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>> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back continuing our conversation on afghanistan. joining us on two different perspective is danielle pletka. she is the senior fellow with the american enterprise institute. and also frederick kempe from the atlantic council. your take on the president's withdrawal from afghanistan? guest: it was a debacle, unfortunately. something not of us wanted to see. whatever your perspective, nobody is happy about how this happened. also the loss of life and the unbelievable botched execution are all not just bad for us in

afghanistan, on counterterrorism, but bad for us globally because of the message it sends about how we conduct our business. others are watching us and laughing. host: you wrote in a pc yesterday, president biden has a chance to salvage his legacy and credibility, but it won't be easy what do you mean? guest: let me put that in context from the piece i wrote the week before. i said president biden's entire narrative was that america is back and part of that perspective was that allies could trust us. allies who were upset about the rhetoric of the trump administration were ready to embrace president biden and his rhetoric that he is going to work with allies and democracies and his speech about withdrawal

was not consulted with allies. so i would start with that. i always look for a silver lining and even in the afghanistan squall you can see a silver lining. the biden administration is in its early years. they can address this situation and at least course correct. if they are ruthless in assessing their mistakes and lessons learned and three mistakes were to consult closely with allies now and be seen doing it. not in afghanistan or on counterterrorism, but particularly on china and they also feel we are not consulting close enough. the second is to get ready for copter terrorism because you cannot believe the taliban will take over and other terrorists won't return. he saw that with the attack on

thursday. and finally, you can contain and can tell them to a certain extent. they need money and recognition and skills for development. you can work with regional allies and partners to contain and restrain the taliban to the extent possible. the taliban is saying we are different and we are going to work with you. we have no option but to test that right now. i don't think this particular animal is going to change its stripes. but on the other hand, what else do we have? host: should the administration work with the taliban? guest: when he says what option do we have, and i agree with him on the problems with our allies,

what option do we have? look, our approval, our recognition is like a good housekeeping seal of approval in the world, no matter what you think of different presidents of the united states or our foreign policy on a day-to-day basis, but we remain the most powerful country in the world and our good housekeeping seal of approval is important. what that means is that if we are going to do any business at all with the taliban, we need to withhold that recognition and test their behavior. when we see that isis is operating with impunity, when we hear that the taliban has been using our equipment to go door to door to hunt down those who they accuse of collaborating with the enemy, when we hear about door knocks looking for women to marry for a few minutes

and rape, those are not things that encourage me to think that recognition is going to be important. fred is also right that they need money. the taliban took over the country quickly and in talking to people on the ground that are more familiar with their operations that i am, they say that the taliban is then stretched and will not be able -- thin stretched and will not be able to control everything, especially with the absence of foreign troops, support, intelligence. a reign of terror is not going to work extraordinarily well for them. we are going to be able to see in the coming days what is their hallmark? are they a new telephone? i have such strong doubts and find it hard to ask the question, but we will certainly have an opportunity to see.

as much as we rushed into this unbelievable mistaken withdraw, we should watch and wait and do our best to support and secure those who are not just americans but those who worked with us and made that mission a success over the years. host: while you are talking, we were showing viewers the president and first lady on air force one making their way to delaware where the bodies of the u.s. -- 13 u.s. service members will be flown to and the president will be there when they touched down on american soil. fred kempe, your thoughts. guest: i picked up the washington post this morning and the faces of the 13 are on the front page. they are age 20, 22, 23, marines

. so they were children of 9/11. they went into this for the right reasons they cared about their country. very moving stories about their aspirations for their lives after this. they were killed by cynics and just buy a whole different those. -- ethos. we talk about the third team americans but we don't talk enough about the afghans. we just don't recognize the numbers of afghans that have died in service. these are afghans who were still worried about the taliban and danielle is right that you have to be skeptical about how they ruled last time. but the people who are leaving our afghanistan's best and

brightest and people looking for freedom and a different way of life and liked what happened to civil society. a lot had advanced, not with just women and girls but freedom of speech and ability to live in a more humane way. those were the 200 afghans outside the gate. they were looking for a better life. it is a tragedy when you look at the human loss and you have president biden saying yesterday that he does expect in the next 24 to 36 hours another attack. host: let's go to lee in georgia, a democratic caller. caller: good morning. greta, i am a 100% disabled veteran. i was in two wars. i must say of all the presidents

, this one is the most incompetent president i have ever seen. when i was in the military we had general orders. we were standing duty and standing watch. you have to stand on your post until properly. this president is so incompetent. it has caused chaos all over the country. this president is so incompetent that he don't know the history of these people. these people north of afghanistan is a country called uzbekistan. is pakistan -- uzbekistan, host: what is your point?

caller: my point is the incompetence of this president. there should be a trial for him. you cannot go into the country and do as much damage as he has. host: danielle pletka, your view of the ramifications of this withdrawal in the way it was done for this region. guest: i want to thank the caller for his service. it sounds like he sacrificed a great deal. the one thing i can say one thing all americans great about, is that we are enormously grateful for our service men and women who support our freedoms every day. in terms of the ramifications of this, i think they are yet to come. the only thing we know is it won't be good.

they won't be good anywhere. what we saw when isis took over and created a caliphate in syria and in iraq was that it was a magnet for islamist extremists all over the world. they came because they liked having a territory from which to operate. they wanted to be in the fight. and tens of thousands came from all over the world. what we are going to see likely in afghanistan is not just a shot in the arm to those extremists everywhere, whether they are isis, al qaeda, or any number of those extremists, we will see threat to our allies, threats to india. we are going to see increased instability in pakistan. even in just that small not of

the woods we don't think about, we are going to see threats. i don't like the invocation of the attacks of 9/11 to make every single point. but sometimes the analogy is too strong and the lesson of history is too obvious to ignore it. before nine/11/2001, we ignored the rise of the taliban, the fact that they were hosting al qaeda, the fact that al qaeda was able to operate attacks from that territory. we shrugged our shoulders because afghanistan is far away, and who cares. these are lessons we should not have to learn twice. when i look at the national security implications of this, i am simply god smacked with

people who are -- were there that day and knew the mistakes we made. host: john in southhampton, salina, republican. good morning, john. caller: thanks for taking my call. -- john in southhampton, republican. good morning, john. caller: thanks for taking my call. the neocons is just insanity. some point i would like to make. it wasn't the taliban or the afghans who attacked us on 9/11, it was the sunni muslims and osama bin laden. it wasn't the taliban. the taliban never came to the

united states to attack us, even though we were occupying their country. we never should have occupied afghanistan. it made no sense. we could have delivered a punishment to the afghans, to the taliban. another point, the taliban had effectively eliminated the opium and trade in 2001. as consequent of our occupation, it exploded. millions of people have probably died as a result of the occupation and the drugs that have killed americans, russians, afghans, iranians. all the adjacent countries who lost hundreds of thousands of people. we could have gotten the same deal we got currently right now from the taliban after 9/11 and

after punishing them. we were promising to make -- they were promising to make sure that no one attacked us from their soil. thank you. host: fred kempe. caller: with your permission going to say something about the previous caller, a marine. i suggest anyone listening, and this is why i like to call -- come on and hear those colors. read a new piece -- those callers. read a new piece about an author who writes about the costs of the very long wars and he differentiates between as the current caller, on the war on

terror and the war on afghanistan and asks the question, is it possible we could have won the one war and loss the others. -- and lost the others. we have seen russia take crimea and parts of eastern ukraine. you have seen iran step up if -- it's roxy warfare in the middle east. it is a very fragile situation and that is what he writes about. my own view in terms of your current caller is that we had more or less withdrawn from afghanistan. we were down to 2500 troops. we had had a military service casualty since february of 2020. this week was our biggest day of

casualties for the american military since 2011. here henry kissinger wrote this week that sometimes we are in a political domestic situation where we either want complete victory are complete withdraw. and sometimes your insurance policy of being in with no casualties but being able to train and still fight a war on terror is a good way to go. now we have to think about what's next. i do think we were in a position where this longest war was over from the standpoint of combat casualties. i do agree with danielle that perhaps how it was executed wasn't appropriate to the situation, starting with the top administration negotiating with

the taliban but not with the afghan democratic government, leaving them out and then resident biden pick that up and continued. host: rob, independent. caller: i am a vietnam veteran and i am crying this morning. what i think about this country in the last 95 years, every country in the middle east, the same thing, 1890 to 1993, the same thing. now in afghanistan with the

taliban. as a vietnam veteran -- [crying] host: thank you for your service. danielle, when you hear a vietnam veteran weeping like this, what do you think? guest: i say first of all, thank you for your service. as we were watching the president speak, this is that a military failure. this was not a decision badly made by our commanders on the ground. this was a loss in battle, this was a political choice. the person who has let down our veterans and americans is the commander in chief.

and they are right that donald trump made the initial decision to talk to the taliban that at the time i thought was great, motivated by that same strange, desperate desire to leave afghanistan despite the fact that we had for the most part withdrawn. when i look at so many of the examples that robert brought up, what i look at is not our failure to perform military. i look at the weakness of our political leadership. that is not why we are here today to talk about the weakness of our political ship, but if you want to talk -- leadership, but we want to talk about when our leaders are weak and confused and wrong in what they say and do, it weakens the

things that we believe in, the freedoms that we believe in. the religious freedoms, women's rights, civil freedoms, political freedoms. it is not just about the political game here at home. it is not just about who do you like more and who is lying. we get so caught up in the day-to-day battle that we fail to recognize that we are degrading our own brand and our own brand is the most important thing in the world. our brand is freedom. when we forget about that. when we let down the afghans, the kurds, the syrian people, when we let down the people who look to us, that is a disaster for our country and for our prosperity. host: like in wisconsin, republican. caller: good morning thank you

for c-span. i am a vietnam vet, not combat and not at risk, but i always thought joe biden wasn't amiable dunce -- was an emmy able dunce -- an amiable dunce. what rational person would do this. it is lbj thinking he is a general. i am so frustrated. host: fred kempe? guest: thank you to the caller for expressing that view. i part ways with president biden on how this has been executed. i understand the difficult position he was left in by president trump. i still believe you can decide

early in your presidency. i think president biden from 2009 felt very strongly that u.s. leaders had been boxed in by the military and this was not a place where american men and women should live their lives. i have known president biden as a vice president biden and senator biden peered this is a good man. this is a person who really does understand the world. he's got one of the best and most experienced administrations as seen in a long time coming into office. i say that's all disagreeing with this and hoping that this incredibly high integrity purposeful president will take a lesson from this, understanding that like john f kennedy, the bay of pigs disaster was early

in his presidency. you don't remember him for the bay of pigs disaster. he can get past this but he has to double down on allies and counterterrorism and on containing the taliban, and then he can focus on his structure plans, economic rebuilding, obviously taking on covid-19 is the highest priority. he has a lot in front of him, but if he takes charge of this situation and finds a better way out of it, you could still have a presidency, and that is what you brought up in my column. he can still have that. if they don't do that, then this will be what the administration is remembered for. host: miles in new jersey, democratic caller. caller: i want to try to understand something. we went over there and train to

300,000 of their soldiers to help fight for their country. we gave them weapons that they could defend themselves with. everybody talked about we left the weapons behind. if we had taken the weapons they would have said how would they defend themselves. we had soldiers over there and took them out and the 200,000 other soldiers that we trained let them down. but who are we blaming? the president. what about the 300,000 soldiers that they trained? host: let's take that point. danielle pletka? guest: he asks a great question. the united states goes into these countries and yes we early

on had a combat role. but among our most important roles was training, support, maintenance, intelligence, and our allies were sharing that mission. there has been a lot said about the fact that the asking -- the afghan army quote unquote collapsed. that is not a fact. they afghans have sacrificed an enormous amount. as fred noted, have not suffered casualties like we did last week since 2011. that is notwithstanding the fact that there have been battles on the ground against the taliban and those battles have been fought by the afghan armed forces and they have conformed not just bravely, but it's extraordinarily well in terrible circumstances.

they should do no less. it is their country. if they are not willing to defend, no one else can. so .1. there serve -- so point one, they have been judged unfairly. what we provided to them in terms of equipment and intelligence and support are things that we provide to our nato allies, not just to afghanistan. it is not simple to take a country like afghanistan and a population that is as diverse as it is and in some ways underdeveloped as it is and create a first world military. we did not create a first world military. they needed our support, intelligence, maintenance and support.

joe biden decided we shouldn't provide them. some folks may remember that we went into libya to take off muammar gaddafi -- take out mo mark duffy -- to take out muammar gaddafi because of the threat to his people. we had to provide ammunition because the friends in france and u.k. ran out of ammunition. they are not afghanistan. and they are not the afghan military. they needed us as well. this is what happens. this is the kind of support we provide. it is terribly wrong and terribly misplaced to put the blame on the afghan military and suggest that they did not

perform up to snuff. host: herald in miami, independent. -- harold in miami, independent. caller: we can't change in ideology and we can't transform them into our way of life. but we have to take care of our backyard. our foundation is broken in government. we have to do something peered we have to stand up together as one country and unite ourselves, forget about politics, it and just start from scratch, one country at the time. thank you. host: host: fred? guest: i am an independent. i am not a registered democrat

or republican. i believe that president biden and his rhetoric has it right. he speaks of the period we are in as an inflection point in history and the systemic struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. we have had a recession of democratic rights and freedoms since 2006 in the high point was 1992. we have to understand that and president biden is expecting to have a democracy summit but handing afghanistan over to a bureaucracy is a setback for democracy. i think it is an inflection point and to the caller, president biden's first argument is the way we can compete with

others in the world is to take care of ourselves. that is what the economic stimulus is about. i would argue that we have to walk and chew gum at the same time we cannot be locally disengaged and we cannot be overextended. we have to decide where we work and he is right again. you have to work with allies and more in more in certain regions we have to let those allies take the lead with our supports. so we have to lead in a different way, realizing our limitations but how crucial we are to the planet at this inflection point in history. we have to do it differently and more intelligently. i agree with the caller that one has to take care of themselves first but that cannot be divorced from global obligation,

which actually supports overall the u.s. domestic position as well. host: dennis in minnesota, republican. caller: good morning. we need to wake up and find out who joe biden is. i think he is a criminal and he doesn't do anything unless he lines his pockets. you have to follow the money and connect the dots neared when he was with obama there is no difference. all of the arms left behind, that was a favor to obama and his muslim friends. host: i am going to leave it there. danielle pletka, we have had callers today over the recent days asking congress to investigate this withdraw and how it happened. do you share that? guest: let me put it this way. congress' role is oversight, so absolutely. i think congress should always

understand what is going on inside the executive branch and why it is happening. i do genuinely regret -- and without criticizing what the caller thinks specifically -- i do genuinely regret this effort to criminalize absolutely everything. some people are just bad leaders. some people do just dumb, bad things and they are not doing them because they have some hidden financial agenda or some hope for a benefit. they are wrong. the right way to deal with that in the court of public opinion is to discuss it, as we are today, into here out people's concerns and to be open and frank. in that interest of openness, absolutely. i know the senate foreign committee is planning hearings as soon as possible.

[no audio] i want our members in congress to understand why decisions were made and i want us to learn lessons so we don't make the same mistakes again. i hope i didn't put out. host: it cut out for, but i think we got the just. let's go to laura in tallahassee, florida, democratic caller. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i am enjoying the conversation. i wanted to start out by asking, you know, the afghani people tested us and we spent -- trusted us and we spent time and invested trillions of dollars, and yet they were able to see the past administration abandon

our allies in syria. we walked away from the kurds. and then we had a policy in this country that we would not negotiate with terrorists, but president trump sat down with the taliban, giving them credibility in the afghan army that we trained were aware and they watched. and i think that was the beginning of their loss of trust in our standing and defending them. and so it was in evitable that trump's plan was to pull us out. so please explain what you believe, if any, that past history in the trump administration had on the 300,000 afghan soldiers basically laying down arms and looking away and how things would have been different had trump withdrawn us from

afghanistan. host: we will take that. i will have both of our guests internet. fred kempe, do you want to go first? guest: i think there is a problem among our allies and adversaries of doubts about u.s. commitment, u.s. credit ability, -- u.s. credibility, and u.s. confidence, some justified and some over exaggerated. former sig. two-state condoleezza rice wrote recently that -- former secretary of state condoleezza wright wrote recently. taiwan, ukraine, you could have more from the russians and iran and iraq. these are times when an

administration can be tested and people can overstep and miscalculate and that could cause an international conflict that we really don't want to be in. this is a fragile geopolitical moment and the situation in afghanistan certainly doesn't help that moment at all. there is a good side from our european allies wondering whether or not they ought to be taking some more weight on their own shoulders. it was announced late yesterday that the french and british are going to go to the united nations and get approval to have a safe zone in afghanistan to have people brought out into delay or -- and to deliver humanitarian aid, even after our schedule withdrawal of august 31. this is a good thing, particularly if the european say we have to carry more burden, if

they are carrying more burden if they distrust the united states, that is a bad thing. this is a glimmer of hope in the afghan situation where you could have a safe area being created with the blessing of the united nations at the instigation of the british and the french. host: danielle pletka? guest: all i can say is i hope fred is right. i will be interested to see if the chinese and russians are going to allow a safe haven in afghanistan. my bet is they are not going to be too enthusiastic about this. the caller asked an interesting question. i think it has been absolutely fascinating to watch the politics that president biden has tried to engage in on this question. well, i had to do this and i was locked into this position because donald trump made this deal, as if something else that

donald trump did was binding on joe biden. that was transparent and was a lame argument. but he was right that donald trump was very enthusiastic about drawing down from afghanistan. for those who have forgotten, donald trump actually had the gall to invite the taliban to meet with him at camp david on 9/11. it never ended up happening, it wasn't because of the wisdom of the previous commander-in-chief. the one thing that distinguished the two of them and their terrible ideas is that joe biden came into office, said he was going to withdraw from afghanistan, and said he would do so without regard to the conditions on the ground. this seems to be the kind of willful, ideal algae -- ideology

that got us to what fred laid out. that is one difference between joe biden and donald trump. donald trump didn't say he was going to withdraw troops regardless of the situation on the ground. just as a final note, there is no point in talking about what would donald trump have done or what would joe biden have done differently if donald trump hadn't done this because it joe biden is the president of the united states. he says, but he doesn't mean it, that the buck stops with him. he is correct. the decisions you make as commander-in-chief are the decisions you make and the consequences are the consequences we see. we have betrayed our allies, not just in afghanistan but european allies on the ground, asian allies on the ground. we have created a disaster where there was not one. and worse yet, one of the things

i like the most about joe biden was his support of democracy and working with allies and yet in one fell swoop, he undercut both his commitment to democracy or did he just mean democracy for us? i'm not sure. and our relationship the allies, it is tragic. host: joseph in fayetteville, indiana. an independent. we will go to you next. caller: thank you for having me this morning. it would take years to understand the last year of our involvement with afghanistan. i would like to remind your speakers today that the united states lost every battle in the revolution and yet we won the war. the confederacy lost the civil war and yet we are still talking about this. the united states is an example

for all these people around the world who are involved with terrorists because every time it looks like we have lost or done something stupid, it turns around and all of the sudden we are an example. even the communists in china looked like they had lost to the nationalists, and they came back . you can't ever count out the united states. i have been involved in the military since 1983. i was in the marines and in the andrew jackson brigade and you cannot count out the united states. host: thank you for your service. fred kempe, your thoughts? guest: i think it was winston churchill -- who said we will do what is right after exhausting all the possibilities. we have incredible stored up potential and capability.

our allies will want to rely on us because they must, but also because they want to part of the reason we were a global leader and followed by other countries is we were viewed as leading in a common interest in a group of like-minded countries. that is really what we need to get back to again and that is going to be really important right now, because for better or worse we are in a situation where our allies feel they were not consulted over afghanistan. they believe they are not being consulted close enough on china. if we really want to be global leaders going forward, we have to work with allies early on to frame policy as a country that has learned that the future can only be shaped by a coalition of

allies. we talk about how our allies are our greatest asset, but then we don't use them strategically or bring them in early enough. host: mason, charlottesville, virginia, a republican. caller: afghanistans lost a lot of people in the war but they did it under american leadership. they came to their leadership, they folded. here in charlottesville, the day before the withdraw was announced, we had a parliamentarian and his entourage come here. why didn't he stay and organize a fight? host: danielle pletka, talk about the leadership of afghanistan over the years and americans hearing about the president fleeing the country, in your thoughts. guest: we did hear about him fleeing the country. i cannot speak to a parler --

parliamentarian being there and i can't criticize him for that. i suspect he didn't know what was going to happen in his country. had he known, you may not have been here. afghanistan politics is ugly. it is corrupt, warfare, there has been an unbelievable lack of responsibility on the part of afghan leaders to their people. i don't just mean the his -- i don't just mean his fleeing the country, but i hesitate when we try to compare these governments to our own. we have our share of faults in

our own government. afghanistan is not a democracy of 200 plus years. afghanistan isn't a democracy of 20 plus years. it is an underdeveloped country. it is a country with tribal and religious and sectarian differences. it is a country surrounded by rather unpleasant in interfering neighbors who have not hesitated to stick their finger in the pie of afghan politics and warfare. and for those who expected that this would look jeffersonian, i hate to break it to you, it takes a long time to build a functioning democracy. countries do not throw up by nature perfect democrat. sometimes we luck out and see wonderful leaders overseas in countries that have never known democracy. but for the vast amounts of

time, we see bad leaders and democratic elections that throw them out. we see other democratic elections that bring other ones back. afghan -- afghanistan has have six elections and none have been perfect but much more perfect than afghanistan was before and. -- before hand. for those who believe we prosper more with more democracies around the world, it is not a pretty process. it wasn't here in the united states of america and i can assure you it is not going to be in any country overseas. host: arizona next, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i think it would be in our best interest if we would put our backs behind biden. he is such a compassionate man. he is doing his best.

he walked into a mess from trump's rollbacks alienating our allies. he wouldn't talk to other countries. biden is a great president and i think he is doing his best. i think everybody is bashing him and i don't think it is in our best interest. we have so many problems in this country. our voting rights are being taken away. we can't have oversight if we have people in the senate that lock everything -- that blocks everything. they just don't work together anymore. host: ok, i heard your point. fred kempe.

guest: i talked to a european official and what he said the trump rhetoric on working with allies was far worse than the actual policy, while the biden rhetoric has been far better than the actual execution and policy. so you heard me at the character of president biden and i agree with the caller but i think he needs to execute now alongside allies. and going back to the evacuation, let's not underestimate what a huge accomplishment it is that we now have 120,000 people out by now. you know whether the secretary of state or the national security or the former ambassador to afghanistan, turkey, elsewhere meeting this evacuation charge we follow this very closely. it is really remarkable what is

being pulled of under difficult situations, and yes, with the cooperation with the taliban by and large. these are really good people. there is a narrative that nothing has been accomplished in the last 20 years. the evolution of the civil society is dramatic. it didn't go down to every village and town but particularly in the larger cities, women were being educated as never before. girls were getting education opportunities as never before. if this trajectory had been able to continue, then you would really see a quite different country. that is what is in danger and it really is quite disturbing. host: here is a tweet from a viewer. do you think the taliban benefits from the constant media attention? guest: super interesting question. you would really like it,

wouldn't you, if all of these vile groups and frankly haters and nazis in our own country were not able to exploit platforms like twitter and instagram and facebook in order to propagate their message. i think the longer and the short of the answer is yes, i think the benefits absolutely. i think that apart from the platform that it affords them, it also enables them to communicate their terrible messages to other like-minded extremists. it puts out a call for others to join them on the ground in the fight. this is what we saw in the ground in a syria and what we saw previously on the ground in iraq and afghanistan. and so i, for one, wish that the kind of vigilance that these

groups started to show towards american politicians, even in the context of covid, would be i'd to the extremists that we see -- that would be applied to the extremists that we see coming up. host: charlotte, north carolina, independent. caller: good morning. a special good morning to danielle pletka. i am a fan of your podcast. my comments about the president is that he is totally incompetent. he can't even remember his wife's name. he has is handled not only afghanistan but the united states. he has given us open borders and the economy is going nowhere. and who is running the country,

the former president barack obama appeared this president is not there. host: danielle pletka, can you tell us about your podcast for those who don't know. guest: thank you. i didn't set that up. i have a podcast with my colleague. we started it during the trump administration. it is still apropos. we are focusing on afghanistan this weekend and next, and i do appreciate the shout out. host: dan, youngstown, ohio, republican. caller: i hear a lot of people talking about the cost, how must -- how much it costs us to keep troops in afghanistan and the base open.

what people forget about is, what is the cost of freedom? when we were drawn down and donald trump was in charge, he had a highly conditional drawdown, in which if the taliban didn't act and perform as they were supposed to, if they misbehaved, then we didn't draw troops out. we only did that conditionally. so when biden talks about donald trump promised to have them out by may, can you tell me any policy that biden hung onto of donald trump? he reversed every policy there was. host: we will take that point. fred kempe? guest: we still have troops in

germany in the middle east. i agree with the general argument that our investment in security pays off overall for the american people. that said, we have been overreliance on the military side. we haven't invested enough in the diplomatic side of this. you see china, whatever you think of china, they are in a very sophisticated way using the belt and wrote initiative and investments and -- the belt and road initiative and investments. if the biden administration, like the trump administration, sees china as the primary rival, you have to think in nonmilitary terms. the military, as we have seen in afghanistan and elsewhere, will only get us so far. one thing i want to say the

previous caller and the advertising of the taliban and the press covering, what i worry about most is the media is not out in places the way it needs to be and used to be. i work at the wall street journal and i went behind soviet lines during the occupation of afghanistan when my it was not very convincing. there are not as many staff reporters of major newspapers and radio stations and television out in the world. i do not know how we navigate the world if our free media does not invest more in real reporting on the ground. i think we have suffered from that in afghanistan. >> kathleen in ohio, democratic

caller. >> i was eight sanders supporter for decades. those are my values. i supported biden and did work for him online, but what worries me -- i stood against the invasion of afghanistan and iraq. i understood the need for sending in counterterrorism forces, but i stood against and went to tdc. we know that biden voted for it. all senators did. he voted for the iraq war resolution. i stood against, but now i stand against leaving based on the 20 years and on -- i keep looking at both -- many administrations

look at the people of afghanistan, iraq, libya as chess or checker pieces to be moved around without really looking at the serious consequences for people in those countries from some of our actions. what i worry about with this one is when all the generals you heard on tv like mcmaster, jacobs, warning against it as they warned against going to iraq. i feel like you are a war hawk in general. you pushed for the invasion of iraq. i worry about myself when i am agreeing -- agreeing about staying. host: final thoughts from both of you. daniel pled to come in -- danielle pletka, gophers. guest: you can -- go first. guest: you can agree with the

war or disagree with the war. we have a tendency to over rely on the military. our efforts on the soft power side are lacking. it is not for want of trying. it is for want of succeeding. we are not as good as we should be. i am not sure i agree the chinese are better at soft power . death threat diplomacy is not a model for my perspective. i agree we do too much with the military and not well enough with soft power development with the kind of technical support people need. what the caller says is right. whether you thought it was a great idea or awful idea, you have to recognize we have invested in these countries. to turn around right when we are able to maintain that investment without combat troops, without casualties, and with fewer

troops than we have on the ground in spain, i think you need to recognize there is a problem. there is a problem when a lady like the caller agrees with someone like me because what you have than is a consensus that the united states could be doing something, could be doing the right thing, and is turning around and choosing to do the wrong thing. we all know where this is going to lead. barack obama pulled us out of iraq. he denied all air support for the iraqi military. they collapsed. to think something different is going to happen in afghanistan is to ignore history. guest: let me close with historic context. i have been writing for some years this is an inflection point in history, as important as the years following world war i.

after world war i, the u.s. got it wrong. we ended up with the holocaust come with fascism. after world war two we got more right than wrong. we ended up with nato and the international order where u.s. leadership has been by and large more good than bad. we are now at one of those inflection points. you cannot see something like afghanistan in isolation. it is a contest of democracy, a question of what kind of leadership the u.s. will apply. what will become of the global system the u.s. and its satellites created? all these issues we look at, these day-to-day issues we get lost in, really important issues. it has to be seen in the larger context. if we get this history wrong, it

will look ugly, more like post-world war i and then post world war two. i am all for working with allies and seeing these setbacks as moments we can learn and take lessons from. host: thank you both for the conversation this morning and were talking to our viewers. we appreciate it. we will take a break. when we come back, we continue with our conversation, your view of the president's handling of afghanistan. there are the numbers on your screen. start dialing in. we will be back. ♪ >> weekends bring you the best in american history and nonfiction books. we will feature author discussions from freedom fast,

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people agree with withdrawing but think he mismanaged how it was done. we want to know your thoughts on that question. this is from cbs. biden's job approval falls. handling of the troop withdrawal is negative but support for withdrawal remains. his overall numbers, how unpopular or popular is joe biden. right now it stands at 47.2% approval rating and a disapproval rating of 46.9%. jay and maryland, independent. how do you think he has handled the situation in afghanistan? -- in maryland, independent. how do you think he has handled the situation in afghanistan? caller: it is a bad situation anyway you look at it, but my

point is that we seldom see -- i think your last segment also pointed this out. there is a disconnect with the facts on the ground and the policymakers here. i never see an intellectual from the ground. i never see an expert from the local language speaking experts that could advise you on the actual facts on the ground. there are experts from india, from pakistan, from afghanistan. there are qualified reporters, media, experts that could advise you on the exact facts on the ground. that is unsettling to me, that they never have an understanding of the facts on the ground. then it is a conspiracy theory

that the facts on the ground do not matter. we are making policy in a vacuum. host: in case you missed it earlier this week, we introduce our viewers to a university lecturer from kabul. he joined us from afghanistan this week. he had an opportunity to leave and chose to stay. this is what he had to say, his view of the operation in the country. [video clip] >> there's an interesting piece in the new york times today. the essence of it is he says we lost because the united states tied our hands behind us and then biden calls us cowards for not having fought. he says we laid down 68,000 lives, one fit of our army, for

the cause of defending the country, so do not belittle what sacrifices we give to the country. beyond that, the american populace has the power of his own voice and needs to keep president biden in check. he acts like none of this was his responsibility, like he did not owe anything to afghanistan. i do understand the withdrawal. afghanistan did not want foreign troops to stay here. there were better ways to go about it, better ways to support the armed forces, to keep the afghan government that was corrupt in check. they failed at all of that and now the least that can be done is engaging the taliban, making sure a more safe mechanism for

people to get out is insured and making sure the population that started dreaming in the past 20 years are not stripped of it in the near future. a nonsustainable society here in afghanistan will haunt the region, the world. it has done before and we hope it does not get to that. the moment the united states decides to isolate afghanistan and impose sanctions, the only truly suffering people will be the common poor people of afghanistan. host: you can watch that interview if you go to our website, c-span.org. patrick, democratic caller. >> i come from a family at the highest levels of u.s. military

and military intelligence. my father was a commander and my brother just retired, having been over and all of these theaters on multiple occasions. the american people better start understanding how deranged our total footprint has been. billions of dollars in hundred dollar bills were brought in transports and handed to afghan warlords. we are leaving $85 billion in military assets, more helicopters than the australian government has. why? i assure you that, as a democrat and not a supporter of biden, i can tell you that president trump would not have provided the taliban with essentially a kill list with addresses of americans and other citizens around the world.

this train wreck -- you cannot understate it. it is unbelievably horrible. we are talking about smart ammunition, advanced radar technology. it is greater than the military contract with the saudi arabia government. i have already established that the chinese are on the ground. they are establishing contracts. we have looted our treasury of three plus trillion dollars and now the chinese are coming right behind us to secure rare earth mineral contracts. host: john in houston, texas, republican, your view of the situation in afghanistan and the biden administration's handling of it. caller: he has a plan. he made that clear in the press conference and he is sticking to the plan. anybody that has ever done any planning -- i do not care if he

was planning a vacation with your family. you do a check and build in risk. these guys that surround him, these senior advisors, had to calculate what is an acceptable level of loss-of-life. i took in that press conference that he said this is an acceptable level loss-of-life based on our plan. i am not adjusting. i am not changing. he needs to tell the american public that the people killed, that was acceptable, built into the plan. we have not quite reached the threshold of loss-of-life where i would adjust my plan. it is pure arrogance. host: more of your calls coming up. we want to show you an interview we did earlier this morning with

a white house and national security reporter talking about the situation on the ground in afghanistan. joining us now, the white house national security reporter with the wall street journal to give us more information about the evacuation effort. we are less than 72 hours away here. how many americans are left? guest: good morning. several hundred. the u.s. has been a little bit vague about the actual numbers as they try to get the last ones out. it has been whittled down to 400 or 500 people who wanted to get out. host: what do we know about the specific and credible threat to the airport? americans have been told to leave again the airport perimeter.

guest: there was a specific threat they were concerned about in the middle of last week. that turned out to be true. they have more information about other attacks the islamic state branch in afghanistan was to conduct before the u.s. completely rolls out. we are getting into the final windows here. if we have not already, they will basically close the gates to almost anybody else here soon except maybe american passport holders and some afghans. they are all but finished here. when they do close things down, that will not eliminate the threat to american forces but mitigate it.

host: what can you tell us about the drone attack on isis-k? the president and administration say they found and killed people responsible for that kabul attack a few days ago. guest: there is a lot of caveats around the attack. they got some planners and facilitators, probably two, maybe injured a third in eastern afghanistan. it is not clear that was any kind of central command are or anything like that. they initially described these individuals as senior leaders or high-profile militants. that is not as clear, if that is really who they were.

they were islamic state planners , as the pentagon terms them, but it is not clear this is the head or something of the snake that they have been able to eliminate. they are worried about more attacks and likely planning other strikes there or in other parts of afghanistan. we reported yesterday the u.s. had a special weapon in combination with a conventional weapon that can be used with more precision and used to eliminate the possibility or mitigate the possibility of civilian casualties. host: was it a drone strike? guest: it was a drone strike from a base in the gulf, so

because they have closed all the bases down they have not been able to fly from around the region. they have to fly from several hundred miles from the region because that is where bases are. it does minimize the amount of time in the air and make it harder to fly over the country to potentially get more targets. this is what they call over the horizon, kind of the name of the game going forward because there are no other bases there in afghanistan or the region which would have been more convenient. host: what are you watching for today in these closing hours in afghanistan? guest: the remains of the 13 service members are going to be arriving today. that is significant, obviously a

sad event. in terms of the airport, i thing we will see them take more significant steps toward closing it up and starting to not only evacuate but ask people on the airport to get out and may let more in. as of yesterday, they had about 5000 american troops who had been there for the emergency evacuation who now themselves need to get out over the next few days. tuesday is the deadline. it is going to be a concerning period for the military. as they reduce the number of troops, they have less security and will be relying on the taliban to provide them with security around the airport. at some point, you're going to

have only a few hundred american troops trying to leave and they will be relying on the taliban to make sure the airport stays secure and does not get mobbed by more afghans. it is going to be a perilous period. host: follow his reporting on ws j.com and his twitter handle. thank you for the update. earlier today, our interview with a wall street journal reporter. let's go back to calls. tom in new york, and independent. we are getting your view of the biden administration's handling of afghanistan. what do you think? caller: it was chaotic. my question is how do you defeat the taliban?

should we have instituted a draft 20 years ago? to defeat them? they seem to be killing us a little bit at a time. it is a tragedy that we are losing marines over there. how do you defeat them at this point? host: tom in bloomingdale, new jersey, democratic caller. what do you think? caller: i am a democrat, but for two weeks i have been calling for biden to resign because i have been seeing the headlines and seeing those heart-wrenching images. now i have questions and i have questions based on information that i had to acquire on my own, that i was not getting from regular media. why did the former president negotiate withdrawal only with the taliban and exclude the afghan government and then

praise the taliban, claiming they will be killed -- what effect did that have on the morel and collapse of the afghan army -- morale and collapse of the afghan army? all i have been hearing is how biden reduced troops, and he did reduce it to 1000 from 2500. that was bad, but now it is 5000. was 2500 troops ever enough to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people, hold and defend the airbase and the airport, and evacuate our military equipment if 5000 troops is needed just to secure the airport? to what extent were both presidents strongly advised the afghan government and army would immediately collapse?

host: the white house saying from 3:00 a.m. yesterday to 3:00 a.m. today there were approximately 22,900 people evacuated from kabul, so evacuations continue in these closing days. we are less than 72 hours away from the president's deadline of leaving afghanistan on august 31. in dodge city, kansas, a republican. caller: can you hear me? host: i can. caller: two points. first, joe biden is acting like -- donald trump is like john wayne. john wayne goes in and gets the job done. we have got all the good people out of afghanistan now. we go in and tell them we

invented terrorism. have you ever heard of the nuclear bomb? we can turn your country into the biggest ashtray if you do not straighten up and fly right. we will introduce you to real terror and we can do it. thank you. host: michelle, independent. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. your coverage of the afghanistan withdrawal has been outstanding. please do a segment featuring civilians who served in afghanistan. the military was only one part of our presence. i voted for biden. i hoped he wouldn't still -- competency. only months into his presidency, we have a historic crisis and tragedy.

he has undermined our standing in the world. it was not a treaty. it was not ratified by our senate. -- or in consultation with our allies, who entered the war on our behalf. one man has put our nation at risk, our partners at risk. what about our american hostage? are we leaving him behind? i fear we may have a major hostage situation in a week to two weeks. host: george in ohio, democratic caller. we will go to you next. caller: i appreciate the wide variety of questions and stuff that you give out every day.

i am a biden supporter, a democrat. why could end we have's -- why couldn't we have started pulling out earlier? if you had made this decision in april or may, when trump had made the decision in may, why didn't he start pulling out people earlier? i am a democrat and a vietnam veteran. i have a son that served over there. this was a big bundle of mass -- mess he put us in. he could have done this better. host: let's listen to the president talking about completing the mission in afghanistan. >> as i have been in contact with our senior military leaders around the clock and our

commanders in the ground -- on the ground through the day, they made it clear we can and must complete this mission. and we will. that is what i ordered them to do. we will not be deterred by terrorists. we will not let them stop our mission. we will continue the evacuation. i have also ordered my commanders to develop plans to strike isis-k facilities. we will respond with force and precision at the time and place we choose. here's what you need to know. these isis terrorists will not win. we will rescue the americans. we will get our afghan allies out. our mission will go on. america will not be intimidated. i have confidence in our brave service members who continue to

execute this mission to save lives and get americans, our partners, our allies out of afghanistan. every day when i talked to our commanders, i ask them what they need about what more they need to get the job done. as they will tell you, i have granted every request. i reiterated to them today on three occasions that they should take the maximum steps necessary to protect our forces on the ground in kabul. i want to thank the secretary of defense and all the commanders in the field. there has been complete unanimity of every commander on the objectives of this mission and the best way to achieve those objectives. host: the president from last week. take a look at this photo just released. this is the president and first lady before they boarded air force one this morning to make

their way to delaware, where the president will be on the ground when the bodies of those 13 u.s. servicemen touch american soil this morning. peter in new york, republican. caller: i would like to make a couple observations. i would appreciate if you give me the time to make them. i would like to disagree with ms. pletka that somehow president trump was complicit. i agree with one of your previous callers that the withdrawal from the trump administration was based on them making certain conditions. one of those was that the taliban would meet with the afghan government and form a coalition. even the biden administration

understood the taliban was going to be in control of that country. and that they had to form some kind of coalition for there to be peace in that country. number two, as far as i can tell , the people, the 75,000 soldiers who form the taliban are the same people who live in afghanistan who were in the 300,000 strong troops in the afghan army. i had seen a training officer on tv who said that the afghan army was undisciplined and when they got paid they disappeared. i believe the afghan -- not all, but the majority of the afghan people did not want what america was offering them. and that there was not the will to fight for democracy in their country. how did a ragtag group of

americans fight the strongest military in the world, the british, and defeat them? because they had will and desire to form their own country. i do not think that was present there in afghanistan. i think that is the reason why. we would have had to stay there forever. host: darlene, oregon, independent. caller: i am not that politically involved in this conflict, but what i wish to say is they have done a great job and i hope for a safe withdrawal of the correct people out of the area. host: richard in ohio, republican. we will go to you next. >> i am a veteran.

i am retired from the armed forces and everything. we was in vietnam. we had no business being there, in iraq. they had been fighting wars for years and years. all it is to me is just a thing about overpopulation. you tell me why we are over there and here you're trying to get all our men out of their in afghanistan and everything else but you have them all around this airport putting us into a slaughterhouse. why do we have to be there? host: greg, and afghan war veteran in san antonio. when and where did you serve in afghanistan?

caller: i served in a province in 2013. i was in kandahar doing medical operations. host: what are your thoughts as you have watched over the past couple weeks the invents unfold -- events unfold? caller: it is horrifying to watch. i am not a warmonger. i want everybody to know that. i also believe in -- being a guy who has worked for several generals in the united states air force, we do not let the state department run the operation.

that is how this fiasco developed. the strategic commanders of the united states military should be running the operation. when i watch all this develop, it is mind blowing. i do not understand why. host: go ahead and finish your thought. caller: i do not understand why any commander would give the authority to the state department to let them run this operation. host: in chicago, ralph, independent. caller: good morning. president eisenhower when he left office warned the american public about the military-industrial complex. as a vietnam veteran -- then we have 9/11 and wmd's that were

never there that were based on another lie. now the one in afghanistan. people are making millions of dollars. osama bin laden shorted stocks prior to 9/11 and made millions of dollars knowing what was going to happen. host: as we wait to see the president in dover for the arrival of the fallen from that attack at the kabul airport, i want to show you with the president had to say friday after those attacks had taken place and 13 u.s. service members were lost. more than 170 afghans lost their lives. this is what he had to say, calling it a worthy mission. [video clip] >> let me begin by acknowledging

the bravery and sacrifice our military makes every day and the loss of americans and marines and army personnel is tragic, as i said yesterday. losing a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, is like being sucked through a black hole in the middle of your chest and you do not think there's any way out. our hearts go out to all of those who we have lost. the mission there being performed is dangerous. it has come with significant loss of american personnel. it is a worthy mission because

they continue to evacuate folks out of the airport. they've evacuated more than 12,000 additional people out of the airport in the last 24 hours. i met with my commanders and the first thing -- the first thing in the morning, got a detailed briefing about yesterday? at -- yesterday's attack and the measures they are taking to complete the mission. we will complete the mission. host: now an update on the numbers. the white house said that since august 14 the u.s. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of 114,400 people. we are in the closing hours of the withdrawal from afghanistan. wilma in illinois, a democratic caller. what is your view of the and ministration's -- administration's handling of this? caller: ms. pletka said biden

created a disaster where there was no disaster. afghanistan was a disaster from the beginning under mr. bush. i think these disasters cannot be blamed on mr. biden, who i think is doing an excellent job. host: harrison in south carolina, independent caller. go ahead. caller: i called on the democratic line. as a democrat, i am indifferent to joe biden my but my point is what the caller just then said. afghanistan was -- i do not want to call it a train wreck. it is what it is, but it is an illusion. it is not a country. it is just a region that shows up on a globe or map. it is a political boundary that is full of tribal lands that has

existed for millennia. america's mistake is to look at the world as if we are looking at a member where we are a collective nation with collective ideas and we try to apply that to the ancient land. it just does not work. some previous callers were talking about military solutions . we will always run it into a brick wall looking for a military solution going against ideals that drive the taliban. the caller just before me, she is right. we were not going to build a nation. america has a lot to learn going back and paying attention to history. your segment today is what you think about the -- how the

ministration is handling it. this is -- administration is handling it. the strategic decision to get out was made a long time ago. the previous caller made the point that the military should not turn it over to the state department to run this thing. and that, he is wrong. what makes america great is the civilian government runs the military. we have been talking about getting out of afghanistan forever. i look at it as either a state department or military mistake that they did not have contingencies for this withdrawal. host: ron in california, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. people forget a lot of things. it is so easy just to look at the latest news and say this is

terrible, what a terrible debacle. let me tell you something. i happen to have been drafted in july of 1967. i got out in july of 1969. i am familiar with the process. i what you to know something. we lost 58,000 people in vietnam , 58,000 soldiers. there is nothing that hurts more than to see our 13 marines -- they lived almost next door to me. it is in sad shape. in april 30 of 1975, 5400 south vietnamese give up their lives defending the fall of saigon. if you look at it in perspective, this is a sweet deal.

how many people have we lost? that was a suicide bomber group who was immediately killed with a drone. i consider that pretty efficient. you have to put in perspective what is going on. we have lost the war in afghanistan. we lost a war, another one. so take it under consideration and be happy we get our people out. be happy we do not have to bring 2 million south vietnamese to this country to protect them. we lost 2 million others who could not get out. just one basic ingredient, be grateful for what we have so far. host: listen to the reaction from republicans. here is republican leader kevin mccarthy friday and his

criticism of the handling of afghanistan. [video clip] >> these new 13 gold star families come out my message to you is this. your loved ones died as heroes. we will always honor their memories and pray you will know peace. those who died knew there was a threat of an attack and carried out their mission anyway. heroic, the only way to describe their actions and work every day. to the brave troops and stranded americans in afghanistan, we pray for you to return home safely. our enemies have taken advantage of this chaotic nature of withdrawal and yesterday they crossed a redline. like many of you, i listened closely to what president biden had to say that night. i heard the president dodge tough questions about his execution of the withdrawal and present a false troyes between

exiting, evacuating, and escalating. i heard him say the mission will continue but the taliban dictated deadline will remain. i heard him say leaving bagram was not much value added in getting -- and getting every person out could not be guaranteed. i heard him say he cannot remember if his administration gave american names to taliban terrorists. never in the history of this nation would we have ever thought our own government would give the names of americans to the taliban. i heard him say what america says matters as he gets ready to break our word to our allies and afghan partners who fought alongside us for more than 20 years. what i did not hear from the president was his decisive

leadership for our troops, our citizens, and our allies, what they deserve. host: the republican leader from friday, his view on how the president's handling the situation in afghanistan. gregory in columbia, mississippi, we will go to you. caller: how are you doing? i wanted to talk to you about the situation in afghanistan. afghanistan is just a train wreck. everybody knows that. they blame everything on biden now and now he is try to do the best he can, which i think he is. all the republicans and some democrats about how he needed to get impeached when they had all the time in the world when they

had president trump doing all kinds of crazy things, messing up democracy and everything. now you can hear everything from them. host: travis in texas, republican. caller: thank you for letting me talk. guest: -- host: we are listening. go ahead. caller: i am a republican. i used to be a democrat. host: ok. caller: biden is ventilated incompetent -- mentally incompetent. something is wrong. he is just the fall guy for nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, and all that. our guys went over in

afghanistan and did a wonderful job. why didn't he use trump's pull out plan when he had the chance and get people out safely? he messed up a lot of things trump put in place for this country that was helping us, like the border wall. that was helping us. he shut the pipeline off but let the russians continue their pipeline. this country needs to get on their knees and pray that the taliban, these isis fighters do not come back over here and do what they did on 9/11. host: the administration warning yesterday americans to stay away from the kabul airport because of another specific and credible threat to the airport as they continue with evacuations and

removing americans and afghans from the country. the new york times reporting as of saturday there were still around 300 americans who wanted to leave who were still in the midst of evacuating. in illinois, independent and good morning. caller: i do not think anyone would disagree we needed to get out of afghanistan. the disagreement is how it was executed. i cringe when i hear the numbers that were evacuated because we did not prioritize americans and those that helped us. i believe the entire thing was a disaster. thank you. caller: robert, afghan war veteran. when did you serve -- host: robert, afghan war veteran. when did you serve? what were you doing there?

caller: 2009, cargo specialist. host: what do you think about the way that withdrawal happened? caller: it should be much more organized. there is no excuse for it. biden said he would not leave until everybody was out. it would get done more faster and secure. host: in alabama, democratic caller. larry, go ahead. caller: people in this country need to realize that afghanistan has a fighting season. we have a hunting season in the united states. we have a baseball season. we have a college football season.

all them people over there look forward to this killing. why did we go over there in the first place with a bunch of barbaric ragheads? host: willie, las vegas, democratic caller. caller: about a week ago, we had a breaking story with this lady that worked in the trump administration. she was trying to go around forgetting visas processed and supposedly mr. miller cuts that off and said these people did not belong in this country. i wonder why this has not been

discussed. my other point is the weapons that were supposed to remain -- we let our weapons that was going to remain in afghanistan -- what were we supposed to do, snatch them away from the afghanistan and then they would have gotten word that we really was going to leave and the whole thing would have collapsed. people still had to have those weapons to fight with. host: if you win his left ear and your thoughts on the president's -- a few minutes left ear and your thoughts on the president's handling -- left here and your thoughts on the president's handling of afghanistan. caller: i am glad that biden is in there and we got rid of mr. trump. i do not know why people think

he is a republican. host: stephen, you have to turn down the television. you have to listen and talk through the phone. joy in texas, democratic caller. can you mute your television? caller: yes. joyce, we are waiting for you. go ahead. caller: ok. my question is when they have all those people they are trying to get out of kabul, why do they announce on tv where they are taking people out of? host: ok. angela and massachusetts, independent caller. -- in massachusetts, independent caller. caller: thank you for taking my call. thank you for c-span. i know this whole thing has been an embarrassment to our country.

i do not know why people do not think it is an embarrassment. our enemies are now emboldened. the chinese army is stationed in the south china sea. i am afraid they are looking to swallow taiwan up. we should be sending military equip it to see this does not happen. the chinese and russians still have embassies in afghanistan. does biden know he has let all our allies down? i listened to the bbc and heard members of the palace of commons lambaste this president. they never said anything bad about our president ever appearing i think it is time for both parties to do their duty and have hearings in real time to impeach this president and his cronies in the state department. antony blinken was told -- john

mccain said he was not made for america. and his state department takes a lot of blame for what happened here. host: lisa, rochester, democratic caller. caller: i think it has been wonderful. the criticism of him is unfounded. this is the best departure from a failed war in history. anyone who doubts this should watch the killing fields or perhaps reread sideshow. i think pulling -- polling is irrelevant because the polls are contaminated by racism. if you just look at the races response to the debt racist spots to the name of the brave officer who killed the insurrectionist. i think the low poll numbers on

the afghanistan situation are contaminated by that. host: victor in atlanta, georgia you served in afghanistan. when and where? caller: i was in afghanistan in 2002 and 2008. host: your thoughts? caller: nobody is saying what the real problem was. trump set all this up. biden is just following what trump laid down. that is all he is doing. trump let the men out of prison. he put this in motion. biden is dealing with the hand he has been dealt. host: one final headline for you as well. hurricane ida almost a category 5 right now as it gains strength and approaches louisiana on the

hurricane katrina anniversary. please have mercy on louisiana is the sign outside that person's home. we will be back here tomorrow morning. enjoy the rest of your weekend. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit nc >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, funded by these television stations and more, including sparklight. >> we are all facing our

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george schultz and later secretary james baker. they understood that she was a very important, crucial ally to have if you were trying to get ronald reagan on board. >> the biography of the triumph of nancy reagan, at 8:00 p.m. eastern on q&a. you can also find out interviews wherever you get your podcasts. >> we are at an important tipping point in this nation. what we do matters and i believe that the 1776 project, that this project is an important historical moment and we need people to get behind us. we need to make sure our message reaches white, black, asian, hispanic, everyone. america is a great country and we need to fight for it. >> a former professor and vice chair of president trump's 1776

commission is the guest on "in-depth." her most recent book is how critical race theory is burning down the house. other titles include beating immigration. join us with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts, and tweets. join us on in-depth on book tv. >> and now house subcommittee on public health information about vaccines, the cost of vaccines, and vaccine access for seniors, children, and minorities. anna eshoo chairs this. >> the subcommittee on health will come to order. due to covid 19, today's hearing is being held remotely and all members and witnesses will be participating by videoconferencing. as part of our