should afghanistan continue in a civil war. the taliban will continue to be -- iran will continue to be the first stop. one thing you hear a lot is that the recommendations in tehran is to keep the options open, talk to everyone, talk to anyone , talk to karzai, talk to anyone including the taliban. because you don't know what will happen in terms of the coming weeks and months, the situation is so polluted -- fluid. one thing you do here -- you do hear being recommended again and again from the official level and among the community of scholars looking at afghanistan and tehran is the need to push the taliban and those that support the taliban to accept the need for what they call a new course of government and that is a code for minorities to be included. this is a big question, will taliban want to do it all along? some of the names being mentioned at the core government , cashew figures does not , suggest an inclusive government is in the making. the new taliban wants to go it alone, and that would mean a civil war. i just

for a life outside afghanistan. i think this new generation has the potential to force a change. it will not be the change that perhaps in america they can say this is the steps but i think afghans on their own, maybe have a very good chance in my mind to push things forward. how that looks and how long it takes and what they say. for sure. it will not be an easy road but i think in many ways a lot of this previous leadership over the last 20 years was improving on afghanistan. the mosher dean groups -- m ujehadin groups were imposed on afghanistan. not heading them off from financial assistance in sanctioning them but with some assistance, i think afghans have a good chance of making their country -- i feel like they take time. i feel like there is a lot of potential. ms. matthews: you do look like you want to say something. tom: i agree with kathy. for example, world democracy, 30 -- certain things like that work well. for a civil society, we have great organizations, great leaders, media has been a huge success a

failure in afghanistan as part of their foreign policy, they betrayed their allies in afghanistan, you't trust the united states, they are using that in the geopolitical struggle we are having with russia and china. unfortunately, i agree what he did could be described as bold, but that is not the issue. the issue is was it right, and in my view it was wrong. >> we will have to leave it there, thank you to my guests for joining us, retired lieutenant general david hodges, ben, thank you for joining us. you can visit our website al jazeera.com. for more discussion you can go to our facebook page and join the conversation on twitter, our handle is @ajinsidestory. thanks for watching, goodbye for now. ♪ ñglo)?■o■oó - hey, i'm valerie june. coming uon "reel sth." - [verie] this sll town ins a surpsing cla to fa. - [valer] the clton high sool showhoir has won national chamonships ar afterear. i uld've kwn tt performingould be career - [verie] thr demandg - w peopleyou're not undetandin dirwhatt's goa take.m. we wildo it alnight lo ifhat's wh it tas. - [valer] but cathey n big onmore te? - -

guest: people in leadership in the taliban are back in afghanistan or on their way back to afghanistan. leading the charge in villages and communities. maybe not necessarily kabul, but other places of the country where this started to get some control. women began to worry about their rights being protected. and then in these last weeks. and then also what was coupled by the fact that americans were more wary. at that point after 14, 15, 16 years, they were war weary and we could feel it and we continued our work and continued growing partners, both in afghanistan and the united states to work on these areas of concern. we could feel the weariness by americans, that it was time to leave afghanistan. the women of afghanistan worried about that. and then with this last year and last months and weeks, with dizzying speed come overnight, 16 million afghan women at a risk. host: we take the phone close to look at some of the progress that has made, about 3.5 of the 9 million afghans enrolled in schools were female. the number of schools rose tenfold after 2001. in 2003, fewer than 10% of af

this decision about afghanistan is not just about afghanistan. it's about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries. we saw a mission of counterterrorism in afghanistan. getting a terrorist and stopping attacks. it morphed into a counterinsurgency. nationbuilding. trying to create a democratic, cohesive, and united afghanistan. something that has never been done over many centuries of afghan's history. moving on from that mindset and those kind of large-scale troop deployments will make us stronger and more effective and safer at home. and for anyone who gets the wrong idea, let me say clearly, to those who wish america harm, to those who engage in terrorism against us or our allies, know this. the united states will never rest. we will not forgive, we will not forget. we will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and he will pay the ultimate price -- and you will pay the ultimate price. let me be clear. we will continue to support the afghan people through diplomacy, international influence, and humanitarian aid. we w

troops from afghanistan. host: this is from leesburg, virginia, we hear from rick on the line for democrats. hello. caller: yeah, i know your reporter has been on this before a long time so i won't tell him anything he doesn't already know, but to the extent he suggests to your listeners or his readers that what he is saying is a scoop or news is a little disingenuous, trying to sell a narrative, maybe one that did not sell well a year or two ago. cigar has been writing about this for years. if anybody wanted to pay attention, i served in afghanistan for five years. i lost count. we had a constant stream of punk than's and journalists parachuting in. they could've interviewed anyone. on the record come off the record. -- on the record, off the record. this just did not fit the narrative sold at the time. i would just comment that if you are defeatist, you do not belong in the military. our job, optimism is a force multiplier. our job is not to critique policy or whatever, our job is to make things happen, to

the idea of the right mentation -- a new civil war in afghanistan and the fragmentation of afghanistan as a country is not just about the question of refugees. we will go back to the conversations from the 1960's, and the iranians are hoping that the pakistani do not like the idea of that government. they will push for stability in afghanistan and keep the borders where they are. i have many more points to go through and i want to spare you because they want to get to the q&a, but let me round up with some final remarks. iraq believes the taliban has changed. they have to find a way to work with them. iraq is in a state of wait-and-see stance right now, but it wants to make that inclusive government, and the first litmus test for the new taliban, if there is indeed a new taliban. it will if forced seek to create the role taliban bloc of the 1990s including russia, maybe even india although they have tensions with iran over the last decade because there close to the united states but nonetheless, india is a factor. the foreign minister is planning a visit to talk about the future -- the

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

withdrawal from afghanistan.his is the first of two appearances before congress this week. >> good afternoon. please keep yourself muted when you're not speaking. as a reminder, you will wait to be recognized. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [gavel] >> the committee on foreign affairs will come to order, without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any point. all members will have five days straight state -- submit statements, and questions for the record. subject to the list, or the limitation of the rules. please have your staff emailed the previous the mentioned address or contact full committee. as a reminder to all members, please keep your video function on at all times. even when you are not recognized by the chair. members are responsible for muting and on muting themselves. consistent with house rules, staff will only new members as a -- as appropriate when they are not under recognition, to eliminate background noise. we are now waiting to bring up the secretary. >> i am here, mr. c

whether it's vietnam or iraq or afghanistan.t bush, president obama, president trump all say they would not engage in nationbuilding and yet they did, over 20 years. why? >> that's a a really good quen and i think one that our leaders haven't answered. there there was one interview in the afghanistan papers with a former navy seal made jeffrey eggers who worked at the white house on the nationals could he staff under bush and obama and he served in afghanistan, too, and he raised that same question. said why do we think we can transform societies like this? why do we take on these enormous tasks as a country? he said it really gets, is a question of human psychology. why do we think we can do this, accomplish these things? why don't we take a a step bak and question some of these basic assumptions? what were we thinking trying to transform not just create a new afghan government, new afghan institutions, but in some ways transform afghan society. yet this was a country that americans knew very little about going in and we never

afghanistan book is a difficult one. i voted to authorize the war back in 2001 after the terrorist attack on september 11. in the 20 years since, i have seen how this conflict cost the lives of campus americans, -- countless americans come afghans and nato partners. our hubris and own desire to remake afghanistan, our own willingness to negotiate is a sad victory. these are hard truths, but only by examining these hard truths are we able to understand what went wrong in afghanistan. the task before us on this committee, one i am committed to making, will explore the past 20 years. we will talk to individuals from the bush administration, the obama administration, the trump administration as well as the biden administration. i now recognize mr. mccall. >> i want to thank the secretary for agreeing to stay until every member has been heard. i believe every member has a right to ask questions, such an important topic. over the last several weeks, we witnessed afghanistan rapidly fall to the taliban. the chaotic aftermath th

in afghanistan.u honor the distinguished service of those who gave the last full measure of their devotion protecting americans there. over the last month americans have watched, horrified the seeds of chaos and terror and bloodshed. americans trapped at the kabul airport, terrified as the enemy closed in. innocent civilians fleeing for their lives, abandoned by their government. a young man desperately clinging to a departing planes landing gear, he was so desperate to escape only to fall then to his tragic death. thirteen marines, the pride of our nation cut down by terrorists never to see home again. then, as american planes finally departed, civilians left behind to the enemy. again, hundreds of american civilians left behind to the enemy. who can forget the image of the president of the united states, declaring this mission that he plans, that he executed, that he oversaw. this mission that left 13 marines are dead. that left hundreds of american civilians and behind enemy lines. this mission th

guest: afghanistan does have some limits. it is landlocked, it is a very poor country, and it does have fruits, vegetables, wheat that it can export. afghanistan has a huge mineral reserve -- copper, gems that can be extracted from the soil. the problem it's hard to do those extractions when the country is suffering from -- is suffering from war. it's express -- it's expensive to move those on major roadways of the country is sitting on a huge area of natural resources. the one country that has physically recognize this and owns i think the largest copper mine is neighboring china. host: this may be a hard question to ask but because of our efforts in the last 20 years, what do you think the afghan people think about the united states and how that might change under taliban rule? guest: it's hard to generalize about the afghan people. like in any country, they are different. some of the rural populations are much more conservative. the taliban has a support base and it has fans in rural areas that want to see women in burqas

this is nothe alrnative to fighting in afghanistan, this is the result of fighting in afghanistan.rther, to the u.s.-backed mujahideen, to the u.s.-backed osama bin laden, and talk about what happened when the u.s. decided to fund the mujahideen in fighting against the soviet occupation of afghanistan, and then the mujahideen turning their, setting, literally, their gun sights, their u.s. weapons, on the united states, and how the taliban came out of that? spencer: yeah, it's important, because, like, an objection to this is always going to be that we, you know, portrayed, like, the 1980s afghan mujahideen as the taliban. they weren't the taliban. they were the precursors of the taliban. what happened in the 1980s is the soviet union invaded afghanistan, and the united states saw an opportunity. it saw an opportunity to inflict upon the soviet union, its great geopolitical adversary, a defeat as humiliating and as psychologically devastating as the one the united states suffered in vietnam for its own imperial hubris. over the course of the next 10 years, the united states, the pak

forces in afghanistan since 2001. a result, upon taking office, president biden immediately face the choice between ending the war, or escalating it. heading up follow-through on his commitment, attacks and our and those of our allies when resumed in the taliban's nationwide assault on afghanistan major cities would have commenced. that would require sending substantially more forces into afghanistan to defend ourselves, and prevented talibanou takeover rated taking casualties and with its the prospect of restoring stalemate and remaining stuck ip afghanistan under fire indefinitely. there isin no evidence that us thing longer would be the afghan forces are the afghan government any more resilient for self-sustaining.ye it 20 years, hundreds of millions of dollars in support and equipment training did not suffice, why would another here, another five,e, another ten, conversely, there is nothing that the competitors like china and russia were adversaries like iran and north korea were like more for the united states to

hundreds of thousands abandoned afghanistan. refugee camps mushroomed alongside the borders inside pakistan and iran. the camps became a recruiting ground for the mujahideen — the holy warriors. in february 1980, president carter's security adviser zbigniew brzezinski visited the refugee camps along the afghan—pakistan border. the refugee camps along that land over there is yours. the refugee camps along you'll go back to it one day, because yourfight will prevail, and you'll have your homes, your mosques back again, because your cause is right and god is on your side. as more and more afghans were brought over the border into pakistan, a lot of them did not want to stay in pakistan as refugees, they wanted to go back and fight, but they wanted weapons to go and do it with, and other kinds of assistance. that was an opportunity that president carter took advantage of. the americans knew the local arms industry could never supply the demand for weapons, and with the saudis matching the american contribution dollar for dollar, the

i should mention kathy is joining us from afghanistan this morning, virtually from afghanistan. atia is joining us from the west coast. if you want to continue. i think for the people i am talking to, i have been nonstop talking to people on the phone and on the ground. they are desperate as kathy mentioned. desperate to get out, terrified. the ones i'm seeking with -- speaking with. i think the desperation is indicative of the last 20 years but i think it is also a fear of losing some of the gains that were made. everyone talks about this being a failure but the last 20 years we have seen gains. the fear lies in the fact that many of them feel they will lose it again. and because of the history of the taliban, and i do not mean 1996 to 2001, i'm talking about the last 20 years as well, i have men crying on the phone, begging for help to get out, men whose fathers and uncles had been killed by the taliban, so they feel they will be targeted next. so i understand some of the desperation. i will say that often times when i speak to the men, they are a little more optimistic than s

afghanistan is a priority. our government has publicly stated that we are seeking peace in afghanistan and really to realize the potential in the connectivity. what has been created is designed to achieve that objective. that's another area where i clearly see our interests align with the united states. really, i think what is important is to see that after 40 years, there is a chance to create real conditions of peace. framing taliban as the enemy will not help u.s. achieve its objectives in afghanistan. it's a choice the united states has made. we have so far shared very candidly our perception and our perspective on where things are, and we have been saying it all along for the past 20 years. there is no military solution. and to draw a distinction between afghans and taliban again is not really going to take the conversation to the next stage in any way. taliban are as much afghans as any other, and that is really a choice that united states has to make. but for pakistan, we have and we will continue to fac

nobody on september 10 knew attorney think about afghanistan -- knew a darn thing about afghanistan. we can't support impact of terrorism. we are a global, open border world. we have problems here at home and we have to focus on them. that is what our elected leadership should be doing, protecting our security. host: i have a question from jacksonville, florida. she said american values are not islamic values. the limit of afghanistan believe there are no rates for women. guest: the thousands of afghan women i met over 20 years of course respect their religion, but they also want to be participants in their country. i will give you an example of a imprisoned who studied at one of our western universities. she was given an opportunity several years ago to apply for asylum here, and she didn't want to leave her country. she said fulbright invested so much in me, i am making contributions in my country. afghan women can have a right to a life, to participate in our country. it doesn't divorce her from the fact that her religion is islam, not at all. i think people like her and her famil

that led to afghanistan -- the taliban students, that movement grew up, some veterans of the afghanistan war. in the ungoverned space, al qaeda group. -- the al qaeda grew. in 1998, you have the uss cole attacked in yemen. the cia was screaming warnings to the clinton administration and then the bush administration. on 9/11, there was a degree of blowback, it's true. the results of the unintended consequence of what had happened , abandoning afghanistan after 1989. that was something we did at our peril. lots of lessons to be learned from all of this. we abandoned afghanistan at our peril. if we turn our backs now, who knows what is going to happen? host: you write that bill clinton had treated al qaeda as a problem to be dealt with by legal means. the afghans fighting the taliban were begging for more american help. can you summarize how the obama and trump administrations shaped what went on in afghanistan? guest: lots of blame to go around. after this early. , the bush -- early period, the bush administration took a turn toward nationbuilding. obama was elected because of his oppositi

everyone wants to focus on afghanistan, but we need to get out of afghanistan. the war was a joke the entire time. it was pushing a globalist agenda. everyone is waking up and seen the globalist agenda, but we can't get anyone on the news to cover it. when are we going to start exposing the players behind it. you have democrats, republicans, independents, conservatives -- none of it matters. nobody is concentrating on the money. nobody is paying attention to the strawman. no one is paying attention to the global corporation and how we are all born into slavery underneath social security. we need to dissolve the strawman before we can -- host: this is from the new york times on the delta variant. they write that a mysterious pattern suggest that the delta wave may be ending. the delta surge has piech. the number of new cases in the united states is less in the past week that any week in june. there is no guarantee that the trend will continue, but there is reason to think that caseloads may soon decline. since the pandemic began, covid has often followed a regula

afghanistan is now a safe haven for terrorists. and america is more at risk to terrorist today than it has decades. afghanistan fell because president biden paid attention to the calendar on the wall inserted the conditions on the ground. joe biden set an arbitrary political deadline of august 31. the president wanted symbolism for september 11. well, he got symbolism but it was not what he wanted. it was the kind of symbolism that terrorist wanted. now, in april and president biden announces deadline i warned this would happen. i said if we pulled out, the taliban would take over. leaderll mccall, other senate republicans came and warned the president ashe well. some of the top generals and our military warned the president also. president biden stubbornly refused to listen. refused to listen to his military and refused to listen to his national security advisers. our enemies and knew we were they were leaving and were on the fence. in eight matter of weeks, afghanistan fell to the taliban. it was predictable and preventable.cr wh

troops from afghanistan.t: this is from leesburg, virginia, we hear from rick on the line for democrats. hello. caller: yeah, i know your reporter has been on this before a long time so i won't tell him anything he doesn't already know, but to the extent he suggests to your listeners or his readers that what he is saying is a scoop or news is a little disingenuous, trying to sell a narrative, maybe one that did not sell well a year or two ago. cigar has been writing about this for years. if anybody wanted to pay attention, i served in afghanistan for five years. i lost count. we had a constant stream of punk than's and journalists parachuting in. they could've interviewed anyone. on the record come off the record. -- on the record, off the record. this just did not fit the narrative sold at the time. i would just comment that if you are defeatist, you do not belong in the military. our job, optimism is a force multiplier. our job is not to critique policy or whatever, our job is to make things happen, to achi

war in afghanistan?t to admire this person, you know. i do in many ways. but when i looked at his presidency and the choices that he made -- >> thank you very much. >> -- i think obama was a liar. i think he misled people to believe in a hope and change agenda, specifically in afghanistan. >> the mastermind of 9/11, the architect of al qaeda, osama bin laden is dead. >> they captured and killed osama bin laden, and i remember the day that it hand. i was in the chow hall, and nobody was reacting to the fact that osama bin laden had gotten killed because we knew that's not why we were there anymore. it's kind of when i started to really fall out of love with obama. >> the death of bin laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al qaeda. >> i see him delivering a speech as if he's accomplished some great feat, and perhaps in a propagandaic sense, he had. but all i saw was a lot of money being poured into a country that did not want us there. there are literally sch

afghanistan's soviet installed afg hanistan�*s soviet installed leader continued afghanistan's sovieteader continued the previous policy. mass education and more freedom for women remains a priority. many saw it as a positive. for many in afghanistan's traditional afg hanistan�*s traditional conservative society, afghanistan's traditional conservative society, these changes were not welcome, nor the brutal where the government imposed them. hundreds of thousands abandon afghanistan. refugee camps mushroomed alongside the borders inside pakistan. the camps became a recruiting ground for the mujahideen, the holy warriors. in february 1980, president carter's security adviser visited the refugee camps along the afghan pakistan border. that land over there is yours. you go back to it one day, because your fight will prevail, and you'll have your home is your masks back again, because your cause is right and god is on your side. figs because your cause is right and god is on your side.— god is on your side. as more and more — god is on your side. as more and more afghans _ god is on your si

forces in afghanistan since 2001. as a result, upon taking office, president biden immediately faced the choice between ending the war or escalating it. had he not followed through on his predecessor's commitment, attacks on our forces and those of our allies would have resumed and the taliban's nationwide assault on afghanistan's major cities would have commenced. that would have required sending substantially more u.s. forces into afghanistan to prevent a taliban takeover, taking casualties and with at best, the process of restoring a stalemate and remaining stuck in afghanistan under fire indefinitely. there's no evidence that staying longer would have made the afghan security forces or the afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining. if 20 years, hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment, training did not suffice, why would another year, another five? another ten? conversely, there is nothing that strategic competitors like china and russia or adversaries like iran and north korea would hav

left afghanistan via overland route with resistance. we are in constant contact with american citizens who wish to leave. he's kind of case management team offering guidance and instruction, some declined to hammacher sliders and i reasons including needing more time to make arrangements, wanting to remain in the familyy for an hor or medical issues including traveling last week. we will continue to have americans and afghans to whom we have a special commitment to depart afghanistan if they choose us as we have done in other countries are with evacuated emphases in hundreds or even thousands of americans remain behind. in libya, syria, somalia, there is no deadline. third, we areth focused on counterterrorism. taliban committed to have external operation to threaten u.s. or outcries including al qaeda and isis k. we will hold them accountable for the end of 19 we will rely on them and maintain vigilant efforts to monitor threats, robust counterterrorism in the region to neutralize threats of necessary and as we do and places around the

our mission in afghanistan was twofold. first, to kill the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 2001 and, second, to take away the safe haven where terrorists planned attacks on america. and for the last 20 years both missions were a success. yet, in a matter of just weeks everything changed. and they changed because of the complete incompetence of president joe biden. because of that incompetence, the taliban are stronger today than they were 20 years ago. they are stronger than ever. afghanistan is now a safe haven for terrorists and america is more at risk to terrorists today than it has been in two decades. afghanistan fell because president biden paid exclusive attention to the calendar on the wall instead of the conditions on the ground. joe biden said an -- set an arbitrary political deadline of august 31. the president wanted symbolism for september 11. well, he got symbolism, but it wasn't what he wanted. it was the kind of symbolism that terrorists wanted. now in april when president biden announced his deadline, i

in the context of afghanistan or the situation in afghanistan has impacted. that is why we are very keen to basically see that behind us. i think pakistan-united states makes a very compelling case for a mutually beneficial broad-based relationship. the united states is one of the top five investors and has been like that for almost as long as pakistan has been in existence. united states is a good source of -- to pakistan. united states is probably one of the most influential dynamic pakistani -- in the world. and i've made this point several times in the past, also. there are so many non-tangible factors. the fact that we use the same accounting practices that you do. they use english language is communication. i know that is important for the u.s. and pakistan is one of the largest -- on the indian ocean rim. and we have a good history of maritime cooperation also. and that is really where we would like the economic partnership, trade partnership, investment partnership bringing more balance to them. they announced this question about counterterrorism. we

so the fall of afghanistan as a people in wyoming want to talk about. over the last 20 years the mission wasrs twofold. and then to attack us on 2001 and second to take away the safe haven where they planned attacks on america. so both were a success. with a complete incompetence of presentca joe biden so the taliban are stronger today so afghanistan is a safe a haven for terrorist and america is more at risk today that has been decades. with that political deadline of august 31st he got symbolism but not what he wanted and when he announces deadline and when does it happen if we pulled out the taliban would take over leader mcconnell warren the president as well. some of the top generals in the military warned the president also. president biden stubbornly refused to listen to military and national security advisors. our enemies new we were living on —- leaving so they were on the offense in a matter of weeks afghanistan fell to the taliban. it was predictable and preventable. so as the secretary of state and white house press secretary. the british pr

forces in afghanistan since 2001. as a result, upon taking office, president biden immediately faced the choice between ending the war or escalating it. had he not followed through on his predecessor's commitment, attacks on our forces and those of our allies would have resumed and the taliban's nationwide assault on afghanistan's major cities would have commenced. that would have required sending substantially more u.s. forces into afghanistan to defend ourselves and to prevent a taliban takeover. taking casualties, and with at best the prospect of restoring a stalemate and remaining stuck in afghanistan under fire indefinitely. there is no evidence that staying longer would have made the afghan security forces or the afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining. if 20 years and hundreds of billion dollars in support and equipment and training did not suffice, why would another year, another five, another ten. conversely, there is nothing that strategic competitors like kline and russia or adversaries like

al qaeda is gone from afghanistan? president biden stated at united nations this nation is no longer at war, is it your personal view that al qaeda is no longer at war with us? start with to the right, general. >> i believe al qaeda is in afghanistan, i believe they have aspirations to reconstitute and if they develop the capability, i believe they have aspirations to strike. too early in the process, senator to determine the capability, but i believe -- >> do you believe the personal view stated al qaeda is no longer at war with us right now? okay. >> i think al qaeda is at war with the united states still and never has not been. >> thank you. does withdrawal from afghanistan increase or decrease likelihood of al qaeda or isis attack on the u.s. homeland? >> you asking me, senator? >> sure. >> my view is that it makes it much more difficult for us to conduct intelligence surveillance, functions and we can strike from anywhere in the world, define fix function, it is more difficult. we can still do it, not impossible,

forces in afghanistan? >> so, senator, these discussions were occurring in january, february, march. they're separate from the late august discussion, so i want to make that point clear. >> in your best military judgment, do you believe that the recommendations that general miller put forth was some 2500, and i think general milley said maybe up to 3500. do you believe that would have sown the seeds for ultimately having to send tens of thousands of u.s. service members back to afghanistan, as the president has said publicly? >> senator, i believe there was a risk you would incur increasing a tax by the taliban. that was a risk at holding at 2500. i'm really humbled recently by my ability to deduce what the taliban would or would not do, so i think it's hard to know. >> thank you. i'll get to my questions later about the people still stranded in afghanistan. thank you, mr. chair. >> i'm leaving for the vote. senator hirono will take over. senator warren. >> it's hard to look at afghanistan without viewing t

forces to be out of afghanistan by may 1. in return, the taliban stopped attacking our forces and didn't commence an onslaught of the afghanistan cities. had the president not followed through, the attacks would have resume and we would have reuped the war and had to send more forces back in. i recognize a lot of people don't understand that, don't know the agreement that was reached and the choice that president biden faced from may 1. >> let me ask you this. when he wasn't blaming trump, he was blaming the afghan military forces for allegedly not being willing to fight. whereas we had suffered a single u.s. military death in 1 1/2 years. that's a wonderful thing. the afghan military forces had lost about 3,000 of their military personnel during that same time. so wasn't the president being a little unfair to those 3,000 afghans that lost their lives fighting the taliban during that time? >> congressman, many afghan soldiers fought with incredible bravery and gave their lives. you're right. but as an institution, after 20 ye

troops from afghanistan. >> president biden says the last troops will leave afghanistan by september 11th on the 20th anniversary of the attack. >> how did you first hear of president biden's plans to withdrawal all u.s. service members? >> i showed him the news. >> what was his response? >> i was not surprised. president biden was in a very difficult position. every leader is faced with three options. you either do more, do less or do about the same. you muddle along. it was always safest like vietnam to do the middle. president biden's decision to pull everyone out, i didn't agree with it but there was a courage to it because he knows that he is going to be held responsible by some people, particularly his political opponents. >> there is going to be a stain on this president, and i think he's going to have blood on his hands for what they did. >> this is a sight i honestly thought i would never see, scores of taliban fighters and just behind us, the u.s. embassy compound. >> i believe we are going to regret this decision to withdrawal. >> general david petraeus, the general behind

im’ith achieve in afghanistan? with pakistan, they _ achieve in afghanistan?they have - achieve in afghanistan? with pakistan, they have been - achieve in afghanistan? ii�*u pakistan, they have been hosts to millions of afghan refugees going back to the soviet war. so there is a security issue for pakistan and then there is a political issue and economic ones as well. so pakistan has vital national interest it wants to pursue with its relationship with afghanistan, and i would think if you were sitting in azlam about you would want to see a stable afghanistan where you don't have a humanitarian crisis and having more refugees poor over the border. it is not in their interests for afghanistan's to interests for afg hanistan�*s to be interests for afghanistan's to be a launching pad for attacks against their interest in the region. i think pakistani will try to do the things that are lying to its security interests, but those things might also be in opposition to other countries that have previously had a lot of influence, like the united states, like england, l

afghanistan is home. it is especially wrenching for them to make the decision about whether to leave or not. in a number of cases we were in contact with people who told us at first that they did not want to leave, then decided they did. some decided that they did and then decided that they don't. we have been in active contact with this group. there is no deadline on this work. we are going to be in close touch, as they desire to leave, we are going to do everything we can to help them do that. thank you all. reporter: no american has made it out [indiscernible] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> sunday night on q&a, conversation with washington bureau chief about her biography "madam speaker." the life and political career of nancy pelosi. >> she was planning, once hillary clinton was elected a so many people thought she would be in 2016, she w

next up, afghanistan. taliban say women may not be able to hold senior positions in the new government. we will go to kabul to speak to mahbouba seraj. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as we turn to afghanistan, where the taliban held a parade in the country's second-largest city wednesday to display the american-made military equipment they've seized or that was left behind after the withdrawal of the u.s. troops. pentagon press secretary john kirby responded by claiming the u.s. has deactivated all of the gear u.s. forces abandoned at the airport. meanwhile, general mark milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told reporters wednesday it is possible the united states will coordinate with the taliban in the fight against the islamic state. he declined to say whether the u.s. would collaborate with the new taliban government. >> we don't know what the future of the taliban is, but i can tell y

in afghanistan. they will not be forgotten. over the last 20 years, we have often heard numbers used to describe the costs of this long war. $2 trillion spent, over 20,000 soldiers wounded in action and thousands more who came home with invisible wound and 2,461 american personnel who gave their very lives. in each of these numbers was a son, daughter, husband, wife, father or friend. they have names. they have lives and they deserve to be honored as this chapter of american history con -- concludes i want to recognize each-my fellow americans who during the war in afghanistan made the ultimate sacrifice serving this nation. i ask that each of us reflect together and pray together for each of the fallen and their families who have sacrificed so much. who have sacrificed all they have to sacrifice. these men and women will live in our hearts and in the memory of this nation, they are christopher michael algire, michael chad bailey, brian jay brad berry, jacob russell carver, joseph brian kemper, rober

most people had never heard of afghanistan, but that changed when afghanistan was invaded.ddenly on the cold war, to stop the spread of communism across asia. the cia secretly funded a group of islamic warriors to fight the red. they were called the knew mujahideen. one, charlie wilson, he made sure his afghan freedom fighters were equipped with stinger missiles. and had all the money they needed. >> i'm on the defense sub committee of the appropriations committee, and i was able to aokay, i'll vote for another 50 tanks, but i want my 50 million bucks for the majority. >> support for the mujahideen went all the way to the white house. ? and as the resistance continues the fight, wian other responsible governments will stand by them. >> gary shrhone helped run the operation, code named "operation cyclone." >> they were good fighters. they welcomed the u.s. and foreign presence. because we supplied them with various sophisticated weapons. >> but among then was osama bin laden. cia officials insist they never paid or backed the saudi exile directly, but bin laden fought alongs

with us in afghanistan. they're employees that are at risk. >> that is right. >> so you're saying we still have an opportunity to work with you to get that information to the sources that you're using to try to arrange for their exit from afghanistan. >> yes. absolutely. and we very much invite that and we want to make sure that we have as best as possible a unified coordinated list so that we know what everyone is working on and we can track and we can help or we can take on depending on the -- >> could i get your best guess on the the numbers. at one point when we started we thought there might be somewhere around a little less tan 100,000 u.s. citizens, sivs and afghans that wanted to leave. that number is already low. we've already evacuated over 124,000. do we know how many u.s. citizens are in afghanistan that want to exit today, how many are in siv status that want to exit and how many afghans at risk we want to help? >> on the american citizens who wish to leave, the number is about 100. and it is ve