spring and see it unfold. and i looked up close and very slowly. meeting people along the way, trying to understand where were we as a country. >> ne-yo king on his nearly 300 mile journey, walking from washington, d.c. to new york city sunday at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. you can find interviews wherever you get your podcast. ♪ >> this is the washington journal for august 21 at the white house, yesterday president biden vowed that any american who wanted to leave afghanistan would be able to do so, offering a pledge to afghans who assisted u.s. efforts to be taken out of the country and that press conference. he also defended the administration's handling of the

evacuation. for the next hour we welcome your thoughts on the handling of the afghanistan evacuation. for republicans8 --for democrats (202) 748-8000. for republicans (202) 748-8001. for independents (202) 748-8002. for those who served in afghanistan as a veteran, (202) 748-8003. you can offer your thoughts on what's going on. you could use that same number to text us, you can post on social media and you can also follow the show on instagram. a recent poll takes place at -- looks at the evacuation efforts on afghanistan, particularly as it relates to the. on the website they say there's only 25% of registered voter -- voters believe that it is going well, 50% thought it was not going well at all of earning two a lyrical paul.

also americans are largely blaming president biden for -- conducted through 16 through the 19th. 43% of registered voters thought that mr. biden had a great deal of responsibility there is also a quoting of the pole that was conducted on the 16th of august, with 44% of adults of the biden administration thinking they have done a good job, 42% thought that he had done a bad job. george w. bush -- president barack obama and president trump all got better but not stellar grades. that's when it comes to the topic.

here is a portion of the interview from yesterday. >> we are going to do everything we can to provide safe evacuations for our afghan allies, partners. and afghan partners who might be targeted because of their association -- [video clip] pres. biden: we are going to do everything we can to provide safe evacuations for our afghan allies, partners, and afghans who might be targeted because of association with united states. . this evacuation mission is dangerous and involves risks to armed forces and is being conducted under difficult circumstances. i cannot promise what the final outcome will be or that it will be without risk or loss. but as commander-in-chief i will mobilize every resource necessary and as an american i offer my gratitude to the brave men and women of the u.s. armed

forces. they are incredible. as we work the logistics of evacuation we are in constant contact with the taliban working to ensure civilians have safe passage to the airport. we are focused on making sure every american who wants to leave can get to the airport. where we have seen challenges for americans we have thus far been able to resolve them. we made clear to the taliban any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport would be met with swift and forceful response. we are also keeping a close watch on any potential terrorist threat at or around the airport, including the isis affiliates and afghans released from prison. host: that is just a portion

from yesterday. you can find the whole event on c-span. we are taking your thoughts on the president's handling of this. (202)-748-8001 republicans, (202)-748-8000 democrats, and independents (202)-748-8002. if you would like to text us, you can do so at (202)-748-8003. this is on facebook saying, offer getting out of there. this is on president biden. he went against the advice of military leaders. tony in connecticut saying, president obama's defense secretary said this approximately 10 years ago. president biden has been wrong the last 40 years with afghanistan and adding another wrong decision. stephen hammond saying, maybe

the president wanted to end the war. i am glad. ending a war is never pleasant. if you want to text us, you can do so at (202)-748-8003. call on the lines as well, particularly if you are an afghan war veteran, (202)-748-8003. we go to tyler of the washington post. good morning. caller: thank you for having me. host: we heard with the president said. what happens going forward as far as efforts to evacuate not only americans but afghan allies? guest: the president said the american troops will stay in kabul potentially past the august 31 deadline to evacuate americans and allies. we have seen the images outside the kabul airport where the taliban has grown increasingly

violent, preventing people from getting to the airport. we are going to have to wait and see unfortunately to see how the situation progresses, whether the taliban continues to allow americans to make it to the airport and what steps the united states military takes to ensure that every american is biden promised yesterday is able to get evacuated if they choose. host: as far as specifics how does the white house plan on attempting to get these people out of the country? guest: that is what president biden was pushed on yesterday. he was asked, will you send people beyond the airport into kabul to get people out? he said, we will see the options on the table. they are looking at other u.s. military base is to evacuate people. most of the evacuations have

gone to qatar. qatar has expressed concerns about overcrowding and briefly yesterday flights were stopped out of kabul airport when qatar said they were going to resume. there is a lot of logistics to be worked out in what president biden said is the largest airlift operation in american military history. i think there is a lot of questions remaining but the president said he is confident every american was going to be able to get out of the country and he promised to do so and they would continue to find places to bring afghan allies and other vulnerable afghans to safety. host: some of those revealed yesterday -- you mentioned the cutter situation -- but several countries decided to step in and except those americans and

afghans as well. guest: that's right. the administration has been working around the clock. the national security council, defense department, to find other places for people to go. there are other countries that have stepped up but in the persian gulf -- that depends on getting people out of the country. so far the biden administration says the taliban has been cooperating but then we have seen disparity because reports on the ground suggest a lot of people have had a difficult time getting to the airport. my colleague wrote an article in the washington post about the difficulty she and afghan staff had in getting to the airport. she has an american passport.

i just think there is a lot of questions about what is going to happen over the next few days as the taliban consolidates control and makes it more difficult for people to get to the airport. host: any discussion as far as expanding the military footprint? guest: i think it this point the military footprint is larger than the president expected. he approved in recent days more troops to get in there and i think that is another question we are waiting to see. right now the president is confident they have the troops needed to get people out. i think the question is whether the expand the footprint. the focus has been on securing the airport. the president and national security officials said if people continue to be unable to get to the airport, there is

likely to be pressure to extend that footprint into kabul and secure the passageway from the city to the airport. right now there is no sign that is going to be expanded but what we are waiting to see if the troops stay be on the deadline which would suggest they have many more to get out of the country. host: tyler pager for the washington post. you can find his work at washingtonpost.com. thank you for giving us your time. guest: thank you. host: with that in mind we will take your thoughts on president biden's handling of the evacuation in afghanistan. republicans (202)-748-8001, democrats (202)-748-8000, independents (202)-748-8002. you can text us at (202)-748-8003 and if you are an afghan war vet and you want to give us a call on that line, you

can call us on that line too. kc in suffolk, virginia, democrat line. caller: hi. i think biden is doing the best job he can do because this whole leaving afghanistan thing was started by trump. he is doing the best he can do and trump started this. i also agree with him. this war has been going on since the day i was born and it is time to stop. host: you saying he is doing the best he can do. what are you basing that on? caller: if he doesn't get the people who worked with americans

out of afghanistan, they will be executed and killed. he is focused on getting them out so they don't get killed but they are not all in kabul. he is doing the best he can do to get them out. i was watching msnbc yesterday and they had some reports of the americans sending helicopters to go pick up some of our afghan allies. he is doing the best he can do. he is doing the right thing by focusing on getting our afghan allies out of afghanistan so they will not be tracked down and executed. host: punch bowl news jake sherman reporting on twitter this morning saying the president will get a briefing this morning on afghanistan. then heading to delaware for the weekend. we go to william in rock hill,

south carolina, independent line. hello. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i am well thanks. go ahead. caller: caller: the situation is a delicate situation and i don't choose a side but handling the situation, there was going to be\regardless of the way -- there was going to be backlash regardless of the way this was handled. as far as how the afghan military was not going to put up a fight, i mean, the americans' involvement is a closed book. we cannot fight a fight for somebody who can fight the fight. we have to make sure we take care of our own, bring those

home who we made a vow we are going to take care of, and get them out as possible. host: do you think that is being done in the best manner possible? caller: i think that in the situation -- when you say the best way possible, that is a bias decision somewhat. if we just slowly did it, people would be slowly killed. it is kind of like a mass evacuation. get as many out as fast as possible before the taliban started executing anybody. i just don't think -- there was never going to be a win situation out of this and i'm sorry that he walked into this but when you run for the presidency you have to accept th

caller: i think that in the situation -- when you say "the best way possible," that is a bias decision somewhat. if we just slowly did it, people would be slowly killed. it is kind of like a mass evacuation. get as many out as fast as possible before the taliban started executing anybody. i just don't think -- there was never going to be a win situation out of this and i'm sorry that he walked into this but when you run for the presidency you have to accept the responsibility for everything going on currently unfortunately. host: we will hear from the republican line. troy, michigan, laura, you are next up. caller: good morning. the other evening i happened to watch lawrence mcdonald on i believe it was msnbc and he had a very cogent, intelligent observation what was going on. t observation what was going on. i wish c-span would somehow be able to present this. basically what i remember him saying is that we are all very quick to criticize and everybody is pointing out what is wrong but nobody is offering solutions. i as an american citizen am disappointed that the only thing

we have time to do is point out what is wrong. put yourself in the president's position where there are thousands of people giving you advice, screaming at you the times he comes out and discusses things. host: since we are talking the handling of the evacuation, what do you think of his handling of it? caller: i think he is doing the best thing. he has an idea how he wanted handled but there are thousands of people who have their own particular desire to get out, do this, do that, and it is impossible to please everybody. i wish we would lighten up on this man. he is our president. give him a chance to get things done. this is a very precarious, chaotic situation. instead of saying, you are doing this wrong, give him a chance.

this has only been started three or four days. host: that was laura in troy, michigan. this is joey from facebook saying, this would've happened under president trump too except democrats would say, impeach him. mary in california, glad we are getting out. wars are ugly. some newspapers reporting the war cost $10.26 trillion not counting those wounded. for what? if you want to text as you can do so at (202)-748-8003, and if you are a war vet (202)-748-8003 . the new york times highlights one other thing looking at what is going on at the airport. the bottleneck at the airfield threaten to set off another humanitarian crisis.

relief agencies are struggling to bring food, medicine, and supplies into afghanistan. we are running out of supplies, scrambling to see how we can get the next shipment in said richard -- and if you are a war vet (202)-748-8003. the new york times highlights one other thing looking at what is going on at the airport. the bottleneck at the airfield threaten to set off another humanitarian crisis. relief agencies are struggling to bring food, medicine, and supplies into afghanistan. we are running out of supplies, scrambling to see how we can get the next shipment in said richard brennan. as tragic as the images are he said the bigger humanitarian picture has been lost in all of this. pictures you can see in the papers as it is being reported from the various news sources, including the new york times adding its own picture. we will take the next call from m stephen in new mexico, democrat line. good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: fine thank you. go ahead. caller: we have people dying of covid.

why are we even talking about afghanistan? host: why do you think it is not a worthwhile topic? caller: this is old news. it is 20 years old. host: right, but the evacuation is much more recent. caller: it is going fine. what do you want from the man? host: when you say it is going fine, what makes you say that? caller: he is doing the best he can with what he is got to work with. host: ok. mark in westwood, new jersey, independent line. go ahead. caller: thank you. this catastrophe -- thank you. this catastrophe is due solely to biden's terrible decision and by the way we lost our eyes and

ears on the ground on the people of 9/11. al qaeda and the taliban now have their own terrorist country and number two, the taliban, courtesy of biden's disastrous decision, have reinstituted sharia law which allows the stoning to death of women which is taking place now if they do not cover themselves from head to foot with clothing so they cannot be seen. and god help those innocent afghan people who worked with us as interpreters helping our military. biden has abandoned them like he abandoned our embassy and our billions of dollars of high-tech equipment. host: you called this a disastrous decision. what was disastrous about it? caller: well, if you let me

finish, i will let you know. they now have our equipment and china will be taking the rare earth minerals. host: but what about the decision itself was disastrous? caller: allowing al qaeda and the taliban to have their own terrorist state and mr. biden, shame on him for blaming the victim. he blamed the afghans who fought and died for us. as the british men of parliament said, that is an outrageous insult to our people who died helping us, helping save americans with their blood and biden had the nerve to insult them. this is beyond the pale. host: that was mark in new jersey. terry in oregon, democrat line. caller: good morning.

i shout out to the twitter fans we all call you in the morning. to voice my opinion about president biden, i support him 100%. he has taken on a difficult task and he is getting it done. we can criticize the situation afterward. host: when you look at the situation as it is why do you describe it as getting it done? caller: because we are making progress. every day more and more people are getting out. it is maybe not going as fast as i wish it would but it is going fast. sorry, let me take a breath. i am nervous. [laughs] but there are a lot of factors that have been brought up the last few weeks. as far as my opinion on c-span,

you have really dropped the ball as far as bringing up other topics that are just as crucial going on in the country. the pandemic, how desantis is handling it -- host: i will stop you there saying our covid coverage is second to none. this concern in afghanistan only taking place the last week and a half. this is why we are focused on this but you can finish your thought as far as afghanistan as you wish. caller: i did. i would like to continue talking about afghanistan. before president biden started removing americans and the afghan friendlies, a week before he had been assured by the president of afghanistan they would hold. we had trump who made a special

deal, him and pompeo making a deal with the taliban to release the prisoners permitting them to leave may 1. that was a big set up from the former guy which his whole four years was a set up. host: does president biden take responsibility for the end result? caller: he is going to but let us focus on getting the task done. poll or no poll is to get the americans out right? let's focus on that and afterward we can sit back and the armchairs and criticize. host: that was terri in oregon. a couple of international perspectives. this is out of moscow with president vladimir putin commenting saying, it was time for the west to end the quote "irresponsible policy from abroad."

law -- let's focus on that and afterward we can sit back and the armchairs and criticize. host: that was terri in oregon. a couple of international perspectives. this is out of moscow with president vladimir putin commenting saying, it was time for the west to end the quote "irresponsible policy from abroad." he did promise to work with the west to build good neighborly relations. we know afghanistan, we know it well, mr. putin said. we saw how this country is built and how counterproductive it is to force a natural government and public life upon it. if you go to the opinions section of the new york times, a piece by a fellow at the international security and strategy talking about china's role and what will happen next. he writes, unlike the united states you china brings no baggage to the table. china has kept a low profile in tus

to $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits. that was in the opinions section of today's new york times. you can add that to the mix as far as your comments on the administration's handling of what you are seeing. south carolina this is arlene, independent line. caller: hi. i think what is happening right now is only a humanitarian thing. i think we need help from other countries to fix this like a horrible disaster. i think we are the greatest country out there and we should be sending every plane we have there to get our people out and

those poor people who helped us while we were over there. i understand from some military people that the afghan arm is not as aggressive as they would have liked. some did diane our name but we need to -- die in our name but we need to help the people that were on our side and get out and get help from other places if possible. host: do you think the current effort by the united states will achieve that goal of getting people out? caller: i pray that it does. it looks like a very disorganized free-for-all to me. it is not organized and we have the ability to be organized. we have the best military in the world. it seems like we are at a

big disadvantage and it is frightening. host: joe is in new jersey, republican line. caller: how you doing? good morning. your station impartiality is impressive to watch. i have heard people say biden is following the trump role and i think this is untrue. they were going to form a coalition government and then they were going to withdrawal civilians first, the afghan people who helped us second, equipment third and then make sure none of the equip it was left behind. now we have people on the ground trying to get to the airport. the french are paratrooping

in to get their people out and we are telling hours to get to the airport. host: do you think of president biden followed the other timetable it would've turned out differently? caller: i don't think we would have started this until we had a coalition government. but instead of doing the exact opposite of what trump was going to do i think we would have been in a better position because we would have gotten rid of our equipment and they would not go through beheadings like we are going to see now. i do not know if you will see it on regular tv. host: mark, afghanistan war veteran calling from pennsylvania on the line for democrats. hello. caller: hello, pedro. this whole thing was rushed,

poorly handled, and there is ramifications from that. we are in serious trouble. we have got billions of dollars of assets there. that is all i have to say. host: what did you do in afghanistan? caller: i cannot say that, sorry. host: were you a veteran? he hung up. this is from the times of london this morning that armed groups have driven the taliban's militants out of three districts in the first assault on afghanistan's rulers since they seized the capital. this is reflected in the washington post. anti-taliban commanders said they killed 30 fighters as they took control of the district from 100 miles north of kabul. that is the times of london

reporting. that press conference in which the president underwent yesterday, you can see it on our website at c-span.org. he talked about the evacuation efforts and elaborated on what was going on. here's a portion of that from yesterday. [video clip] >> since i spoke to you on monday we have made significant progress. we secure the airport, enabling flights to resume. not just military flights but civilian charters from other countries and the ngos taking out civilians and vulnerable afghans. now we have almost 6000 troops on the ground, including the 82nd airborne providing security, the army 10th mountain division standing guard around the airport, and the marine expeditionary unit. this is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history and the only country in the

world capable of projecting this much power with this degree of precision is the united states of america. we have already evacuated more than 18,000 since july and approximately 13,000 since our military lift began august 14. thousands more have been evacuated on private charter flights facilitated by the u.s. government. these include american citizens and permanent residents as well as their families. it includes siv applicants and their families. those afghans who served alongside us, gone into combat with us and provided invaluable assistance such as translators and interpreters. the united states stands by its commitment we made to these people and includes other vulnerable afghans such as women leaders and journalists. working in" a nation with the management -- in close

coordination with the management of the washington post we have evacuated all of their employees in afghanistan. we have established the flow of flights and increased the number of people we are moving out of the country. to make sure we could process the arriving evacuations but our commander in kabul has already given the order for outbound flights to resume. even with the pause we have moved out 5700 evacuees yesterday and are working to verify how many americans are in the country because we do not have an exact number. those who may have come home to the united states, we want to get a strong number as to how many people are there. host: one of the pieces that

came out of the president's conference yesterday was from the washington examiner about the pentagon when it comes to al qaeda. the president falsely claims the united states had gotten rid of al qaeda only to be contradicted by the pentagon minutes after the speech. the biden administration's handling of the crisis the past week, he said al qaeda had been eliminated after bin laden was killed by the u.s. mr. biden opposed the daring special forces mission that killed the al qaeda founder. "let's put this thing in perspective, what interest do we have in afghanistan with al qaeda gone? " the pentagon admitted in a press conference that al qaeda remains

but john kirby said he did not know how many fighters remain. they do not believe they pose a threat to the u.s. homeland. calvin in south carolina about the handling of evacuation efforts in afghanistan on the independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank the lord it is all over. what a switch. the insurrection ungenerous 6 -- host: let us stay on topic. caller: god handled it for thousands and thousands of years. host: what do you think about the biden administration's

handling of it? caller: let me finish my conversation, man. we have got to take care of our country but just like in cuba when they lead all the criminals out of jail and they came into miami and ruined it, that is when the real crisis begins. host: back to the president's handling, what do you think of it? caller: he is doing what he is supposed to do but he cannot let everybody over. you have got to vet the people that come. let the guys from january 6 over here. host: we will finish it there. ken in tulsa, oklahoma, republican line. caller: just listen to the democrat callers, even the ones

calling in on the republican line saying he is doing the best he can, most uninformed people. it is all over the news about how bad and upside down this handling has been by pulling the troops out first and then leaving the people to fend for themselves in the onslaught. now all these people that supported the u.s., they have all the information on them because the country was basically abandoned by the biden administration. trump had a plan and they are blaming him. host: what do you think would have made president trump have a different result? caller: that is what other

people have said. pompeo explained they told the taliban that if they move -- host: what do you think would have made president trump have a different result? caller: that is what other people have said. pompeo explained they told the taliban that if they move against the people we are going to evacuate, the allies that we had, the afghan people that worked with us, all of that plan was placed. biden turned it upside down. anything trump had planned and done, biden turned it upside down. host: how so, specifically? caller: yes specifically. host: how so did he turn it upside down in your mind? caller: the troops were pulled out first. the troops kept everything in place and you pull them out and leave everybody else defenseless. definitely the people were going to be pulled out. kept everythin place and you pull them out and

leave everybody else defenseless. definitely the people were going to be pulled out. the civilians, the americans that were there, and the afghan interpreters, all the ones that were going to be pulled out -- we would not have had this type of evacuation where people cannot get to the airport because the taliban is in control of all the exits. host: michael is in dixon, tennessee, democrat line. caller: good morning to you. i want to speak to a bigger issue. he inherited a soup sandwich from many administrations. i study history. i understand what is going on here. >> -- host: michael is in dixon, tennessee, democrat line. caller: good morning to you.

i want to speak to a bigger issue. he inherited a soup sandwich from many administrations. i study history. i understand what is going on here. getting the people out is not necessarily the issue. it is why we are in afghanistan in the first place. it has taken every country down that is tried to do everything. the taliban, al qaeda, they are there to protect the poppy fields, heroin. ld war since worr i has been about the heroin out of afghanistan. it is the only commerce they have. for god's sake, it is desert and mountains. host: we are specifically talking about these evacuation efforts. what you think about those efforts? caller: what do i think about those efforts? i think we are the ones protecting the airspace and the airports and the french paratroopers are going to get those people from their nation out. if we had not gone back, none of those people would have been getting their people out and doing all of this. host: things should be done differently? nothing should be done differently?

what do you think? caller: repeat yourself? host: when it comes to the evacuation efforts do you think something should be done differently, nothing should be done differently? caller: as i said, he inherited a soup sandwich from donald trump. they can say what they want but they are not in power and he did nothing but make a deal with the drug dealers. host: that was michael in dixon, tennessee. jersey city, new jersey on the independent line, dominic. caller: thank you for taking my call. everything has to be predicated on the idea that the afghan government was supposed to stay in place. that they were going to take care of themselves. we spent 20 years training and supporting the afghan government and do you not think the u.s. had the idea of the capability

we thought that they were going to remain in place. we thought it would be over a longer time not 11 days. that created a vacuum. your question on the handling of the withdrawal. it is based on the games of the taliban. the united states had 2400 troops, they pulled them back, they thought the afghan government would be able to hold the country and the americans and others would have the opportunity to leave. that was all destroyed by the taliban and the afghan government totally collapsing. host: do you think that is an intelligence failure? caller: yes and no. the u.s. intelligence did say they thought the afghan government would fall eventually but not in 11 days.

what you have now is biden in the united states has to act upon that. our capabilities without escalating the number of trips back into the country -- we could go to a certain extent but there's only so much we can do in kabul unless we want to send 50,000 troops back in. that is not going to happen. host: that was dominic in new jersey giving us his thoughts. from some of you on social media, one week into evacuation and with no americans killed. that is a success. jean saying, i support president biden.

i think withdrawing would have always resulted in chaos. margaret from maryland texting saying, this quarterback discussion is wasted nonsense. we are evacuating all we should and can. let's focused on with the afghan people have done for their country this past decade and support these efforts. one of the topics that has been part of this discussion as far as what happens to refugees. yesterday we heard from the policy director of the international refugee project talking about the situation facing those afghans with special immigrant visas and what happens to them during this process. here is part of that program. [video clip] >> logically one would think that the u.s. government would know who worked for the u.s. government. but a large part of this process required the applicants to prove that they were for the u.s. government and that process to submit documentation involves

tracking down the correct hr person you worked five or 10 years ago, writing a letter, and then hoping that letter is good enough. it was so inefficient. emailing the application packets and at the end of the day a process that took months took years. we had a client who worked for the u.s. for 12 years whose application was pending for a decade and was murdered before the visa could be applied. it was really well-intentioned by the americans but the way it was implemented was to slow. one other thing i point out is that there are thousands of

refugees, afghans, who worked for a with the u.s. they do not qualify for the visa program. for example, afghans who did work advancing women's rights, democracy, and received funding through usaid grants, the biden and trump administration interpreted that work as not being on behalf of the u.s. the taliban when they go door-to-door are not going to say, where you working on a cooperative agreement or a contract? they are going to say, you worked for the u.s. government. you represent all that we are against and they are not going to have mercy. there is a large group of afghans we need to get out of the country who may not be in the visa pipeline because they technically do not qualify but they did serve side-by-side with

the americans and we need to get them out. host: politico's alex ward on his twitter feed says this is based from a state department cable. this came out around 7:17 this morning saying 11,691 people vacuuming a did -- people evacuated. of the 11,000 just over 3000 american citizens, 1137 afghans and 7517 are third country nationals or unknown. they are expecting 2000 in germany by august 22. it also noted the united states and canada signed a letter of cooperation where canada agreed to settle the 2000 individuals and return to the united states landing spots at the place for the canadian military.

each side may carry passengers for the other. you can see more on the twitter feed from this state department cable. up until the top of the hour we take your calls. looking at your thoughts on the biden administration's handling of it. clearwater, florida, democrats line, ron, go ahead. caller: i am retired military. spent over 24 years in the military and i just got to say i don't know if people know this but when you look at former homeland security advisor mike pence -- to mike pence, olivia foxworthy, he pedaled racist theory about iraqi and afghanistan soldiers that fought

side-by-side by us for four years. then donald trump gets on the television and says this great, empathetic president joseph biden should be impeached along with the flip-flop or lindsey graham. host: this brings us to the modern-day as far as the evacuation process. what you think about the efforts? caller: what did he do? donald trump is the one that made the agreement with the taliban. he made it headline news and then all president biden did was follow that lead. obviously we have had some hiccups with respect to the evacuation but in the end i think it will be a great decision. host: to what degree does he take responsibility of what is going on today? caller: he does. he says the buck stops with him which it should.

but i think that in the end everything will work out the best it possibly could. host: what convinces you of that? caller: i am convinced that afghanistan is a hard country to lead. it is basically a medieval society and a lot of the times our intelligence is not as precise as people would think it should be. but i think with respects to his great team around him, they will be able to do well getting people out. host: that was ron in clearwater, florida. joe and hawaii, independent but identifies as an afghanistan war veteran. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. how are you? host: doing well.

how are you? caller: good. i was in afghanistan in 2004 and we did our best effort to bring that country to a successful end , but it went on for decades and decades. now, the biden administration has woefully underestimated the ability of the taliban. they did not know the plan would collapse so quick and so hard that it would leave us with what we are doing now. it is time for us to leave afghanistan but the biden administration, they swung and missed the ball. host: as far as your current assessment of what you see going on as far as evacuation efforts how would you characterize that? caller: those folks are doing

the best they can under the circumstances they have been given. they are doing a good job but it could have been done better if we had realized that the afghan forces, the 300,000 people we trained over the years, that we knew they would collapse so quick. that is an intelligence failure. host: you being military police why do you think that happened? why do you think it collapsed so quickly? caller: well, america tried to bring our values in and what we thought was best for communities there. but that place has been the way it is for thousands of years. i think we missed the mark on that. we missed the mark on the humanitarian efforts. we thought that country wanted to be but that is not with ar

and we missed that mark. now it is way past time to leave. host: andy in burlington, north carolina, republican line. caller: hello. host: you are on. go ahead. caller: shoot. hello? host: we will go to jesse in wharton, mississippi on the line for democrats. good morning. go ahead. jesse from mississippi, hello? caller: good morning? host: go ahead. caller: [indiscernible] we have been there for 20 years and have dumped trillions of dollars in their to train and equip those people. in one day, one day, you see no

afghanistan forces. where did they go? where are they now? did the taliban pop up out of the ground? host: the events leading up to it, what you think about the evacuation effort itself? caller: well, i think it is chaos. it is not the americans' fault, it is the afghan people's fault. they have dumped their uniforms and guns and became the taliban. no matter how it all looks right now joe biden bit the bullet and did what many a president wanted to do starting from bush up until now. i agree with our american soldiers. host: that was jesse in mississippi. pennsylvania this is michelle

saying, president biden should've planned the exit better. tom in houston, texas saying, if president biden is doing anything right, it is following president trump's declaration to pull out of afghanistan. any real american had plenty of time to remove themselves. this is from barbara from facebook going back to the george w. bush administration, thank him for starting a war to gain political points. we were warned about the difficulty of withdrawal so i suppose republicans approve of us staying in the people cannot defend themselves? we tried. it is their turn. we will help those who must get out but have lost too many of our own. just some of the ways reaching out on social media or texting at (202)-748-8003. in michigan, independent line, darrell up next. caller: thank you for taking my call. so far, i cannot imagine coming

up with a poll like you had because we have only seen four videos. the 600 people on the c-117, the people chasing the c-117, we have seen a marine saving a young child. these are video feeds that all stations are giving but we do know this, 4000 taliban prisoners have been released from prison. they are probably very happy but also ready for retribution. host: we also heard directly from the biden administration on these efforts. with that in mind and a lot of what you described what you think about the evacuation process so far? caller: i think i do not have enough information to know what is going on behind the scenes. host: chris in atlanta, georgia,

republican line and afghanistan war veteran. caller: hello. can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: first my response to the last -- nonetheless democrat caller but the one talking about trump, i reject everything he said. you are trying to stay focused on the evacuation or the evaluation of that? host: the evacuation and people's opinion of it. what do you think? caller: the military expression of goat rope. they are trying to manage it the best they can but another version might be herding cats. pretty much a goat rope. host: what did you do in afghanistan? caller: there are things i will not talk about. host: where you military, civilian, government agency? caller: military. host: how long were you there?

caller: i have been in service for years but i am not going to get into those details except to say -- host: are you there? caller: i'm still here. host: go ahead and finish up. caller: this is a repeat of what happened in iraq in 2013-2014 and people were not paying attention to what was happening then. 20,000 iraqi soldiers evaporated in front of isis. it was coming, people knew it was coming, a lot of people chose to disregard what was being told of them that it was coming. when the army collapsed right in front of them people were shocked and like, what do we do now? host: you said you were there. do you think this evacuation would have been different under a different administration? caller: yes. trump had a real plan.

some people choose not to review it, other people were reviewing it on television. they actually had contingency plans our current president rejed that planning. host: thanks to all of you who participated. we will continue on our conversation later. first, a discussion on the economy, especially with unemployment. sylvan lane will talk about jobless benefits, the pandemic, how that relates to unemployment and the economy. later on in the program, a civilian officer rose to become a senior advisor to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

he will talk about his book. he will join us later on in the program. those conversations are coming up on washington journal. >> if you choose to research the origins of a topic being discussed in the united states called critical race theory, you will find the name derek bell. a law professor who died in 2011. he was one of the originators of this much discussed subject. in november, he appeared on book notes to discuss his book faces at the bottom of the well, the permanence of racism. >> the late derek bell, the first tenured