daniel bolger is our guest.s book is "why we lost: a general's inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars." years in the u.s. army before retiring in 2013. we will be back with him intimate. -- in a minute. >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. gonzalez. our guest is lieutenant general daniel bolger. he has written a book called "why we lost: a general's inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars." years in the u.s. army before retiring in 2013. >> i wanted to ask you about a couple of choo-choo to decisions by the u.s. in iraq and afghanistan. in iraq, the decision early on to not only topple saddam hussein, but to basically purge from theists government and military, the result being a disintegration of government structures in the entire country. now the virtual dismemberment of iraq as a functioning state. also in afghanistan, going in after al qaeda and ending up, for 10 years, fighting the taliban, who had never attacked the united states. you tal

i'm pleased to welcome daniel bolger to the table today. that wepropriate salute the men and women who put on the uniform and who went in harm's risk. >> yes. we must always remember when we talk about the war, one thing we can point to with tried is the sacrifice, the bravery, their skills and courage and the sacrifices made by their family and fellow citizens to keep them there. >> when men and women go to war, their spouses go to war. >> children, too. >> the title of your book is "why we lost -- an inside account of iraq and afghanistan." why did we lose? >> in the simplest term, we took our military and misused it. it was built out of the ashes of the defeat in vietnam and they are built to do short, decisive, violent campaigns against conventional forces with loins, planes, tanks, ships. they are designed in essence to do a desert storm-type operation or kosovo. they are not designed to replicate vietnam. we consciously turned away from that. >> didn't we try to learn the lessons from that? isn't that what post-vietnam about? >> with

on this veteran's day, we begin with retired lieutenant general daniel bolger. his new book is called why we lost, a general's inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars. >> we took that great military that we have, those greatzkodu d men and we misused it. our armed forces are built, the volunteer forces we build in kind of the ashes of the war of vietnam, defeated vietnam, they're built to short decisive violent exains against enemy conventional forces, u.s. enemies, tanks and ships. they're designed to do a desert storm operation or kosovo in 99. they'reò not designed to replicate vietnam. we consciously turnedwe knew to work. >> rose: we end with edward by lurks anne hamburger and aj sue buy. when men and women go to war. >> i don't think you can go over and do all those things and have things done to you and then come back and everything's just like you just unpause your life. like that's not something that's possible. >> rose: we conclude with a canadian novelist, margaret atwood, her short stories. >> i called them tales because i didn't want peopl

army lieutenant general daniel bolger is the author of "why we lost: a general's inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars." general, thanks very much for joining us. >> yeah, good morning, maria. >> before we go back and take a look at what went wrong, what is your take on the president's new action to expand our role in afghanistan? >> well, what he's doing is something pretty smart here. it's about half of what we need done. and that is to give our forces the flexibility to defend themselves and to help their afghan partners. that's a lesson learned from what went wrong earlier in the war and from what went wrong when we pulled our combat troops out of iraq. as you know, we've had to send forces back in and sending our air force to help out against isis. this time we're getting ahead of that, and that does show we've learned something. but we've got to do the second half of that, and that is make a long-term commitment. talking about a one-year commitment, the taliban are guerrilla fighters. they'll just wait back in the villages for us to leave. >> wow. when you say we've lea

joining us is lieutenant general daniel bolger.and afghanistan. was that inevitable? >> it wasn't inevitable. there's a few things in life that are, but that was not and that's what makes it so tragic. the reality is in both theaters, in iraq and afghanistan, we actually were victims of our own success. went in very quickly, toppled the taliban government, tore the insides out of al qaeda. two years later we went in after saddam hussein's baathist loip and his military, defeated them very quickly, marched to baghdad. we didn't think through what we were going to do next. we sort of backed into a situation where we became the lead element trying to quell domestic insurgency in both countries. the taliban was not the group that attacked us on 9/11 but that's who we have been fighting. we know the iraqis didn't attack us on 9/11. they're bad actors, don't get me wrong. saddam hussein a dictator who killed a million people in his own country, chemical weapons, the whole thing, they used on his own people. that said, we took on a lot of

retired army lieutenant general daniel bolger is the author of a book, "why we lost."ou have written maybe an incomplete and imperfect effort to contain the islamic state, is as good as it gets. does that mean in your view it's an unwinnable situation? >> well, michael, i wouldn't say unwinnable but what i would say it's long term. the nature of this enemy these guys hide among the population. and when you go in with major force like air strikes or if we were to put a lot of american troops on the ground like we did in afghanistan and iraq earlier on, they will spread out and go back to ground and wait for us to leave, then do their activities. it's a tough enemy to fight. >> how do we define winning? what would victory look like in iraq or afghanistan? >> great question. in fact i think it's the question we were never able to answer in the afghan war that is wrapping up and the iraq war that started, we pulled our combat force out. what does victory look like? to me the key part of the victory you got to protect the american homeland, prevent terrorist threat or somet

on this veteran's day, we begin with retired lieutenant general daniel bolger. is called why we lost, a general's inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars. >> we took that great military that we have, those greatzkodu d men and we misused it. our armed forces are built, the volunteer forces we build in kind of the ashes of the war of vietnam, defeated vietnam, they're built to short decisive violent exains against enemy conventional forces, u.s. enemies, tanks and ships. they're designed to do a desert storm operation or kosovo in 99. they'reò not designed to replicate vietnam. we consciously turned

joining us is retired daniel bolger author of "why we lost". and pete hexus. ceo of concerned veterans of america and a fox news contributor and kt mcfarland fox news aanist and host of fox's deaf comthree. we learned that the white house computer network was targeted in a sustained cyber attack. back in 2011. hackers planted a trojan horse virus and it remains in those computers today. if the virus were to be activated, it would have a devastating impact on our gas pipeline and water supplies and nuclear plants. john henry is a former fbi director. and current president of the crowd strike services and joins us from washington and shaun, we are delighted to have you with us. the issue of cyber security. and americans don't fully understand it. what is the biggest threat to happen to america based on cyber crime and someone getting in the networks and wreaking havoc. >> i see cyber threat as no different than other threats we face. prior guests are talking about nuclear threat and ied's. and this is another tool that our adversaris can use against us. everythi

general daniel bolger. breaking news tonight as well, sources telling fox news the president will make good on his promise to issue executive actions on giving amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, issuing a ten part plan as early as the 21st of this month. the obama plan contains initiatives covering everything from increasing border security to boosting pay for immigration officers. the controversial parts however are the body of the work as that is put, and expected to give deportation reprieves to 5 million illegal immigrants, some of whom came to this country as children. parents of u.s. citizens, legal permanent residents and other words, we begin with five million and their families. this is an extraordinary, if he follows through, extraordinary provocation against what many consider to be the foundation of our constitutional laws. >>> well, we have more proof tonight showing that obamacare's authors deceived the american people in order to pass the president's signature health care law. just af

general daniel bolger who was in both of those theaters has written a book called "why we lost" a a general'snside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars. i spoke with him last night. you said we have lost it? >> we have. and, bill, i will tell you, the sad part about it is we didn't have to lose it. we had it won in 2001. we went in there with a very short, decisive operation at the outset led by special forces and air power. brought in marine and army infantry to wrap it up. within a few weeks we knocked out the taliban and put al qaeda on the run and then we didn't have enough sense to pull out and turn it over. >> had we pulled out, the taliban would have come back, who knows what would have happened but today in kabul is a functioning government. we may not like it. it may be weak but it's there. you expect it to fall when -- because we are going to leave a residual force in afghanistan, unlike what we did in iraq. do you expect. >> only briefly. we are going to leave less than 10,000. i mean, it's kind of could you tell use when the government says we are going to leave 9800 rather th

. >> that is general daniel bolger. montega simmons, i want to get your response to his critique of using police as soldiers. he has commanded many in his lifetime. he said this is a key error in ferguson. >> for a long time, we talked about policing in st. louis. we talked about it as a situation where folks felt like they are under occupation. yeah, i think his analysis is dead on. of the 5000 hours of training that they did this past week, how many of hours of that will -- were focused on community engagement, identifying a recognizing people in the community? >> this is a key, key point when you talk about these 5000 hours where they were training. by much effort has been made the mayor of ferguson, by the governor, by the police to reach out to community and community leaders right now in this very critical, 10th time? ime?ense t >> very little. we've been working hard as we build for the actual verdict that we are engaged and we are done several levels about feet with -- outreach with very animal response. quicker

contributor steve ganyard, former marine corps colonel and state department official and general daniel bolger, who served in both iraq and afghanistan. he's just written a new book called "why we lost." general bolger, i want to start with you. you have a rather startling statement in your book. you begin by saying, "i am a united states army general and i lost the global war on terrorism." >> yeah, tough words but true words, and, martha, all i would say is what we're seeing with isis, the death of peter kassig at their hands, it's a reminder that we didn't do this first phase right in iraq from '03 to '11 and afghanistan today. we got to get this next phase right. >> and how do you do that? what lessons have you learned from your prior service? >> the biggest lesson is this fight against insurgents has got to be carried by the local people with our help. we can't do it for them. out putting 100,000 americans in those countries doesn't work, results in casualties and emboldens them. you heard isis say we want your soldiers to come here. we shouldn't give them that. what we should do, let the

. >> meika, we have news out of airaq, people are dead, carried out by sunni militants, daniel bolgerosts in iraq and afghanistan. he is the author of why we lost. the general's inside account of iraq and afghanistan. thank you have much nor joining us. i read your piece in the "time's." let me ask you, sir, do you think the mission that we gave the young men and women who served in both iraq and afghanistan was clearly defined be i the command, by people like you and not you specifically but did we fail them? did we fail the young men and women who served this country? >> meek. a great question. do i include myself in those who fail to define this mission properly and carry out my responsibles as a commander. we say in the army that a commander is responsible for everything his unit does or fails to do. when i look at iraq and afghanistan today, unfortunately, i got to admit failure. that's not the fault of the great young men and women, talented, brave, willing to sacrifice. they did everything we asked of them. i think we asked the wrong things. >> also in the time's piece, i have

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