laura: general david petraeus, thank you so much for joining us. gen. petraeus: my pleasure, laura.ou. laura: for working moms who are breast-feeding, it is really a challenge, so imagine what it is like being an olympic athlete in the situation. the organizers of the games have allowed children who are nursing come to tokyo. the bbc's mielle khatami spoke to nursing mothers from kenya to learn more. michelle: they know plenty about women. they are champions. they know how difficult it is to be an athlete and a mother. >> don't get pregnant, because your career will end. >> it was a bit difficult to trn, to bring your body to the track. >> they are like, ah, you are finished. michelle: they have come to live -- rely on each other for child support. >> it was easier for me to communicate with my daughter. my mind was obsessed with the games. michelle: they are honest with each other. >> i asked, are you still participate in, and she told me yes -- participating, and she told me yes. michelle: the price of becoming a mother. only two athletes who have successfully completed after beco

now let us get the opinion of general david petraeus, who managed the war effort in afghanistan firstthe centcom commander and then as commander of u.s. and allied forces on the ground. he of course later also led the cia. general petraeus, welcome. always a pleasure to have you on, sir. first, what is your assessment of the situation right now? you hear these claims that the taliban controls 85% of the country, but as you and i know, that's geography. they don't control the major cities where most of the people live. so give us a lay of the land. how likely is it that they will control the entire country? >> well, i'm not sure that they'll take the entire country, fareed, but the situation on the ground has become increasingly dire with each passing week. you see them now on the outskirts fighting in some of the outer areas of kandahar city, arguably the second most important city in all of afghanistan. let me say up front if i could, in addition to it's great to be with you again, that no one wants to see endless wars ended more than those who have actually served in them, but we ar

. >> i will ask general david petraeus, who once commanded u.s. and allied troops in afghanistan. >>> also -- thousands of cubans take to the streets, marking the most significant unrest there in decades. cries for freedom rang out as did demands for regime change. is that likely to happen after 60 years of ascastros and communism? i'll ask an expert. >>> then, surely you've heard of president harry truman, but what about eddie jacobson? everybody knows of richard nixon, of course, but do they know of b.b. ribosa. these unsung characters were the closest confidants of the man in the oval office. i'll talk to gary ginsburg about his terrific new book, "first friends." >>> but first, here's my take. we're now a year and a half into the pandemic, which is enough time to start looking back and drawing real lessons, especially when comparing it to the last great jolt to the international system, the global financial crisis. did we learn any lessons from 2008? have we handled this one any better? at first glance, the comparison would seem to favor the p

. >> next, retired general david petraeus, former director of the cia, on president biden's plan to withdraw u.s. forces from afghanistan. this is 40 minutes. david: welcome to washington post live. i'm david ignatius, a columnist for the post. this summer, u.s. troops will withdraw from afghanistan after a war that's lasted two decades. we will be taking a close look this morning at that withdrawal and the implications for some of the afghans who have helped us in that war. in a bit, i will be joined by an afghan translator who worked with u.s. troops for 13 years as an interpreter, talking about getting visas for some of his colleagues who similarly were helpful, along with a retired army colonel who worked to get interpreters out of iraq in a similar situation, and is now thinking about ways to help afghani translators. but, first, i want to turn to general david ,who was our commander in kabul, in afghanistan, and also served as our commander in iraq during the surge there, commander of centcom. nobody knows the region better than general petraeus. welcome, general petraeus. great to see

let's bring in general david petraeus probably the nation's premier expert on this. be controlled soon? >> i don't know about soon, brian, but i'm very worried about the trends right now, the trajectory that this is all heading. the taliban has the momentum. in fact, our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley quite forthrightly noted that the other day. they have the strategic momentum. it was heartening, i must say, to see that we did use some air power outside of kandahar, second largest city and second most important city in afghanistan to kabul. but i think that we need to work with the afghan government to develop a plan to help them stabilize the security situation which has, indeed, deteriorated very significantly since the announcement of the up tent to withdraw. and you will recall on your show previously, i mentioned that my fear was that we would come to regret this decision and it appears that that regret could come sooner now rather than later. and this is, again, very concerning. >> brian: you also point out that it's in our best inte

but i want you to listen, if you could, to what general david petraeus who commanded troops in afghanistanut there becoming a threat to the homeland because of this draw down. >> i'm not as convinced that they will be able to threaten our homeland the way al qaeda did when it planned the 9/11 attacks on afghan soil under taliban control, and also conducted the initial training of the attacksers there. that would take a good bit longer, and i don't think they have that capability. moreover, i'm much more confident in the capability of u.s. intelligence and a variety of other processes, organizations and so forth that we put together to ensure that we detect something akin to a 9/11 attack. >> what do you think about that? >> well, i don't think the risk of a terrorist attack from afghanistan is going to come the day after taliban takes back over. i think it's going to take more time and that's really what the risk is. i would rather defend innocent american civilians there than in the streets and the skies over america. and number two, there is another aspect to this. it's not just terroris

now to one of the questions i now ask myself about everything in life is one retired general david petraeus always asks and he has become a very good friend. he was involved in afghanistan and iraq and rant central command in the cia are of my time. i know him well but his question is how will this end and we didn't have to question enough. the fog of -- the title of the speech i gave at georgetown law school about a year after iraq, i'm not exactly sure when it was that i coded up all the things we were doing and they are still doing because it's too hard to answer hard questions and said it's very unclear especially with the folks tiering out these programs like they are supposed to do and don't have a legal framework around the whole thing. that turned out for example in the first term of lush 43 that a lot of what we were doing in the surveillance area was not in compliance and i didn't know this at the time was not in compliance with the law that relates to the foreign intelligence surveillance act. why was nick? the wasn't because vice president cheney and others assumed that congress

. >> reporter: general david petraeus after nearly a decade of war -- >> your thoughts?reporter: taking off from this base in a combat mission. we are upside down, over the mountains. after all these years, all these missions, the taliban is gaining strength as afghan forces surrender or are massacred through districts across the country. the majority of the districts that have been taken are many miles from here in kabul. the big question is what happens here when all the u.s. forces leave afghanistan? we travelled to the outskirts of cabal to the home of a taliban elder, a senior leader when the taliban was in charge of this country. >> the taliban is taking over many districts in afghanistan. will they come here to kabul? [speaking foreign language] there's no doubt said the elder. that's a clear concern for general miller. >> what's happening now? how alarmed are you? >> we should be concerned. the loss of terrain and the repeating of that loss of terrain has to be concerning. one, it's a war that's physical, but it's also got a psychological component to it. hope ma

. >> we spoke with general david petraeus who commanded troops and he says this doesn't -- even as he was critical of the draw down, he doesn't think this is going to lead to a situation where u.s. national security is threatened. so in that situation, even if there are atrocities committed by the taliban, even if this is a failed state, is that a political problem for joe biden here domestically? >> he hopes not. and you make a key point. look, is the taliban going to -- the taliban is neanderthal when it comes to education, when it comes to political rights, when it comes to women's rights. are there going to be headlines that are embarrassing for the american administration? without a doubt. without a doubt, that is the history of the taliban. but is there an al qaeda-like group or resurgence of al qaeda that can project terrorism internationally from within afghanistan? if the answer to that question is no, then the biden administration will be, yes, afghanistan is messy, afghanistan has always been messy. we will do what we can, but it is not worth more american troops, more amer

. >> reporter: former cia director david petraeus e-mailed me this, a comprehensive approach is needed with sanctions among the many components of such an approach, and former nsa director mike rogers told me today the u.s. needs to realize that a pure law enforcement response hasn't worked in the past, and these criminals have now used all the money they've made over the past six months or so to make themselves as powerful as only nation states used to be rogers also said the u.s. can use cyber capabilities to go after the hackers' infrastructure including targeting the ways that they move money or destroying, degrading and denying access to their own tools and infrastructure but shep, admiral rogers also said that cyber attacks like piracy and crime itself are probably here to stay. the u.s. goal, he said, should be to bring it down to a manageable level, and that starts with recognizing just how bad it's gotten, shep. >> eamon, thank you. >>> the president of haiti assassinated, the prime minister reports gunman broke into the president's house, and shot him dead his wife now critic

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david petraeus, former u.s. ommander in afghanistan and former director of the cia on president biden's plan to withdraw u.s. forces from afghanistan. david: welcome to washington post live. this summer, u.s. troops will withdraw from afghanistan after a war that's lasted two decades. we will be taking a close look this morning at that withdrawal and the implications for some of the afghans who have helped us in that war.