Just Informed Talk - Craig James - Mission Failed (Afghanistan Edition)
Aired: 2021-08-19
Duration: 05:57


=== China's Laughing At Us (03:23) ===

[00:00:00]  We pushed al-Qaeda out of its camps, helped the Afghan people topple the Taliban, and helped them establish a democratic government.
[00:00:29]  So there's no U.S. actions being taken to prevent equipment from falling into the hands of the Taliban by destroying it or anything else?
[00:00:37]  I don't have the answer to that question.
[00:00:40]  You don't have the answer?
[00:00:42]  This is something that it will affect our relationships for years to come and decades to come.
[00:00:49]  I will say, when China watches this, they're so happy and they're laughing at us.
[00:00:54]  They're laughing.
[00:00:55]  They're so happy and they're laughing at us.
[00:01:24]  They're laughing.
[00:01:25]  They're so happy and they're laughing at us.
[00:01:54]  They're laughing.
[00:01:55]  *music*
[00:02:25]  *music*
[00:02:55]  Bye.
[00:02:56]  Bye.
[00:02:57]  He's right.
[00:02:58]  We've had troops there for 20 years.
[00:03:00]  They fought.
[00:03:01]  They sacrificed.
[00:03:03]  Their families sacrificed so that we wouldn't have a terrorist attack in America planned in a foreign country.

=== How It All Went Wrong (02:48) ===

[00:03:10]  Why should our soldiers be fighting radicals in a civil war in Afghanistan?
[00:03:14]  We've got our own on Capitol Hill.
[00:03:17]  Now, should the Biden administration have had a stronger U.S. military presence for the transition?
[00:03:24]  Well, first may I just say that I commend the president for the action that he took.
[00:03:28]  It was strong, it was decisive, and it was the right thing to do.
[00:03:33]  They're so happy and they're laughing at us.
[00:03:40]  They're laughing.
[00:03:42]  Hey Chuck, do you got it?
[00:03:43]  You got the bar, Chuck?
[00:03:45]  You got the ball?
[00:03:46]  You got the track?
[00:03:47]  You got the music?
[00:03:48]  We got it all!
[00:03:50]  We are the Browns!
[00:03:55]  They're so happy and they're laughing at us.
[00:03:57]  They're laughing.
[00:03:58]  When you look at what's happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution, or judgment?
[00:04:06]  Look, I don't think it was a failure.
[00:04:08]  Look, it was a simple choice, George.
[00:04:10]  When the Taliban...
[00:04:12]  Let me put it another way.
[00:04:15]  When you had the government of Afghanistan...
[00:04:20]  The leader of that government getting into a plane and taking off and going to another country.
[00:04:24]  When you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off, that's what happened.
[00:04:40]  That's simply what happened.
[00:04:42]  But we've all seen the pictures.
[00:04:43]  We've seen those hundreds of people packed into a C-17.
[00:04:46]  We've seen Afghans falling.
[00:04:49]  That was four days ago, five days ago.
[00:04:51]  What did you think when you first saw those pictures?
[00:04:53]  What I thought was we have to gain control of this.
[00:04:56]  We have to move this more quickly.
[00:04:58]  We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport.
[00:05:02]  And we did.
[00:05:04]  So you don't think this could have been handled?
[00:05:05]  This actually could have been handled better in any way?
[00:05:08]  No mistakes?
[00:05:10]  No, I don't think it could have been handled in a way that...
[00:05:14]  We're going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens.
[00:05:24]  I don't know how that happened.
[00:05:26]  So for you, that was always priced into the decision?
[00:05:28]  Yes.
[00:05:29]  And let me tell you, we haven't stopped.
[00:05:31]  This is not ending.
[00:05:33]  Again, we have all of those thousands of Americans over there and others.
[00:05:38]  And you're saying, how are they going to get?
[00:05:40]  They have a Taliban ring around the airport.
[00:05:42]  They said nobody else.
[00:05:43]  Now, they're saying we'll negotiate.
[00:05:46]  But I really do really think I mean, their history is that they're very brutal and they don't like to negotiate.
[00:05:53]  That's their history.
[00:05:54]  And Biden put us in this position.