know that goes 364 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,600 Speaker 1: all the way up to the president of Afghanistan. And 365 00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:24,720 Speaker 1: it's just part of the way they operated. As somebody 366 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:28,000 Speaker 1: once said, they had really low salaries because the expectation 367 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,320 Speaker 1: was that they would make all the money outside of 368 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,840 Speaker 1: the salary system. And I made it much harder to 369 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:38,840 Speaker 1: build the kind of resilient system that we favored. My 370 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:41,719 Speaker 1: guess is that it would have taken at least twenty 371 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:46,920 Speaker 1: more years to have begun to stabilize a modern Afghanistan 372 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,520 Speaker 1: and a twenty first century rather than seventh century model. 373 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,040 Speaker 1: But that it could have been done, My guess is, 374 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 1: and these are all guesses, that the process could have 375 00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:03,520 Speaker 1: been sustained if, in fact, we had continued what was 376 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:07,840 Speaker 1: happening for the last fourteen months. We'd suffered no combat casualties. 377 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:10,879 Speaker 1: We had almost an agreement with the Taliban that they 378 00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 1: wouldn't kill Americans and we would not use our air 379 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,120 Speaker 1: power to its fullest extreme, and so there was sort 380 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: of an armed tension in which neither side went all out. 381 00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: Trump had approached all of this with a very clear 382 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:28,399 Speaker 1: desire to get out, but to get out in a 383 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,160 Speaker 1: principled way, and had made very clear to the Taliban 384 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:38,960 Speaker 1: that if they did certain things, including targeting Americans, that 385 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,280 Speaker 1: we would then reserve the right to use massive air power, 386 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:46,600 Speaker 1: not a little bit, massive air power to annihilate them, 387 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:48,800 Speaker 1: and that we'd go after them. And there was some 388 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: hints that Pakistan would no longer be a sanctuary. So 389 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,920 Speaker 1: there was a sort of balance of fear and a 390 00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:01,879 Speaker 1: sense that the system was gradually stable. Cities were being built, 391 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 1: prosperity was occurring, girls were being educated, but on the left, 392 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,520 Speaker 1: there was almost no understanding of any of this. It's 393 00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:16,040 Speaker 1: really quite remarkable the unwillingness of people on the left 394 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 1: to understand the role of violence plays in making history, 395 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:24,600 Speaker 1: and the role of violence plays in third world countries. 396 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,920 Speaker 1: I mean, if you go see the movie Blackhawk Down, 397 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:31,439 Speaker 1: for example, or you see the movie Thirteen Hours, you 398 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:35,080 Speaker 1: get some notion of how challenging it is when you're 399 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,680 Speaker 1: up against opponents who are willing to die, and you're 400 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:41,800 Speaker 1: up against opponents who are enthusiastic about trying to kill you. 401 00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 1: So for some reason, we don't fully understand why, and 402 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,119 Speaker 1: it's something Congress I think should hold hearings on it. 403 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,640 Speaker 1: The Biden administration and the President himself made the decision 404 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:56,240 Speaker 1: that they were going to get out, and that symbolically 405 00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:59,440 Speaker 1: they were going to get out before nine to eleven, 406 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,000 Speaker 1: so that they'd be able to say on the twentieth 407 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:06,879 Speaker 1: anniversary that President Bush got us in. President Obama tried 408 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,439 Speaker 1: to manage it. President Trump failed to stop it. But 409 00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:13,280 Speaker 1: here was Joe Biden, the man who ended the war 410 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:17,400 Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. The problem for the left was captured by 411 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,360 Speaker 1: Trotzky during the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War 412 00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:25,240 Speaker 1: when he said, you may not be interested in war, 413 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,920 Speaker 1: but war is interested in you. The fact is, when 414 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:33,639 Speaker 1: you are dealing with an ally who knows that they 415 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:37,480 Speaker 1: are dependent on you, the minute they believe you're going 416 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:41,480 Speaker 1: to cut and run, they disintegrate. Now that doesn't mean 417 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,920 Speaker 1: they would have disintegrated if you had stayed. We saw 418 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,199 Speaker 1: this in Vietnam, where the South Vietnam's army did a 419 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:53,480 Speaker 1: fine job of standing up to and defeating the North 420 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:57,520 Speaker 1: Vietnamese army as long as they had American air power 421 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,879 Speaker 1: and American intelligence. So the intelligence would tell us what 422 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:06,080 Speaker 1: to target, The air power would take out the North Vietnamese, 423 00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:09,280 Speaker 1: and the South Vietnamese army could then defeat them. And 424 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:13,240 Speaker 1: the North made the mistake of coming across the border 425 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: with huge forces. President Nixon launched the biggest air campaign 426 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,800 Speaker 1: of the Vietnam War, and within a matter of two weeks, 427 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:24,840 Speaker 1: the South Vietnamese Army, aided by American air power, had 428 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,800 Speaker 1: broken the back of the North Vietnamese offensive. However, by 429 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,240 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five, when the elections had put in office 430 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:36,000 Speaker 1: people who were determined to get out of Vietnam, when 431 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 1: the next great offensive occurred, we would not provide air power. 432 00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:43,680 Speaker 1: We did not provide resources. The South Vietnamese figured out 433 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,320 Speaker 1: pretty rapidly they were going to lose, and once you 434 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,760 Speaker 1: think you're going to lose, panic sets it well. What 435 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,600 Speaker 1: Biden did by the very way that he engaged in 436 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,719 Speaker 1: all this as he maximized the likelihood of panic and 437 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:00,239 Speaker 1: was now very clear from all the things were on 438 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:05,160 Speaker 1: television that they were totally unprepared for what was going 439 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:07,720 Speaker 1: to happen. In fact, you can go back to Biden's 440 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:12,400 Speaker 1: earlier press conference and his answers, where presumably he was 441 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:16,600 Speaker 1: sincere in saying that he thought that the Afghan army 442 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,520 Speaker 1: was bigger, better trained, better equipped, and that it would 443 00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,720 Speaker 1: defeat the Taliban. And he's very clear about this, and 444 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 1: he says explicitly, you're not going to see helicopters leaving 445 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:31,120 Speaker 1: the embassy like Saigon. Now, Biden was already a US 446 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:34,960 Speaker 1: senator by the time the helicopters were leaving the embassy 447 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,400 Speaker 1: in Saigon, so he's lived through all of this, and 448 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:43,120 Speaker 1: it's very sobering. And I had almost the feeling that 449 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: Biden was sitting up there at Camp David, not watching television, 450 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,080 Speaker 1: not seeing what was happening. Writing a speech that was 451 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,960 Speaker 1: fine as speeches go, but had no relation to reality. 452 00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,040 Speaker 1: I mean, he says at one point that the Afghans 453 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 1: wouldn't fight. Well, sixty six thousand Afghans died fighting on 454 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,200 Speaker 1: our side as our allies, thirty times as many Afghans 455 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:10,560 Speaker 1: died on our side as Americans. So to insult them 456 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: and insult their families and their relatives and say they 457 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:15,800 Speaker 1: wouldn't fight, you had to wonder where did this stuff 458 00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: come from? And my guess is it came from some 459 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,440 Speaker 1: junior speech writer who had no idea what he or 460 00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:24,600 Speaker 1: she was talking about. I thought the speech was generally 461 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,719 Speaker 1: a disgrace. He says, you know, the buck stops of me, 462 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,360 Speaker 1: which is the old Harry Truman line, but he doesn't 463 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,400 Speaker 1: mean it. He promptly blames Donald Trump, he blames the 464 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,440 Speaker 1: Afghan Army, he blames the Afghan people, he blames the 465 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 1: Afghan government. If Taran out everybody but him, I mean, 466 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,320 Speaker 1: pretty pathetic. Frankly. He then says that we're going to 467 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,720 Speaker 1: continue to make the central focus of our administration human rights. 468 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,280 Speaker 1: How you could say that while you were abandoning the 469 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,960 Speaker 1: women of Afghanistan to a system that wants them to 470 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,800 Speaker 1: live in a seventh century model. I just wonder how 471 00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:01,040 Speaker 1: these guys can look in the mirror, because what he 472 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,400 Speaker 1: was saying was the exact opposite of what they're doing. 473 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,520 Speaker 1: They're abandoning these people, and it's pretty clear that they're 474 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,800 Speaker 1: abandoning them. So I think this is a tragic moment. 475 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,600 Speaker 1: I think Afghanistan was always going to be very, very hard. 476 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:19,560 Speaker 1: I think that the return of the Taliban, the return 477 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: with them of all of their various terrorist allies, the 478 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: existence of a very porous southern border, the rise of 479 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:32,080 Speaker 1: morale among the anti Americans, all anti Americans. The Cubans 480 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,280 Speaker 1: are happier, the Venezuelans are happier, the Chinese are happier, 481 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:38,720 Speaker 1: the Russians are happier, the Iranians are happier. I mean, 482 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,360 Speaker 1: you show me an anti American group, I'll show you 483 00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:44,280 Speaker 1: a group that's celebrating this week. And on the other hand, 484 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:49,840 Speaker 1: the rise of fear among American allies, whether they're Japan, Korea, 485 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:56,120 Speaker 1: the Philippines, Taiwan, you name it. Watching the total failure 486 00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,400 Speaker 1: of this administration and the total failure of the American 487 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,800 Speaker 1: military and intelligence communities. If you were lying on the 488 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:05,600 Speaker 1: US to survive. You're going to have a very long, 489 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,360 Speaker 1: hard week trying to think through what to do now 490 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 1: that you've seen how really truly inadequate our current system is. 491 00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 1: So I just want to share this strategic overview of 492 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,920 Speaker 1: where we're at and move beyond just the usual Biden 493 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,720 Speaker 1: bashing and the usual short term view of the tragedy 494 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,960 Speaker 1: pictures of the airfield. I'm close with us thought it 495 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,800 Speaker 1: ain't gone away. It's the nature of history. We still 496 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:35,480 Speaker 1: have twenty eight thousand troops in Korea, we still have 497 00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,120 Speaker 1: a deep interest in Taiwan, we still have troops in Germany. 498 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,920 Speaker 1: Sooner or later we're going to discover that you can't 499 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:47,400 Speaker 1: walk off from Afghanistan without some Afghans deciding to come visit, 500 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,440 Speaker 1: and then we'll face a whole new set of challenges. 501 00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:53,200 Speaker 1: And my fear is that we don't have the energy, 502 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,600 Speaker 1: we don't have the drive, we don't have the moral 503 00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: leadership to take the Pentagon and take the intelligence community 504 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:04,000 Speaker 1: and the State Department and really thoroughly investigate why they 505 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:07,280 Speaker 1: were not able to win after twenty years. I think 506 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,720 Speaker 1: that this is a defeat. I think it's a defeat 507 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:15,120 Speaker 1: that could be the moment of educating us, or it 508 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,440 Speaker 1: could be a defeat that we just hied from and 509 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:22,000 Speaker 1: pretend everything's okay until we have another even bigger defeat. 510 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:24,560 Speaker 1: But thank you for giving me a chance to share 511 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,400 Speaker 1: with you things I've thought about an experience. I was 512 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:31,280 Speaker 1: a member of Congress, freshman member when the Russians first 513 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 1: invaded Afghanistan, and I have followed this for a long time, 514 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:39,480 Speaker 1: and I was just deeply, deeply sorry the last few days. 515 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:50,040 Speaker 1: News World is produced by Gingwich three sixty and iHeartMedia. 516 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:55,520 Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Debbie Myers, our producer is Guernsey Sloan, 517 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 1: and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. Your work for the 518 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:04,720 Speaker 1: show was created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the 519 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:08,200 Speaker 1: team at Gingwich three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, 520 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:11,680 Speaker 1: I hope you'll go to Apple Podcasts and both rate 521 00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,000 Speaker 1: us with five stars and give us a review so 522 00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:18,840 Speaker 1: others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners 523 00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:22,520 Speaker 1: of Newtsworld can sign up for my three free weekly 524 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:27,640 Speaker 1: columns at Gingwich three sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm 525 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: Newt Gingrich. This is Newtsworld.