and i know how much sympathy there will be with him. and i take his criticisms most sincerely. the government and everything that we have done, but all i can say is we have tried throughout this pandemic to minimize human suffering, to minimize loss of life. and as i said before, when he asked me to apologize, i do. i apologize for the suffering to that the people of this country have endured. and all i can say is nothing i can say or do can take back the lost time spent with loved ones 748-8001.cribes, and i if you are a veteran of the war call (202) 748-8002. joining is now is laura from

politico. she serves as the defense reporter. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: a story of yours takes a look at the efforts going out of afghanistan. you make the case that this was pre-much already completed even before yesterday's announcement. can you give us context? guest: scheuer, one of the news items from the president's speech was that he moved up the deadline. previously it was september 11. now it's august 31. but my sources are telling me that the drawdown is effectively done. we currently have just 600 troops in afghanistan. just about all of them were always expected to stay past the official withdrawal date to provide security at the u.s. embassy in kabul and at the kabul international airport. the only personnel left to withdrawal is general scott miller, and a handful of his staff.

there is a handful more of security and logistics forces that the pentagon sent in temporarily to aid in the withdrawal. they will also depart. but out of the 2500 or so that president biden started out with, all but a handful are gone. host: when it comes to the decision, did the tell leaders at the pentagon support this position? guest: in the beginning of present biden's term, when it was not clear if he was going to pull out of afghanistan are not come i think that top generals saw them disagree with the logic behind withdrawing troops. i think we saw the market that there was a lot of evidence that the country will now collapse and the afghan security forces are not strong enough to hold off the out -- the taliban. so they wanted to keep a couple thousand special operators to keep fighting terrorists as well as some military trainers to help the afghan secure forces.

but now that the president's decision has been made, to come as no surprise to anyone, least of all the generals, that this was ultimately the general he was going to make. i think the generals have gotten on board and said ok mr. president, we are in eerie let's get this done quickly. -- we are in. let's get this done quickly. host: we have several maps of areas under taliban control. as far as the president's decision, especially making this decision is it's going on in the country, how did he account? guest: you are right. the taliban has been making huge gains in the past 18 months since president trump's agreement. and has intensified. the taliban has gained 10% of the country, making -- they now control 180 of the 407 districts.

these gains are primarily in the north and in critical areas. what we are seeing is the afghan security forces surrendering without a fight. thousands of soldiers are fleeing to nearby to giga stan -- to a nearby country to get away from the taliban. this is not a situation -- this is not to turn present bidens plan to withdraw. by my estimates, if kabul falls, that might be six months to a year away if it happens at all, it really depends on the afghan security forces. if that happens, the u.s. response will be very limited. president biden has been clear that he wants to get out of afghanistan. host: even as you say that. you and others have heard him say he was confident going forward to tackle anything that might happen. that the u.s. is adapting to the situations. can you elaborate what the plan

is, or what the design is considering the state of the country? guest: after the americans leave, the plan is to conduct what they call over the horizon operations. to continue keeping an eye on the taliban and hunting terrorists from outside of afghanistan. currently that plan is to conduct these operations from as far away as the middle east, qatar. that's a nine hour from afghanistan. to some experts, this is not feasible. especially with unmanned aircraft that have to be refueled multiple times along the way. so there is an attempt to base u.s. troops in a nearby country like uzbekistan to more easily conducted these operations. but it's not clear yet whether that will come to fruition. right now [indiscernible]

host: there were stories coming out in light of this, saying that the afghan government and officials salves, particularly at -- officials themselves said [indiscernible] could you tell us what happened when it comes to the amount of information afghan government received? guest: there were stories that the afghan leaders had no warning that the u.s. was going to depart. that the u.s. military leaders left in the mill of the night with no warning. they turned off the water and the electricity. and the commander who took over the base did not even check out until two hours after. they said we told the afghans everything they needed to know 48 hours ahead of time. they left at the exact moment

which americans departed. see could see why they would be a love set -- a little upset about this. the pentagon said this was for operational security reasons. host: he could see laura's latest story on politico. she covers the defense side of issues for by the

wilson center. >> good morning, everyone. i am the director of the middle east program here at the wilson center. welcome to our event this morning, the gaza cease-fire, what's next? we have a distinguished panel this morning to discuss the latest developments on the israeli-palestinian arena and bi