nation." >> good evening, and welcome to msnbc rolling coverage of today's dramatic events in afghanistan in this special edition of "politics nation." we start with breaking news. taliban fighters have recaptured kabul, afghanistan's capital city, capping near complete takeover of the country amid reports that the president of afghanistan has left the nation. the u.s. embassy in kabul is in the process of evacuation with military support from u.s. troops. my colleague, richard lui is joining me for the hour. richard, give us the latest on afghanistan and today's top stories. >> as you were saying there, refuse arc lot happening. here's the latest on the momentous breaking news we are following right now, on this sunday. as you mentioned, the president of afghanistan has fled the country as the taliban takes

over the capital city of kabul. the taliban has now seized the majority of the country as u.s. troops rush to evacuate the embassy. secretary of state antony blinken was on meet the press this morning and said this to chuck todd about the withdrawal. >> we have a massive withdrawal under under way to bring afghans at risk out of the country if that's what they desire. ultimately, it is up to the afghans themselves to decide the way forward. >> richard engle in kabul today showed this photo with us of a visa processing office in chaos as afghanis scramble to fill out forms as a fear to stay in the country sets in. we learned this morning the u.s. will send an additional 1,000 to help with the security situation. that's in addition to the 5,000 president biden promised

saturday. meanwhile, the haiti, the death toll from the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked the region yesterday is now 724. nearly 3,000 people are reported as injured with the number expected to climb as rescue missions are under way to search for survivors trapped underneath the rubble. thousands of buildings collapsed. major roads remain blocked. the quake was more powerful than the one that hit the nation in 2010 that killed over 220,000. both the u.s. and the u.n. have committed to dispatching aid to the effected areas. we will keep you updated on all of this. rev? >> thank you, richard lui. we go first to nbc's ali arousi from joins us from iran. the u.s. embassy in kabul issued a statement just a short time ago stating that the security situation in kabul is changing quickly. tell us what you know.

>> that's right. the situation there is changing very quickly to the advantage of the taliban. they have taken over the presidential palace there. they have taken down the official afghan flag and raised their own flag. and they have renamed the country as the islamic emirate. so the process of the country going back into the hands of the taliban is very much unfolding in front of our eyes right now. and another place where they have made major advances is at the airport. the taliban fighters have pretty much taken over the airport there. commercial flights have been canceled, which blocks off another route for afghans trying to flee their own country. the airport is no longer a viable route out of the country. there are only military evacuation flights going on outside of that country. and the situation there continues to be very delicate.

very chaotic. the u.s. embassy has told u.s. personnel not to make their way to the airport, to hunker down where they are, keep a low profile until the situation becomes more clear. but this amazingly quick takeover of the country by the taliban has happened in front of all of our eyes. and it doesn't -- shouldn't come as such a huge surprise. maybe the timing of it, that they took kabul so quickly was of some surprise. but the fact the taliban were able to take the country over as soon as american and nato troops were no longer supporting the afghan army was not particularly surprising. the taliban are better trained. they are more motivated. and the afghan army simply didn't have the will. they may have had the equipment and the training by the americans, but they didn't have the will to fight the taliban. and that's where it is today. the taliban have retaken afghanistan after 20 years since

the 9/11 attacks. reverend? >> all right. ali arouzi thank you so much. live reporting there in contraband. following dramatic events in washington post military reporter dan ramof. thank you for joining us. it has been said many times how shocked people are with the events that began nine days ago culminating today. is this a result of ignoring the intelligence or not seeing the intelligence? >> i think there is a failure of imagination here. there had been knowledge that the afghan government could collapse many months ago. it was something in a the biden administration discussed as they were deciding whether to withdraw. obviously, there seemed from

their eyes to be enough space to do so. >> when you look at the issue of intelligence, what will happen next? what are we learning about the reason as to why it accelerated and we now have the takeover of kabul on this sunday? >> so, there are several things at play here. one, some of my colleagues with the "washington post" reported that there had been a number of deals cut within afghanistan. commanders basically paid off to not fight. on top of that, there is a long time period in which afghan soldiers, rank and file afghan soldiers have not been paid. they have not been fed well. on agency they have struggled to get ammunition they need. i think all of that plays into why they would choose to lay down their arms. >> thank you, dan. let me join. joining us now is kevin barren, executive editor of defense one

magazine, and evan coldman, terrorism analyst. thank you both. kevin, u.s. intelligence officials are pushing back on the charge there was an intelligence failure over afghanistan's withdrawal, specifically a failure to anticipate the rapid collapse of the afghan government. what are your thoughts? >> well, i'm not surprised. i think we are seeing -- you know, everyone is pointing fingers. and we have seen this before. in iraq, in the isis storms in stirria. folks call it an intelligence failure because it happens faster than expected. intelligence officials are saying first of all, this is not faster then expected. there were reportings to the white house. some of that reporting came out late today. the white house was warned it could be faster than 60 days or faster than the 30 days they spoke of publicly.

it was said this is really a failure of policy that goes back several years. to lower the number of forces to 10,000, 8,000, under trump to under 3,000 or less and finally, biden's decision to yank them out so quickly and leave the afghan forces to their own devices ending with what dan was just talking about, afghan forces not fighting back, not having the will, and not feeling like they had anyone behind them to make the fight worthwhile. >> evan, some of the reporting we are hearing right now is that in the aftermath, as we have been watching so many provinces fall, that the number of terrorists have been released that were in the jails there in afghanistan. the numbers could be hundreds. it could be thousands. now, if the taliban successfully gained control of the entire country here, do you expect, again, for afghanistan to be a hot bed for terror groups,

especially with the release of these prisoners, number one? and this goes back to post 9/11 when you would talk about chatter. what are you hearing about in the chatter groups, if you will, about activity of terror groups in the area? >> i mean the taliban would have us believe that's all not a problem anymore. they are not going to ally with al qaeda, al qaeda isn't an issue anymore, et cetera. but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary. if you look just at the u.n.'s monitoring committee for al qaeda and taliban sanctions they have issued a number of reports just in the last year indicating there is a lot of evidence suggesting that taliban and al qaeda continue to work very closely together and that al qaeda have used this as a victory and they will use this as an attempt to resurrect themselves. whether or not they achieve that really has little to do with the taliban. it just has to do with how badly beaten up al qaeda is today. but there is no doubt about it. right now there is video surfacing on social media which purports to show al qaeda members or fighters who escaped from prison in afghanistan.

we can't verify that video yet. you look at that, you hear what the u.n. sanctions monitoring committee is saying, there is a potential here for big problems, the kind of problems that you wouldn't have seen in other u.s. withdrawals like what we are seeing receipt now. >> kevin, what i don't want to get lost in all of this is the fact that this september marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which launched the u.s. into war in afghanistan. how has the country changed over the past two decades? or is the taliban's resurgence proof it hasn't changed at all? >> that's a good question. of course afghanistan has changed in those areas, custom is why you are hearing reports of for example, just the women in afghanistan who are desperately wondering what is going to happen to their faith. there have been thousands of women that entered school, that were allowed to create businesses. that's one aspect of society alone there have been years of

elections, years of relative maes peaceful rule out of kabul while fighting and terrorism continued not outland, there were different leaders. there are different leaders in pakistan. yes, the taliban is taking over a very different country from the one that was taken from them when the united states came in and when they had to come back later on after the iraq war. but ultimately, i don't know how much it matters. the ease with which the taliban has been able to walk into the capitals and the presidential palace with ghani fleeing as fast as he can and afghans laying down their arms -- in a way it probably saved a lot of lives. but ultimately there is zero indication that the taliban is in this for any kind of peace negotiation or any kind of power sharing with the afghan government, whatever you want to call them, the more civilized, the more western friendly, to be allies to the united states and the coalition that was there -- that they are going to have any say in the future of this

country. and the previous question about releasing terrorists out of prisons is a good indicator. thousands of terrorists are released to the street -- not just terrorists. criminals as well. instantly, this becomes the biggest fear the united states has had for 20 years. it becomes a place for terrorism to grow, train, reconstitute itself, and aim everything right back at the united states and its allies in the west. >> evan, let me go back to you with the last question because i must ask you, we are also watching a humanitarian disaster unfolding in haiti after a massive earthquake after the country was already rocked by the assassination of its president last month. we are used to thinking about the security implications of events unfolding in far off places like afghanistan. should we also be concerned by chaos and unrest in a nation just 700 miles from the florida coast? >> yeah, look, it's very convenient looking at afghanistan now to say, well,

why are we going to get involved in another country like that? but the point is that haiti is not just another country. it is a close neighbor of the united states. what happens in haiti, we know for a fact has direct implications on what happens here in the united states. in south florida there are major implications depending what happens in haiti. it is not attractive the idea of getting back involved in another country in the caribbean. haiti is a difficult country to get involved with to begin with. but we have no option because, again, if there is a humanitarian crisis, no matter whether we like it, no matter how far we run, what walls we put up, we have to deal with that problem. this is a neighbor of ours, a close neighbor of ours and we can't just urn our backs on them. >> that's right. and there are many haitians here. much more to come on our continuous coverage of the day's events in afghanistan and the collapse of the regime there. and up next, the military

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welcome back. i'm here with richard lui. we are watching the unfolding scene in afghanistan, wondering about the military implications as president biden announces thousands of troops to the region. joining us now, msnbc military analyst admiral james staff redis. f redis. the taliban moves in seemingly without encountering any resistance. as a former military commander,

what is your interpretation of what is happening. >> as you know, i commanded that mission for four years as the supreme alied commander of nato. it is a nato mission. at the time we had 150,000 troops there, we were taking heavy casualties. under the obama administration we reduced that from 150,000 troops down to around 10,000 troops. then i think it kind of went quiet as far as the american public is concerned. i think many americans are kind of shocked that this is now so suddenly hit the front page again with images that are reminiscent of the days of vietnam and the fall of saigon. so i think it's a shock to the american system. and from a military perspective, it is certainly a defeat for our military. we failed in our mission to train the afghan security forces. we are going to have to do a lot of soul searching to understand

how that failure occurred and learn lessons to avoid it in the future. >> we know the president and the vice president met via video conference with top members of the biden national security team earlier today. he was sitting in that conference room all by himself. you saw that picture. it's 1:00 a.m., just about after 1:00 a.m. on a monday morning there in kabul right now. what's the worst case scenario they might be going through right now to avoid conflict as u.s. troops get on the ground and they are going to be facing taliban forces? >> richard, the situation is anything but stable. let's face it. and as of this moment the administration has announced plans to flow about 6,000 troops total. this is a big deal. as you know, we were about to withdraw the final 2,500. here we are suddenly sending 6,000 in on a very limited, sensible mission to evacuate our embassy, evacuate our afghan

partners and allies, the interpreters and so forth. but i know the president and vice president are meeting with the secretary of defense, the chairman of the joint chiefs, the whole national security council, looking at worst case scenarios. worst case would be for the taliban to attack u.s. troops. i don't think they will. there is no reason for them to do so at this point. it's in the taliban's somewhere -- it's in the taliban's interest for us the leave. but i think they are doing the prudent thinking and sending in troops, 6,000 troops can form a perimeter around the airplane. >> some analysts are comparing this day to the fall of saigon. do you think that's a fair comparison? >> i think in some ways it is, rev. you and i are both old enough to remember those days. you saw helicopters lifting off from the american embassy taking

our american personnel and our vietnam allies to safety, in that case, out at sea, on our navy ships. here we don't have that option. afghanistan is hundreds of miles from the sea so we have got to get them to an airport. i think it is a pretty fair comparison, all things considered. however, let's also say that at the moment with the perimeter defended, the airport secure, we are going to do this in a relatively sensible fashion. again, i don't think it's in the taliban interest to spark another confrontation with the united states. we have got to fold our tents, get out of kabul, and start working on the lessons learned from this entire episode. >> as you know so well, because you oversaw this very region for many years from watching america's longest war perhaps coming to an end on this sunday for most. some have laid it at biden's feet as to how this did high pressure today.

what decisions were made that worked well, which ones did not. obvious note here in the history of the region, no external military has been able to maintain its hold on afghanistan. whether it is afghanistan or the united states. what's next? might we see another power try to lean in from the exterior? or will we see an evolution of the taliban as they move forward and fry to rule the country? >> i think it will be the latter. but, frankly, i don't like the hand of cards that the taliban have. if you stop and think about it. another absolute certainty in afghanistan over those centuries of empires cratering there -- going back, by the way, 2,500 years ago to alexander the great. i'm greek-american, so i have got to know that piece of the history as well. what tends to happen after the external force leaves is that the afghans tend to fall into fighting amongst themselves. so look for not a smooth ride

for the taliban. already you can see the northern alliance, the embers of that up to the north is sorting to form. other external nations are circling. i think the big winner in all of this probably will end up being china, which will recognize taliban very quickly and i think wants to come in and exploit the mineral wealth of afghanistan. russia will be very involved here. iran as well. but the united states will be doing this from afar. >> admiral, as a former commander, what does one say to an afghanistani veteran who may have lost limbs, and friends, but definitely years off their life, and now they are watching this swift reoccupation and wondering what it was all for? what do you say to them? >> it's a very fair question, rev. and today in my breast pocket you see a pocket square that

echos the sentiment that veterans earned by serving in afghanistan. here's what i say to them. this is a sad moment. the mission did not end as we would have wished. but for 20 years, we defended the country by ensuring no further attacks came from afghanistan. remember why we went to afghanistan. it was after 9/11 to stamp out al qaeda. for 20 years, no attack has occurred from afghanistan. in that sense, we succeeded in the mission. in the larger sense of leaving behind an enduring democratic nation, clearly, that has not occurred. so it's a mixed picture at best. but for anybody who lost limb or life, i would say be proud of your service in afghanistan. i am. >> what does this mean, admiral,

for regional power, and the power structure there? what does it mean about international power and the power structure, when we look at nato, a place you know very very well. as we have seen many western european powers and their leaders now respond, today. >> richard, this is the what's next question. and you frame it very well. as i mentioned a moment ago, the local regional powers -- again, look at a map. afghanistan is surrounded by china, russia, iran, pakistan, and india just a little bit to the east. so these are the nations that are going to have to deal with the aftermath here. and as i said before, i don't look for a smooth ride for afghanistan. so regionally, they will continue to be challenges that will be met by those regional powers. and then secondly, you have to face the facts here. the moment of exodus here is a real diminishment of the

reputation of the united states. many will interpret this as us walking away from an ally, the afghans. many will interpret this as a failure of a nato mission. in many ways, those are fair interpretations. nations are like people. we make mistakes. we learn what we do wrong. and hopefully we improve as we go forward. >> all right. thank you msnbc military analyst admiral james s, the avridis. coming up, president biden is facing his first major foreign policy crisis. richard and i we'll be right back. that delicious omelet was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic.

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nation. here with me for the hour is richard lui. we are following all the new developments with the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. i have a lot to get to with my

political panel. so let's bring them in. columnist for the "new york times" and msnbc contributor michelle goldberg, and former rnc chairman and msnbc political analyst michael steele. michelle, president biden is facing some serious heat after withdrawing troops from afghanistan this week. already the taliban has gained ground in the country. the biden administration on the defense today after deciding that now is the time to leave the afghani government and their troops to their own ziss to fight off the taliban. i want you to listen to secretary of state antony blinken on meet the press today. listen to this. >> i have to tell that you the inability of afghan security forces to defend their country has played a very powerful role

in what we have seen over the last few weeks. the fact is we invested, the kbrshl community invested over 20 years, billions of dollars in these forces, 300,000 of them. with an air force, something the taliban didn't have, with the most modern sophisticated equipment. tragically, unfortunately, they have not been able to defend the country. >> with people looking at what we are seeing, the planes and the evacuation, to hear blinken say this, what do you make this administration's response, michelle? >> well, look, i think that he is correct that the quick -- the speed with which the afghan government fell has shown the futility of this war. i don't think anybody would dispute the fact that this war was unwinnable. the question, and where the biden administration deserves criticism is the way -- the lack of planning for this outcome

when we have, you know, so many afghans who worked for the government, you know, afghan women journalists, all kinds of people who are now going to be targeted by the taliban. and because things have fallen so quickly, there has been, it seems, very little preparation for getting them out of the country. and right now, it doesn't seem that there is any sustained effort but to maybe air lift them to a third country or do something to cut through the red tape, let planes take off, help get people out. we are going to see scenes of atrocities in the days to come. but the biden administration still has the opportunity to avert at least some of those by doing everything it can, and also to just sort of like, you know, wiping away some of the shame of this moment by doing everything it can to get as many people out as it can. and the u.s. needs to be taking in vastly expanded numbers of refugees. canada is taking in 20,000

refugees. the u.s. is ten times, approximately, the size of canada. 200,000 should be the absolute floor. but i just think it is absolutely imperative for the credibility of this administration, for the united states, and for just human rights generally that everything be done to get as many people out as possible. >> michael, as the rev was intimating there, and something you know very very well, a lot of political peril, plenty of it to pass around right now. president biden being criticized by those who think the withdrawal was a bad idea, that it happened too fast. some critics are also putting the blame on the trump administration's soldiers as well. here's liz cheney. this is what she said today. >> there is no question that president trump, his administration, secretary pompeo, they also bear very significant responsibility for this. president trump told us that the taliban was going to fight terror. secretary pompeo told us that the taliban was going the

renounce al qaeda. none of that as happened. none of it has happened. >> on top of that, our correspondent on the hill was saying this is not a partisan issue. how do you parse it? >> that's very true. it is going to be a big problem over the next few days to michelle's point as we begin to see the atrocities take hold across the regions of afghanistan a lot of the political finger-pointing is going the come. but this is a four administration problem. going back to the bush administration, the obama administration, the trump administration, and now biden. this is now, unfortunately, for biden, on his doorstep. but he has to go back and understand in terms of how he moves forward, the deal that was cut in doha, the impact it

played in setting this in motion. demoralizing the afghan troops on the ground when it was very clear at that point the u.s. was no longer going to be there for them. the corruption that then ensued and how that played a role in creating the opportunities for the taliban to take hold to the point that afghan troops just laid down their weapons, sold them their weapons. so there's a lot to parse out of this politically. but right now, you have to deal with the humanitarian crisis. and that is air lifting out those men and women who were there for the u.s. over the last 20 years, their families, and the individuals who played a role in sustaining u.s. troop presence there and pursuing the military in civil objectives of the u.s. government with respect to afghanistan. that should be the priority of this administration. and let the politics do whatever the politics are going to do. save the lives of those individuals who were there to save the lives of u.s. troops.

>> you are absolutely right, michael, the concern about the humanitarian efforts must be there. but the politics is also a reality. house republican leader kevin mccarthy issued a statement saying, quote, it should have been the government's responsibility to execute a responsible exit as we withdrew the remaining forces from the country. but in a matter of months, the biden administration has led a botched withdrawal process that has now predictively handed the entire country over to terrorists. now, senator mitch mcconnell also summed it up as a quote, botched exit. however both of them backed trump who wanted to pull out sooner. are they making legitimate points or just playing politics? >> playing politics. let's call it what it is.

what was the plan of the trump administration when they executed the doha agreement. to withdraw. what was their plan? that was in may of 2020. we are now in august of 2021. in the ening eight months after that agreement was agreed to what was the strategy put forth by that administration. liz cheney has it exactly right. remember, trump was willing to invite the taliban to camp david to sit down and do a pow wow. he was legitimizing this very regime that is now coming into play when the rest of the global community was like, are you crazy? what are you doing? the politics coming from the likes of the republican leadership will look past how what the trump administration did set in motion what we are seeing play out right now. the biden administration should have had a better strategy, no doubt. if you are going to uphold what was agreed to in may of 2020 by

the trump administration, then you damn better have a plan to execute on that strategy in august of 2021. and that clearly is not in place. so, yeah, the politics, the political fallout from that, rev, is going to be there. but the reality still remains that this goes back before this moment for the biden administration. >> michelle, talking about plans, you were mentioning refugees. what will it look like for afghanis trying to flee the country to the united states, or the neighboring countries. ali, our voernt in tehran is saying how the iranian government is now grappling with something they didn't expect. there is the leaving, then arriving and how to handle that plan. >> it seems that we are on the cusp of another refugee crisis. throughout the middle east and throughout europe. you know, turkey could potentially absorb some of these people. but turkey is already, you know, sort of over capacity with

syrians. and so the political implications of another refugee crisis are quite dire, again, which is all the more reason for the united states to be taking as many people as possible. >> all right. thank you michelle goldberg and michael steele. coming up, more on the breaking situation in afghanistan. we will be joined live by agreeingly meeks, chair of the foreign relations committee. stay with us. i may not be able to tell time, but i know what time it is. [whispering] it's grilled cheese o'clock. ♪♪ ♪♪

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welcome back to this special coverage of the situation in afghanistan. with me is my co-host for today's special show, richard lui. i want to bring now, congressman gregory meeks, the chair of the foreign affairs committee. congressman meeks, what have you heard so far from the administration about what's going on in the -- on the ground

in afghanistan? is it fair to call this the president's first foreign policy crisis in or is this a mess he's inherited? what's fair? >> there is no question it's the mess he inherited n. that regard when you talk about the -- trump's agreement with the taliban, his invitation to meet with the taliban at camp david, and the decision to cut out the afghan government. he inherited all of that. so that president biden had one choice. one of two choices. either to follow it out or have a great surge of our troops to go in. he made the decision that we have had three or four presidents earlier on that had to make that decision. he didn't want another president have to make that decision. he thought it was the right thing to do to pull people out now. i think that the reason why you are seeing a number of the pictures that we are seeing now

with getting and making sure that the americans are brought to safety as well as our allies and those that worked with us, the afghans, the interpreters, et cetera, is because -- i don't think there is any surprise for me of the will, or the lack of the will of the afghan security forces to fight. i don't think anyone saw that coming. so they seem to have just laid down despite the almost trillion dollars that we spent there, despite the training and the weaponry we have given them. they decided they will absolute me not fight. that's why we are right now. >> there is criticism coming from both sides of the aisle. the domestic threat appears to be elevated as well going into the 11th anniversary of these september 11th attacks. when you put this all together,

representative, these sorts of considerations, what do you think this means for the democratic platform and political agenda? will you see international security which you focus on to be heightened more? as we focus this week on domestic issues? >> well, we have to do both. no question about that. i don't want this to be a political football into u.s. politics. i know that the republicans would love to change the appearance of what has been taking place domestically because, clearly, they are not winning that. but we do always have to take into consideration the united states' safety. that's what we do in our committee, that's what we do in armed services. that's what the intelligence committee is about. we have oversight responsibilities on the house foreign affairs committee. we have to make sure that the homeland is never safe -- is

always, and is never threatened. we went into afghanistan to get rid of al qaeda. we were successful in doing that. then we decided that we wanted to make sure that we would help women and girls and others so that they could improve themselves in afghanistan. that's why we stayed there 20 years. we accomplished that mission early on. but because we wanted to help the afghan people to see a better day, we stayed for 20 years. but there is no sign now, clearly, after you see the lack of will of the afghanis to fight. if we stayed there another year, if we stayed there another five years, if we stayed there another 20 years, would there be a change in the outcome if they don't have the will to fight? that seems clear, they don't have the will to fight. we can't give them that will. congressman, as we watch what is going on in kabul and afghanistan, i want to also keep our attention focused on what is

happening in haiti, which is in crisis after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the country yesterday. over 700 are reported dead as thousands of buildings are now piles of dust and rubble. this disaster comes at a tumultuous time as the president of haiti was assassinated just last month. the white house has pledged they will assist haiti by sending aid to the areas hit hardest by the quake. but else should they be doing? can congress play a role here, congressman meeks? >> look, i'm devastated by the natural disaster that has just hit haiti. and then to know that there is another hurricane or storm warning, with grace coming right behind it. i'm very concerned. i have been on the phones last night, and i have got another call coming in after this show with the administrator so that

we can talk about what's going on there. that's tremendously important. i think that, again, we sent this special envoy to haiti so that we could get a better idea of how to stop the violence, the gangs that are there call accountable and hold accountable those that are paying the gangs and those that are corrupt. we know some of those individuals, rev. we need to call them out and get them into jail and so they can't travel back and forth from family to haiti. >> congressman, thank you. thank you, richard lui, for working with me through the hour. we are not done. up next, my final thoughts on this dramatic day. ads we go to break, a look at

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on what's going on in our country, the voting rights march in washington less than two weeks away, but we cannot, should not, ignore what's going on in kabul and afghanistan, in haiti, where we're looking at the need to deal with refugees, to deal with those that aided america's efforts, that are afghanistanian, that are in haiti, that are totally homeless now, over 700 reported dead and many relatives here in this country. here is an opportunity for real bipartisan concern. yes, we'll debate republican, democrat, right, left, moderate,

progressive, on many of the issues here. but can't we unite for their real people in real need over in afghanistan and in haiti? let's rise to the occasion. that does it for me, and thank you at home for watching. our news coverage continues at the top of the hour. with subaru, you get kelley blue book's most trusted brand winner, seven years in a row. in fact, subaru has won most trusted brand for more consecutive years than any other brand. no wonder kelley blue book also picked subaru as their best overall brand. once again. it's easy to love a brand you can trust. it's easy to love a subaru.

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thanks for joining us tonight. i'm in for alicia menendez. it's been called the forever war. and tonight, it's officially over. and here's the bitter truth. america lost. 20 years ago this fall, the united states launched a war to oust the taliban as leaders of afghanistan. today, in the final stretch of america's withdrawal, the taliban resumed power. raising the question of what the last 20 years were for. and what the future holds for a country awash in chaos and hardship, and in particular, women and girls there who tonight have been plunged back into rule by a regime dedicated to their subjugation. new video from al jazeera shows what the end of a fragily democratic government looks like. it reportedly shows the taliban inside the presidential palace in kabul, sitting in the chair that afghan president