mr. hasson: i was already out. host: how long did you stay in afghanistan? mr. hasson: nine months. host: let's talk about the book called "kabul". do you chronicle the entire war or is this just about the withdrawal? mr. dunleavy: i wish we could have done a book that went through the 20 years of war. it would have had to be 10,000 pages long but there were 20 years of war, 20 years of death, 20 years of mistakes. but this book focuses on the withdrawal from afghanistan because, at the end of the day, the way this ended with tens of thousands of afghan allies left behind, well over 1000 americans left behind, us cutting the legs out from under the afghan military when we did our rapid retrograde, the abandonment of bagram, and then this isis k terrorist attack that killed close to 200 afghans. and then the taliban taking over again after 20 years of work. it did not have to end this way. host: president trump kind of defense the afghanistan withdrawal -- defends the afghanistan withdrawal saying the agreement with the taliban was all to blame for how the withdrawal played out. what

mr. hasson: if i could add to that quickly. one thing that we took pains to do in kabul was stick directly to the facts and let the men and women who were there at the gates, on the ground, or in the decision rooms speak for themselves. if you read the book, you are not going to see any opinion ating from us about what went down. to be frank, we also criticized secretary pompeo and the trump administration for the doha agreement. our goal is to tell the story without fanfare or favor. if this had been a different administration and the same things that happened, we would have told the same story. host: paul is in arizona, democrat line. caller: morning. i like the guy before that called in. i hear a lot of ifs and buts. by january 15th, 2021, troop levels were down to 500 troops in country. how do you expect to hold bagram air force base with 2500 troops? and possible. that is why they deserted. trump drew down the troops, not biden. he was left when he entered with 2500 troops in country and you expect him to hold bagram? host

mr. hasson: i was already out. host: how long did you stay in afghanistan? mr. hasson: nine months. talk about the book called "kabul". do you chronicle the entire war or is this just about the withdrawal? mr. dunleavy: i wish we could have done a book that went through the 20 years of war. it would have had to be 10,000 pages long but there were 20 years of war, 20 years of death, 20 years of mistakes. but this book focuses on the withdrawal from afghanistan because, at the end of the day, the way this ended with tens of thousands of afghan allies left behind, well over 1000 americans left behind, us cutting the legs out from under the afghan military when we did our rapid retrograde, the abandonment of bagram, and then this isis k terrorist attack that killed close to 200 afghans. and then the taliban taking over again after 20 years of work. it did not have to end this way. host: president trump kind of defense the afghanistan withdrawal -- defends the afghanistan withdrawal saying the agreement with the taliban was all to blame for how the withdrawal played out. what are your th