and humanitarian law under all circumstances in afghanistan. thank you. i now resume my function as president of the council. there are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers. i will now adjourn the meeting so that the council can continue the discussion in closed consultations. i ask all members to exit the table upon adjournment of this meeting. the meeting is adjourned. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications. >> charter is a force for empowerment. that is why a charter has spent billions upgrading infrastructure, empowering opportunity in communities big

and small. charter is connecting us. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. us on social media as well on this monday morning. hearing from you, asking what did the war in afghanistan mean? banner headlines, from the new york times, the taliban captured kabul, stunting u.s. efforts. -- stunning u.s. efforts. the taliban seized power at u.s. retreats. one more from the front page of the washington post this morning. the headline, pentagon russia's additional troops to capital amid the chaotic effort to evacuate u.s. personnel and their allies. just some of the front-page

headlines this morning as we ask you to call in. as you are calling in, here is one more lead, this is from punch bowl news this morning. this is how they lead their morning newspaper, with a picture at the top of -- one of the many pictures, this from the getty image of the helicopters over kabul. they write the united states lost more than 2400 troops in afghanistan with another 34 hundred plus contractors killed as well. more than 20,000 americans were injured. tens of thousands of afghans were killed and wounded. the u.s. government spent more than $1 trillion during nearly two decades of conflict and what do we have to show for it? a question for you, what did the war in afghanistan mean? republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. the special line, we want to hear from veterans of the war in

afghanistan. (202) 748-8003 is that number. daniel is up first in washington, d.c. an independent, daniel, good morning to you. caller: thank you for including the tens of thousands of afghani's who have been killed. millions of refugees, due to the failed war. the taliban was basically started when reagan was giving military assistance to move the soviet union's much more progressive government out of afghanistan. he was given military in angola and nicaragua. it is truly our interventionist policy that is coming home to roots. america is the merchants of deaths around the world. i am curious of where the

taliban it's it's weaponry. -- gets it's weaponry. -- its weaponry. the united states needs to be stopped -- needs to stop its aggression and intervention. we have had our own election interference and we know what it is like. when we go to these countries, the candidates are killed. the media has taken over. sabotaging elections is as american as apple pie. look what it is doing to the afghani's. -- afghanis. let's not forget the collateral damage, the drones that have killed people at their weddings. the united states has got to stop being aggressive, militaristic force. the united states defense budget is the most obscene thing in the entire world. host: next is sai, in akron,

ohio. caller: good morning. i want to say what the groups have in common in regard to afghanistan. the president of italy, a member of the cabinet, members of the french intelligence, and they all say that 9/11 was an inside job and that the circus was to give the u.s. an excuse to invade afghanistan. host: do you still believe it was an inside job? caller: do i? host: do you? caller: yes. there used to be thousands of websites at 911 truth.org, engineers for 9/11 truth, etc. host: we will hold off on the

9/11 conspiracy theories this morning as we talk about the 20 year effort, military effort in afghanistan. yesterday, the flag came down on the usmc, kabul taken. arthur, watching it all. what are you seeing? caller: i don't think i am that surprised that the capital failed or that afghanistan soldiers will not defend their own country. we put 20 years of our blood, sweat and tears into defending the afghanis. you mean to tell me they can't do it for one month? they didn't do anything to defend their own country. i'm torn as to the move that biden made.

i think the strategy and tactics of getting out -- where this is going is anybody's guess. host: kathleen in chicago, democrat, good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: i'm doing well. caller: ok, i agree with president biden. it is time for our men and women to come home. they have been over there for 20 years. people are sitting up there, commenting about it is too soon to get out of afghanistan. you show up and go over there. some of these veterans have had five and six deployments over there. they need to come home and be with their families. before you hang up, the freedom

they are fighting for in afghanistan, they need to be fighting for it over here. where the black and the brown can vote, overturning our votes. they don't want women to have a right to choose what they are doing with their bodies. i saw those jobs going into the palace. i thought about january the sixth. the same thing they did yesterday to that palace, donald trump had people doing in the united states on january 6. the united states needs to let these guys rest. the same soldiers that are fighting in other country, to help those people, when they come back, some of them will be able to vote. host: kathleen in chicago. in afghanistan, the images that biden wanted to avoid, the

picture that the viewer was talking about, taliban fighters taking control of the afghan presidential palace in kabul, yesterday after the president of afghanistan fled the country. it was yesterday, as these events were going down in afghanistan, and as the situation continues to deteriorate, it was yesterday morning the antony blinken was on cnn state of the union and was asked about the efforts in afghanistan over the past 20 years and the decision to leave. here is what he said. >> we were in afghanistan for one overriding purpose, to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11. that is why we went there 20 years ago. over those 20 years, we brought bin laden to justice. we banished the threat of al qaeda, to the point where it is not capable of conducting such an attack again from afghanistan.

on the terms that we went into afghanistan in the first place, we succeeded in of -- achieving our objectives. when the president came to office, he had a decision to make. the previous administration negotiate it an agreement with the taliban that said our remaining forces would be out of the country on may 1. the idea that the status quo could have been maintained by keeping our forces there is simply wrong. the fact of the matter is had the president decided to keep forces in afghanistan beyond may 1, attacks would have resumed on our forces. the taliban had not been attacking our forces or nato. the offensive you are seeing would have commenced. we would have been back at war with the taliban and i would be on this program today, explaining why we were sending tens of thousands of american forces back into afghanistan and back to war, something the american people don't support. that is the reality.

that is the context that we are dealing with. host: we are expect more from the state department today. a state department briefing later this morning, we are expected to hear from the president at some point. there is not a specific timeframe set for when the president will address the country. this is a tweet from the white house concerning president biden. this tweet, showing him at the briefing rooms, set up in camp david. this morning, the president and vice president met with the national security team and senior officials to hear updates on the drawdown of our civilian personnel in afghanistan. evacuations of the special immigrant visa applications for afghan allies and the ongoing security situation. that picture from yesterday morning of the president speaking to his advisors. speaking to you this morning, asking you, what did the war in afghanistan mean? we have the special line for

asking war veterans -- for afghan war veterans. (202) 748-8003. yusuf is next. caller: how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: i have several concerns. i don't know the intelligence of the u.s. government, how they did not know. it is odd to me and how they just did not know that the taliban could shoot down, expeditiously and very fast this active u.s. lead. the chinese came out two days ago, saying they will work with the taliban if they took over the government. so, the chinese now are in

there, in a geopolitical way. now, they are going to work with the taliban. this is a scary scenario working out in that area. and i am very upset about that. also, i am also concerned about -- being an african-american muslim myself -- i am concerned about these immigrant muslims coming here and changing the whole landscape of the indigenous african-american muslims that are the majority of muslims in this country. i am concerned about that. i don't agree with bringing all these immigrant muslims over here. host: changing it how? what concerns you? caller: i am concerned of the inability to adapt and facilitate into the american culture system. i'm concerned about that, because the majority of muslims in this country are

african-american muslims. half of which are in prison. we have been here since slavery and they are coming to the country, taking over the whole landscape and usurping the power from african-american muslims. i am very concerned about this. americans need to invest in us, african-american muslims, as they invest in afghanistan muslims. bring us on our way and hopefully we can work with foreign affairs. they need to invest in us like they did the afghanis. host: scott in baltimore city, maryland. you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i will keep it brief. when the afghanistan president initiated a coup in egypt, one

of his justifications was that these men were perverting islam and islam needed a new narrative. where i think we failed in 20 years is to win their hearts and minds by presenting islam in such a light that they were able to see the taliban the way we americans see the clan -- klan or the neo-nazi party. we did everything else. i think that is where we failed. we had 20 years to do that and nobody was willing to do it. host: was it a failure of picking the right voices and people to work with in afghanistan do what you are saying? caller: i think it was, to a degree. i also think, that this key, if

you will, was presented comprehensively in detail. it scared some people. the thought that we would try and do something like that and possibly actually win their hearts and minds, it scared people. knowing what was required, -- let's not do that. let's do these other things. host: that was scott out of multimers city, maryland, in terms of the main voice we were working with in afghanistan, who has fled the country. osher afghani. india reporting and a couple of other sites reporting that he is likely to be headed to the united states.

devon is next out of philadelphia. independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i see the news article. this is about how how -- about how the president of afghanistan is fleeing. the wife fled here. my thing is these countries are independent countries. they have their own military and their own intelligence. we spent $715 billion of taxpayers money in military? and we have to rebuild everybody's nation? how about we rebuild our own? how about we give some of that money back to us?

i'm not saying we don't help people, because we do and we should continue. at what point do we say $700 billion? the afghan forces, they fled. 30 days or so ago, everything was ok and everything was calm. overnight, they have taken over everything? something does not make sense. something is off. host: $1 trillion is the number that has been put out there for total u.s. spending in afghanistan, including $83 billion on training afghan forces. on that $1 trillion, what did it by us? caller: i think it failed.

what would america look like if we had invested $1 trillion directly into the americans? we could have ended homelessness. we could have addressed food insecurity. host: the special line for veterans of the war in afghanistan, adam is on that line out of new york city. when were you in afghanistan? caller: from 2009 to 2011. i am outside of the 9/11 memorial right now, thinking about why we went in. we tried to illuminate al qaeda. -- eliminate al qaeda. that is all being taken away right now. i am struggling today. it is really tough.

we can piss and moan. but everyone needs to contact ias and the human refugee society and get as many people out as we can. there are a lot of people being killed. host: adam, have you been in touch over the years since you left? caller: some of them are still facebook friends. if you are facebook friends with afghans, make sure it is secret. i have a friend who was up all night, trying to get people out. they had meetings yesterday morning.

there is no time. we need to get them out now. you can see the airport, it was a mess. host: were you in kabul when you were there in 2009? caller: i was in kabul. i was across the street from blackwater. that's where i was. host: what did you think when you saw the pictures yesterday of taliban soldiers driving through town and the press briefing they held at the presidential palace? caller: i was gutted. i had to leave the house. i got blackout drunk. it is heartbreaking. i'm fine, we are all fine in america. we will be ok. the people there, it is going to be hell. there are so many women, so many girls.

host: do you think you will ever get back to afghanistan some day? do you want to go back? caller: i'd love to go back. i said maybe in 20 years i will go back and it is kind of like the 1970's again, when we were hanging out in the mounds. i have no idea. you don't know what's going to happen. host: you are at the 9/11 memorial, were you in new york on 9/11? caller: i wasn't. i was in omaha, nebraska. i was in high school when it happened. host: is the memorial more crowded than usual? caller: no, it is really quiet. it is currently chained off. they don't open until 7:00 a.m. or something. it is quiet, you can hear the water flowing.

it was a tragedy in 9/11 and it is a tragedy in kabul today. host: thanks for the call. talking to viewers around the country this morning, we will spend all three hours doing it, asking you what does the war in afghanistan mean? having this conversation after kabul falls, the u.s. flag pulled down from the u.s. embassy and the scrabble to evacuate u.s. personnel. here is our phone lines to talk about it. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. the special line for veterans of the war of afghanistan and family members or, as our last collar, if you have served in afghanistan -- caller, if you have served in afghanistan, (202) 748-8003. we will update you with news as it happens and the reaction to

the collapse of the security system in kabul. this from mitch mcconnell, yesterday. the republican of kentucky, saying everyone saw this coming except the president, who publicly and confidently dismissed these threats a few weeks ago. the strategic, humanitarian and moral consequences of this self-inflicted wound will hurt our country and distract from other challenges for years to come. a proud superpower has been reduced to hoping the taliban will not interfere with their efforts to flee afghanistan. god knows what awaits vulnerable afghans who cannot make it to kabul aboard one of the final flights out. major competitors like china are watching the embarrassment of a superpower laying low -- laid low. speaker pelosi saying the president is to be commended for the clarity of purpose of his

statement on afghanistan over the weekend. the taliban must know the world is watching its actions. we are concerned about reports regarding the taliban's brutal treatment of all afghans, especially women and girls. this from congresswoman monica escobar, saying the situation in afghanistan is tragic for everyone who has worked tirelessly over 20 years to root out terrorism and crate stability in the country. there is blame all the way around but our focus must be doing everything possible to save lives. this from the congressman, saying it is sad. the american public stopped caring about afghanistan years ago. national security, veterans and media were talking to each other for years while i slitting the general public. this from senator jen emhoff -- jim inhofe.

the president needs to admit he made a strategic mistake, leading to a consequence -- tragic consequences for u.s. national security and the afghan people. a republican from south carolina saying the takeover of afghanistan by the taliban is a sad and dangerous event for u.s. national security interests and the world at large. jihadists all over the world are celebrating. we will have plenty of reaction. for now, it is your comments. for all three hours of the washington journal, to get your thoughts on the war in afghanistan. in irving, texas, a democrat, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. my heart was out to adam and to all of the others who served over there, the ones who made it home and the ones who did not.

the caller a few callers back raised one of my concerns. how could our intelligence not have foreseen this coming, number one? number two, as far as mitch mcconnell's statement, he is an embarrassment to america and to himself. he needs to keep his mouth shut. i could blame trump biden both. trump was hell-bent and determined to pull most of our soldiers out of there, which he did. i blame bynum -- biden because biden should have known better than -- he should have left some over there until things were stabilized a little bit better. i feel like nothing was accomplished. we went over there to get rid of the taliban and al qaeda. we left and now they have a stronghold. i feel like nothing was

accomplished. just a bunch of u.s. lives lost and a bunch of money spent. anyway, that is my comment. thank you. have a good day. host: david in new york, republican. go ahead. caller: i have a little bit of a history of what is going on in the middle east as well. i don't believe that we should have pulled out. i don't think that a lot of people in this country understand what sharia law is. i think the people in afghanistan are going to be in for a rude awakening. the taliban, if there was nothing in afghanistan to take over, like poppy plants, they would not be there. it is control. they have control of a lot of the country. biden never should have pulled out and we should not be pulling our troops out.

we are there for a big reason. now we see what happens. the same thing happened in vietnam. host: this was president biden from last month, about a month ago, defending his decision to pull u.s. troops out of afghanistan. pres. biden: let me ask those who want us to stay, how many more? how many thousands more americans, daughters and sons, are you willing to risk? how long would you have them stay? already, we have members of our military whose parents fought in afghanistan 20 years ago. would you send their children and their grandchildren as well? would you send your own son or daughter? after 20 years, $1 trillion spent, training and equipping hundreds of afghan security and

defense forces. before 48 americans -- 2448 americans killed. 20,722 more wounded. an unseen thousands coming home with harm to their mental health. i will not send another american to afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome. the united states cannot a main to -- afford to remain tethered to policies from two years ago. we need to meet the threats where they are today. so, we are repositioning our resources and adapting our counterterrorism posture to meet the threats where they are, now. civic and fatally -- significantly higher in south asia. make no mistake, our military is

competent and -- they have the capabilities to protect our homeland and our interests from any resurgent terrorist challenge emerging from afghanistan. host: president biden last month, defending his decision to withdraw u.s. troops from afghanistan. this is the lead editorial in today's wall street journal. by the -- biden -- mr. biden could have maneuvered around the mistake. he was provided with options. the taliban had violated its pledges under the trump deal. stir biden could have maintain -- mr. biden could have maintained a modest presence but withdrew. instead, he ordered a rapid and total withdraw, in time for the

symbolic date of 9/11. most of the american press hailed the decision courageous. the result for months later is the worst humanitarian humiliation since the fall of saigon in 1975. dave in harrisburg, pennsylvania, democrats line, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. a couple of comments. i am an 11 year air force veteran. my heart goes out to the guy who who couldn't make it back and my heart goes out to the guys we lose to suicide every month. can you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: ok. i think it was a box operation. we didn't learn anything from iraq, when it comes to telegraphing our moves. like announcing these dates.

as a military person and as someone who strategically thinks, we could have quietly gotten our people and our friends out. that is the part that disturbs me the most. what he was trying to avoid, the optic of saigon, is exactly what happened. you know? but, you mentioned a lot of people keeping afghanistan out of the minds of the public. that is the problem. we forgot what war looked like. this is what iraq looked like when we toppled saddam. the statue coming down. the media does not allow us to see that on a daily basis.

we forgot what the reality is. we are going to lose a lot of friends who helped us navigate our lives in the environment. and that is sad. we should be doing everything we can to get those people out. host: you mentioned optics and saigon as well. this picture printed in the washington post today, that famous picture of cia employees helping vietnamese people evacuate onto a american -- an american helicopter in 1975. that very famous picture. talk about that optic and what you think will be the optic from yesterday. caller: unfortunately, for the next 20 years, that will be the optic that is burned into our minds. that is going to be the depiction of our 20 years there.

when you are getting out in the midst of total chaos, you fail. i would think eight -- a win is when you see an orderly exit from the situation. a win is when you have a resettlement. a successful resettlement into neighboring ally countries. that is what a success looks and feels like. right now, unfortunately for years to come, there are going to be stories of turmoil and women being treated atrociously. another part that gets me is how quickly they pulled this off. we went into iraq, a lot of iraqis dropped their guns in front of us. how many of those guys have we

trained in 20 years simply gave up? host: a getty image, one that is quite prevalent in news coverage yesterday of the u.s. helicopter over kabul, helping to evacuate u.s. personnel from the u.s. embassy there. the headline that goes along with the double truck picture in the new york times today, the u.s. is stunned as the taliban overtakes kabul. james in maryland, independent line, you are next. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm doing well. caller: great. the thing is that it is good we got out of there. we have been there for a while. we forgot the objective. we ended up staying in there. we did not learn from the russians. we boycotted the olympics during

the jimmy carter era. our issue was because they supported bin laden. before 9/11, there was an article in the paper that said -- the taliban had been forbidden for selling drugs and alcohol. then, after we went in, about nine months later, you see an article and they are doing more production of this heroin and drugs going all over the world. we have a war on drugs and no-fly zones but they are not

taking all of those drugs out on camels to other countries. they are taking them and sending them all over the world we have a war on drugs. this is a thing you never see. let's see the optics of all of these places where we let that go on. i'm glad that that is over. another thing is this. that is the people's religion. you have to respect the choice of your religion, this is how it is. if somebody comes and tries to change our religion, we would all have a problem. host: james in maryland, you began by speaking about the original purpose to go in and find, capture and kill osama bin laden. this is from may the first of 2011, then president obama announcing at the time the killing of osama bin laden in a

u.s. military strike. perez obama & co. -- president obama: thanks to counterterrorism professional list, we have made great strides in the effort. we have disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. in afghanistan, we removed the taliban government which had given bin laden and al qaeda safe haven and support. we work with our friends to capture and kill scores of al qaeda terrorists, including several who were part of the 9/11 plot. osama bin laden avoided capturing and escape across the afghan border into pakistan. al qaeda continued to operate from along that border. and operate to its affiliates. shortly after taking office, i directed the director of the cia to make the killing or capture of bin laden top priority of our

war against al qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle and defeat his network. then, last august, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, i was briefed on a possible lead to bin laden. it was far from certain trade it took many months to run this threat to ground. i met with my security team as we develop more information that we located bin laden, hiding within a compound, deep inside pakistan. last week, i determined we had enough intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get osama bin laden and bring him to justice. today, at my direction, the united states launched a targeted operation against that compound in pakistan. a small team of americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. no americans were harmed.

they took care to avoid civilian casualties. after a firefight, they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. host: then president obama back in may of 2011. we are asking you about the two decades war in afghanistan. what did it mean? sandy and columbus, ohio, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling to say i have listened to a couple of other callers. what i don't understand is how the president, they fled so fast and did not try, to me, to get there people -- their people in some kind of safety. they could have done that. they have more troops and more ammunition. we have been there, several years, training. every time we pull out, they let

the taliban take over. i don't know what -- whether the planning for us coming out should be on the united states. i feel for the girls and the people there. but, it seems like to me, but -- that they did not try to get them out of harm's way. it looks like they just ran. they have been equipped, again. that's what i don't understand. thank you for listening to me. host: this is john in clifton park, new york. good morning. caller: thank you for what you are doing. it is an important topic. everybody is talking about 9/11, the intelligence community, so on and so forth. they are forgetting why we initially went in. in my opinion, we were not -- if we were not attacked on 9/11, we would not have been in

afghanistan. our intelligence community at the time, according to what the 9/11 commission reported, they were aware of heightened activity wired to the 9/11 attacks. that is neither here nor there. second, everybody is talking about al qaeda. they talked about how obama made reference to osama bin laden. who are these people in al qaeda? most of the terrorists at 9/11 were saudi's -- saudis. why were we attacking the people harboring the terrorists instead of the terrorists themselves? to me, that is not understandable. we could have avoided this if we have thought about that, instead of having a knee-jerk reaction

to what occurred. host: we played the clip of then president obama announcing the killing of osama bin laden. let me take you back 10 years before that, to october of 2001, then president george w. bush announcing the military action in afghanistan. this is what he had to say from the white house. >> on my orders, the united states military has begun strike against al qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the taliban regime in afghanistan. these carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of afghanistan, as a terrorist base of operations. and to attack the military capability of the taliban regime. we are joined in this operation by our friend, great britain. other close friends, including canada, australia, germany, and france, have pledged forces as the operation unfolds.

more than 40 countries in the middle east, africa, europe, and across asia have granted air transit or landing rights. many more have shared intelligence. we are supported by the collective will of the world. more than two weeks ago, i gave taliban leaders a series of clearance -- of clear and specific demand. close terrorist training camps, hand over leaders of the al qaeda network and return all foreign nationals, including american citizens, unjustly detained in your country. none of these demands were met. and now, the taliban will pay a price. host: then president george w. bush from october of 2001. to hear -- we hear phone calls from you, asking what to be war in afghanistan mean? michael in cleveland, ohio, republican, go ahead. caller: i agree with the last gentlemen, wholeheartedly.

there is one thing i have a suspicion of. when we talk about the guys laying down their guns, they did that in iraq. i think it was all about money. you can pay people off over there. they are so poor that they don't have a dollar. i believe that money was exchanged with a lot of these guys that took off and ran and left it whitman. -- equipment. host: what about the past $1 trillion and that money going into afghanistan? caller: that started after the 9/11. i don't know how any billions or chileans of dollars we have lost since the 9/11 attacks -- trillions of dollars we have lost since the 9/11 attacks.

the trillions of dollars we spent there is for not. i think eight or 10 years ago, they announced gold, uranium, platinum and all sorts of things. i haven't heard a word in years about that. i'd like to know, if it was true, what happened to all the money from that? host: we will stay in cleveland. bill, democrat, go ahead. caller: how are you doing? host: doing alright. go ahead. caller: that $1 trillion, throw it out in smoke and all those people are dying in afghanistan. it just shows you what the world is coming to. as far as our government, we try to babysit every country around the planet.

those people's religion, they have fought over that for 2000 years. we are not going to change that. it doesn't matter what we do over there, that is never going to happen. you are not going to change that. those people have a totally different belief in religion than what the united states was built on. if our government thinks they will go over and change things, they are fooling their own selves. host: did president biden make the right decision? caller: i think -- well, actually, i don't blame biden as much as i blame trump before him. what choice does he have now? i think they both have to take responsibility for it.

the other thing, having that go on for 20 years, it's ridiculous read just like the guy before said. it's ridiculous. come on. we are not fighting wars that last 20 years. that's just ridiculous. there has to be so much inside doings going on with the drugs that are involved and the exchange of weapons, the exchange of money and the precious metals. all of it has got to be -- it's got to be total chaos. host: bill in cleveland, ohio. you mentioned president trump and you blame him as well.

this was the tate -- statement from president trump coming out on saturday, before the situation fully unraveled yesterday. armor president trump saying joe biden gets it -- former president trump saying joe biden gets it wrong every time. everyone knew he could not handle the pressure. even robert gates said as much. he ran out of afghanistan instead of following the plan how administration left for him. the withdrawal would be guided by facts on the ground. after i took out isis, president trump said he established a deterrent. the taliban no longer has fear or respect for american power. this is a complete fowler -- failure. former president trump.

the line for afghan veterans and family members, this is dean waiting on that line. caller: good morning. host: when were you in afghanistan? caller: i was in afghanistan in 2010. the only thing i wanted to bring out is that i think the problem is the american people in general have a hard time understanding that afghanistan is -- afghanistanis don't believe the country unites them. they are so tribal based. for us to change that, we need to touch their future generations. we have had 20 years of trying to accomplish that. in 20 years, if you had a child, the best case scenario is they

are 30 years old. what kind of leadership would you have? in the military, you might be a company commander. in a political system, it is all elders. we need more generations to ultimately change that belief. to me, what does this mean? it means political failure. the military went in there and we followed their policies. with no political plan for success. while i was there, there was a presence of terrorists. troops on the ground, we are gone. this is a new place where terrorists are free to do what they want. you can guarantee -- or trying to obtain intelligence

out there. host: when you are in helmand, did you feel like you were making a difference or making the change you were talking about? caller: were we making a difference to the people around us? i think so. the young generations and kids, yes. were we making a difference to the leadership? no. the people in those positions were the same ones there when the russians were there and when the taliban took over. we have to wait until the next generation takes it over. of course, the problem is that the children are all being -- tribal based education is what they are receiving. i don't think we will ever

change the current mentality because they are so tribal based. but we do have a generation coming up that has future visions of afghanistan. by us leaving early, we have abandoned them. i'm not sure how this is going to affect the future generations and the afghanistan relationship. host: were you in the army or the marines? caller: i was in the marine corps. i built some runways out in virginia. a lot of interaction with the people. host: on that note, even mentioned the kids, is there a kid you remember? caller: specifically, no.

you did a lot of interaction with the children. of course, children are easy to talk to. they provide us a lot of intelligence. they know certain things and can read it. the children were very easily bought into we are here to help them. with us being out of there, it will make it a much more difficult job if we decide to do relations with afghanistan. host: thanks for the call from south carolina this morning. we are coming up on 8:00 a.m. eastern on this monday morning. we set aside our entire program to ask you this question. what does the war in afghanistan mean? a look back at the past 20 years with us.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you have served in afghanistan, call us on this line. (202) 748-8003. we want to hear from you this morning. keep calling in and as you do, we want to bring in tara copp. thank you for joining us. can you give us the latest on the situation on the ground as you understand it. how many u.s. personnel do we know remain on the ground? how much longer did the u.s. military need to evacuate the u.s. personnel and as many afghan allies as are being allowed to join them and get out? guest: thank you for having me. the latest information i received from the pentagon last

night, several hundred have been evacuated. however, we have seen and heard there is more than that. there was one that had 800 on board. we are checking to make sure that number is correct. this is a fluid situation. it is something i have never seen before. usually, when you see military aircraft on a ramp, it is a very pristine and secure area. people are not approaching the plane and they are not running as it is trying to take off and grabbing onto it as we have seen on twitter. it is heartbreaking. hundreds of young men, chasing after u.s. military airplanes that are trying to take off. i will be back at the pentagon after we talk and we will be asking about that airlift and the u.s. playing -- deploying 6000 troops as normal afghans

flee toward the airport, seeing that as the last hope to get out of the country. host: one flight had 800 people on it? what is the usual number that can fit on one of those planes that had 800 people? guest: we are waiting to verify that number but multiple sources have told me it is somewhere close to -- it is a huge cargo airplane and it can be configured in many different ways. it can be configured for cargo. it was lines after lines after lines of people, holding onto some sort of rope or chain and the airplane taking off that way. there was a hurricane evacuation with less people but not that many less.

the herculean efforts by the military going on right now to get people out. host: when are we expected to hear from secretary austin or the joint chiefs chairman? do you know when you will be able to ask them questions? guest: when will we hear from the president? they don't go in front of the microphone until the president does, typically. i think the question is when will biden speak? host: when you get the chance to talk to -- whether it is president what are you going tok them? guest: i'm going to ask what happened. we've been reporting the story about the military training and what led to the collapse of the afghan army. in these last couple of weeks, what advice were they giving the white house behind the scenes? did they think couple would fall this fast? that the u.s. flag would have to be taken down from the embassy

just yesterday? it is a matter of time to get aircraft and personnel in, and we were caught flat-footed at the kabul airport. host: the u.s. spent $83 billion training afghan forces. why did they collapse so quickly? from that story, can you speak about the amount of equipment that is being left behind or may have fallen into taliban hands in just the past week or so? guest: at this point, it is taliban-controlled afghanistan so you can say all of it has fallen under taliban control. your previous caller raised a good point. an army veteran i talked to emphasize the point that we never really dropped the tribal system. they tried to build a centralized army with national

control and leadership, where paychex would flow. and never really took into account all the various steps and the powers that these tribes have. he was speculating because he is no longer there, but when the weapons were turned over, some of the forces that didn't step down just kind of blended into their regions and turned the weapons over. that is showing that we are going to go back. it seems like action needs to be done on understanding where this failed. host: and finally, how are you doing your job today amid the chaos that we are seeing in videos coming out from the airport? you mentioned those afghans chasing american military planes. who are you in touch with on the ground to try and get a sense of

the situation? guest: i have been talking -- i've been covering veterans for a very long time and i have been talking to a lot of them over the last few hours. some served in the air force, some in the army, some in special forces. just taking their thoughts and seeing where i should go next to look. all of us are going to be watching over the next few days, how many people are able to get out of couple successfully -- kabul successfully. keeping the airport open for allies, how long will there be u.s. personnel on the ground at the kabul airport. at what point will the taliban lose patience and attacked the airport? -- and attack the airport? -- to ensure that u.s. civilians -- u.s. personnel and civilians in the afghans we promised to

take care of will be able to get out securely. this is changing so quickly that you don't know what is going to happen next. host: we will let you get to the pentagon and continue with your reporting. you can see her >> this afternoon, president biden will speak at the white house about the situation in afghanistan after the taliban seized control in the afghan government collapsed. watch live coverage beginning at 3:40 five eastern, here on c-span. >> all this week, at 8 p.m. eastern, c-span looks at discussions and hearings about congress and how the institution operates. tonight, a conversation about modernizing congress with a former representative. tuesday night, hearing focusing on bipartisanship and civility. wednesday