>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, funded by these television companies and more, including spark light. >> the greatest place on earth is the place you call home. right now, we are all facing our greatest challenge. that is why spark light is working around-the-clock to keep you connected. we are doing our part so it is easier to do your spirit >> spark light support c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. . president biden speaking yesterday for about half an hour in the middle of the afternoon. this is the reporting on that speech and the comments on military times this morning. headline, biden defense afghanistan exit, we have been a nation too long at war. a day after last troops left

afghanistan, president biden evident his decision to withdraw military forces from the country as a choice of saved american lives, despite the frantic and deadly evaluation mission that followed in recent weeks. they real choice was between leaving or escalating, and i was not going to extend this forever war, biden said in his fifth national address on afghanistan in the last 10 days. he also said, we will maintain the fight against terrorism in afghanistan and other countries, we just do not need to fight a ground war to do it. on tuesday just before midnight in afghanistan, the final u.s. troops at the kabul airport left the country, ending the nearly 20-your american military presence there, prompted by the september 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in new york, washington, d.c., and pennsylvania. the author of that piece, leo shane, will join us later in the program here at "washington journal." one aspect that has been talked

about is the ability to look over the horizon, they have been calling it, for potential trouble in that region, including terrorist efforts. the "wall street journal" writes about that this morning -- doubts rise on over the horizon plan. president biden and his aides promised the u.s. can keep terror threats from afghanistan with over the horizon surveillance and strikes now that u.s. troops have departed. counterterrorism and intelligence officials say it will be much harder and less effective than the white house suggests, is a chaotic and deadly u.s. evacuation winds up, the u.s. has lost many key assets for tracking violent militants and their plots, they say. there was infrastructure that provided a platform for operatives from the central intelligence agencies, gone are the u.s.-backed afghan government that worked closely

with american spy services. gone, evacuated, or scattered our afghan agents are troops who sent on the ground information to the cia. officials acknowledge the military has lost 90% of the intelligence capabilities that had using drones before the drawdown of forces that began in may. that is on the opinion -- that is from the wall street journal. on their opinion pages, a similar sentiment expressed. on the withdrawal, age is awesome -- a dishonest afghan accounting. they write that mr. biden wants americans to believe that the u.s. can counter this from "over the horizon," by which he means drones and satellites, but now the u.s. has no military in the country and no cia listening posts, no friendly government or allies to locate and gather intelligence. the u.s. has those assets in yemen, somalia, iraq, and syria.

that is the opinion of " the wall street journal." your opinions, (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents and others, (202) 748-8002. here is the president from yesterday defending his decision to continue with the withdrawal. [video clip] pres. biden: maybe august 31 was not due to an arbitrary deadline. it was designed to save american lives. my predecessor, the former president, signed an agreement with the taliban to remove u.s. troops by may 1, just months after i was inaugurated. it included no requirement the taliban work out a cooperative governing arrangement with the afghan government, but it did authorize the release of 5000

prisoners last year, including some of the taliban's top war commanders among those who just took control of afghanistan. by the time i came to office, the taliban was in its strongest military position since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country. the previous administration's agreement said that if we stuck to the main one deadline they had signed on to leave by, the taliban would not attack any american forces, but if we stayed, all bets were off. so we were left with a simple decision, either follow through on the commitment made by the last administration and leave afghanistan or say we were not leaving and commit another tens of thousands more troops going back to war. that was the choice, the real

choice. between leaving or escalating. i was not going to extend this forever war, and i was not extending a forever exit. the decision to end the military lift operations at kabul airport was based on unanimous recommendation of my civilian and military advisors, the secretary of state, secretary of defense, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and all the service chiefs and the commanders in the field. their recommendation was that the safest way to secure the passage of the remaining americans and others out of the country was not to continue with 6000 troops on the ground in harm's way in kabul, but rather to get them out through nonmilitary means. host: we would like to hear from you this morning, your opinion

on how you think president biden handled the withdrawal from afghanistan and what may lie ahead, as well. comments on social media, on twitter, @cspanwj, same with instagram. a tweet here, i am concerned that biden has cut some type of private deal with the taliban. has he sent pallets of money to them? why didn't he waver from the august 31 date to be gone? this one says that republicans are always going to try to revenge and impeach biden. biden got us out of war using the republican doha taliban deal come about as bipartisan as we are ever going to see today. and a text from birmingham, alabama, says joe biden said we were going to get out and now we are out, thank god. we lost 2996 in the world trade center, 2461 in afghanistan.

prayers for the families of our most precious treasure. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. all others, (202) 748-8002. first to susan in milford, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: yes, hi, i would like to say that i am so thankful to have president biden there, such a difficult problem as the war in afghanistan. it was like a runaway train, and he stopped it. thank god for him. he has done a wonderful job, and he is a humanitarian. one of the first presidents to have a son or daughter that was in the war, to know how it feels to lose a child, which you cannot say, i am sure, for most of the congressmen and senators. so thank you, president biden,

for being a humanitarian and a well-balanced, thoughtful person that thinks about trying to measure all the different problems, the taliban, what they might do next, and trying to get as many people out of afghanistan as he could. it was impossible to get every single person out. i heard this morning on the news how hard they worked, for weeks and weeks and weeks, to contact the americans there to arrange for them to get to the airport in afghanistan so they could escape, get out of that place. it was impossible to do 100% perfectly, but thank you, president biden. i am so in awe of the job you have done, and that is what i say. host: this is an opinion piece from the "washington post" on the cost of the war. here is the price tag -- that is

now the cost of what president biden is calling a generational investment to rebuild america, that is the price of the so-called war on terror since 2001, as detailed by brown university's watson institute. the cost to u.s. taxpayers of sending forces to afghanistan, iraq, libya, syria, yemen, and other countries in a continuing war, that as biden implied last week, has metastasized more than succeeded. roughly half of that total, $2.3 trillion, she writes, went into afghanistan. that does not include the price is human cost of nearly 6300 american lives lost, thousands more wounded, and the vast losses suffered by the afghan people. even as the foreign policy establishment savages fighting for ending the occupation in afghanistan, one can only be outraged by the money and lives squandered on military adventures that have ended in

disgraceful calamities. the republican leader in the u.s. house, kevin mccarthy, yesterday, called for a full accounting of the end of the afghanistan war. here are some of his comments. [video clip] >> listened yesterday to general mckenzie, saying american troops have left afghanistan, but we did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out. i heard the pentagon say the time just was not there to get more americans out. but let me be crystal clear, this isn't the u.s. government's timeline, it is the taliban's timeline. right now, their four simple things -- when is the plan to bring americans home safely? not some, but every single american. what about the weaponry that has been left behind, accounting for that?

i sit -- they taliban should not be recognized as the government of afghanistan, and a prohibition of any support or assistance of resources with money to the taliban. every member with me today has that simple question. the majority of every number behind me is a veteran. what is the plan to get americans out? never in my lifetime what i ever believe america would have an administration knowingly make a decision to leave americans behind. whereas, just two weeks ago, the president promised this nation that he would not leave until every single american was out. we're two weeks away of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. we now have americans stuck in afghanistan, the taliban in

charge, with more weaponry than they have ever had in the past, and a border that is open. speaker pelosi, now is not the time to act like you could not see us on the floor, now is not the time to hide. we are a coequal branch. now is the time for leadership in congress, and we will lead. host: kevin mccarthy yesterday at the capital. comments on text, this says that biden's handling of the withdrawal borders on criminal, just like his handling of our security at the border. he is a sick man and so are his advisors. this one from georgia, i totally agree with president biden on ending the 20-year war. i had a son go to that war and worried every day for a safe return. i was blessed, but other families were not. a tweet about the house armed

services today beginning to step their annual defense authorization bill with lengthy markup and lots of amendments on afghanistan policy. let's go back to calls. let's go to linda in north carolina. caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. i am so disappointed in our president, my president. he said he would not leave any americans behind. then he takes 36 hours after this awful debacle to come out and talk to the american people and wouldn't answer a question. this is benghazi on steroids. remember, he was in the administration 10 years ago when

they could have stopped it. they did nothing. and then he blamed the rest of the world for the 20-year war. he is a coward. and c-span has changed their thing completely. you used to have a call-in program after every presidential address. >> we take you live to a hurricane response from the louisiana governor. >> good morning, i want to welcome everyone to the wednesday, september 1, 2021 briefing regarding hurricane ida. as we all know, hurricane ida has left our state but since the last time we spoke, it is now in eastern kentucky.