Thanks Peter three members: now, after the top of the hour, PETE Heg, Sphret Fox AMP friends weekend joins Us Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and Gitmo. This is deeply personal to him. Pete. We also understand we are in a conflict. We might pretend we are out, but now we have the 82nd airborne come in. We have eight thousand right now there is about three thousand five hundred about eight thousand and the Taliban have decided not to let anyone in the airport we have media on the outside, let alone the people on the outside of Kabul. How does this play out? Pete? Anyone knows anyones, guess it is a disaster. It was entirely predictable. I mean that earnestly when I was in Afghanistan. I was the senior counter insurgency structure at our Counter Insurgency Academy. That was ten years ago. My job was to study the Taliban owas to study the insurgency was to study what they were trying to do: population the writing was on wall in twenty eleven and two thousand and twelve before that only

legitimate ebb at this time. Good entity, I dont mean good. I mean legitimate entity in Afghanistan was the Taliban. They had justice systems, they had provided security, they saw the afghan government as corrupt as incapable. The afghan military was not going to fight unless it was paid and supported by the. U DOT S military. Our commanders knew that any time we spent anyone who spent time with members of the afghan army and police knows some of them are okay, almost all of them are illiterate and all of them are terrified that if the Taliban takes over whats their next move, it was a house of cards ten years ago and we poured billions into the afghan army and still to the very end sold this idea that they were going to fight and stand up to the Taliban, a motivated force, who has the support of the population in the rural areas and ruthlessness with which to control them. This is all predictable. This is, there have been successful tactical retreats in the past. This is a disaster.

It started with getting rid of the Bagram AIR Base, which was securable. You can use that to get people out in addition to what you have in Kabul, so it is really demoralizing to see, but whats more demoralizing is the utter failure of our defense Department and intelligence agency to understand the nature of the enemy and that we created an afghan army from a country that didnt exist. There is no Afghanistan, the it pass, Pashtuns, dont, Relat, Etch, auto other tribalism to its core. You cant create a central government and military that stands up for that. Its a fools errand, unfortunately Steve we heard have clearly from the commander in chief yesterday. The buck stops here, but dont blame me. We didnt know exactly where Kamala Harris was request with w this adventure and she tweeted this out for two decade. Our courageous service members put their lives on the line in Afghanistan. We will always be grateful and proud ending. U dot s. Military involvement in Afghanistan is

the right decision. She said and Joe Biden yesterday said. You know I am bound by Donald trumps Timeline. He put this in place, but when wee look at- and I couldnt undo that, unlike every other policy of Donald trumps, that Joe Biden has tried to undo in the last seven months, he is bound by nothing. If you wanted to take a different approach, he could. I actually agree that its time to end our time in Afghanistan, but a couple thousand troops here and there, at Bagram or elsewhere, to maintain a counter terrorism mission, pretty easy investment moving away from nation building, which was never going to work because there was nothing to build. I say that with great respect to the afghan people for afghan girls who have a chance to go to school, otherwise, never we, I understand the stakes of what the Taliban are going to do to people ruthlessly taking them back centuries in application. At the same time, the nation building project was doomed to fail, have a counter terrorism mission.

We are going to need it, because this is going to be a breeding ground for terrorism. Unfortunately Brian we lost it. Of course we did. We never won it thats the problem Brian, having been there there wasnt anything to win after we went and killed them. We could have a small footprint to do that, but, frankly, after the Navy seals killed Bin Laden that was about our mission was complete there and we kept trying to build a national army that didnt exist and we knew it thats an intelligence, DOD failure, and now we have thousands tens of thousands of weapons, heavy weapons that will fall into the hands of the Taliban helicopters vehicles because we built something we knew couldnt. Last it looked good on paper in some Pentagon power briefing. Oh look: the Afghan army has three hundred thousand troops. We believed it to the end when we should have known without our support and without payment, the Taliban would the more motivated legitimate force would carry the day and thats why the airport is surrounded.

We have troops in harms way, trying to defend people and evacuate and others who cant get there. The amount of texts I have gotten, who I know who know people there trying to get to that airport, but they cant get past the Taliban check point because the Taliban controls the city we should have seen. It should have at least been a corridor from the embassy to the airport. Tactical are military operation. They can be done its been bungled. Somebody should be fired secretary of Defense, national security, national security adviser sons, head should roll, because the lack of plan something staggering watching worse than Saigon, with people being evacuated from the embassy and the airport Ainsley many are comparing it to see. You gone bay of pigs. Here is Leon. Panetta. Listen to this. You know in many ways I think of John Kennedy and the bay of pigs. You know it unfolded quickly and the President thought that everything would be fine, and that was not the case, but President Kennedy took Responsibilityresponsibility for place.

I strongly recommend to President Biden that he take responsibility, admit the mistakes that were made Ainsley. He was the former defense secretary under Obama. How do you think we could have done this better? You mentioned earlier, you touched on it a little bit leave a few thousand there. Maybe how could we have prevented this from happening? Well, you know Brian is right. There are power, projection platforms and bases there that we could have held on to who knows if in perpetuity, if the Taliban controls the entire country and decides to start shelling a base where we have counter there system different problems that come with any one of those scenarios. Ultimately JFK was a brand new president trying to try stair do communist. When the bay of pigs, Joe Biden, was supposed to be the experienced one. The seasoned one get out out the right way. Donald Trump was going to do it wrong. He was going to do it right. Secretary gates, who was right, who said Biden has been wrong on everything.

Will every major broken audio Joe Biden doesnt understand the situation in Afghanistan? He hasnt. Unless you walk the ground and work with Afghans, you dont understand how backwards it is. As a result, you can fall briefing of your military leaders and others who say that everything is going to be okay. That happened here and God bless every american everyone. I served with all people over twenty years that made an investment in this country. This is not on you. This is not on the people who fought and gave everything this son policy makers who made prisoner swaps and who made deals with the Taliban and surged, but didnt really surge. There were so many things that were done in a half baked way in Afghanistan, thats how you end in a situation, Brian, so a couple things going on number one: the men and women like you who fought there did an incredible job. The intelligence were able to go what we were able to understand about Al Qaeda ISIS and affiliates, because we were there able to interact on the ground

from satellites going to benefit us for a while another inaccuracy on President Bidens speech yesterday saying: thats the old war on terror, its moved on to Yemen, Yemen, where he already pulled our intelligence out of back there in twenty twenty one of twenty four provinces. Al Qaeda is present. If you hold on to that base and allow us to work that base with drones and other things, we would have been effective. Now we find out that big swap in two thousand and fourteen that we got Bowe Bergdahl back the disgraced deserter who embarrassed this country on many levels. One of the guys that came back from there is now running things. He is at the palace in Afghanistan. He was affiliated with Bin Laden worked for him. He actually was one of the people instilling the punishments for the Taliban. Is he back in power? He was let out in a Taliban. Five under President Obama isnt that n an in your face,

absolutely Brian, how fundamentally unserious we have been in the conduct of this war almost from the beginning and that doesnt take away from what the guys and gals have done on the ground. What im talking about is we had Guantanamo Bay. I was there when there were six hundred detainees there, including this now commander of the Taliban. If we had had a real system, we would have tried them found them guilty of the war crimes skewed our enemies from that prison through a military tribunal process, because we understood the nature of radical Islamists this they were going to continue to keep fighting. Instead, we traded a traitor who abandoned his unit for five of the worst outside of the protocols. The Pentagon said: do not release these guys, do not release them. They are a danger in the future. Just like Baghdadi who we released from the prison in Iraq, became the leader of ISIS in this case one of the leaders from Taliban game from Guantanamo Bay. We did not want this, of course we did. They said it would happen,

and we counted the number of people who went back to fight with the enemy Islamists and this threat are not quitting. We can quit them, they wont quit. The calculation we have to make is within ascendant communist Chinese. How much do we invest in trying to build infrastructure and nation build in countries in the Middle EAST with no infrastructure at all, like Afghanistan versus small counter terrorism, measures seriously executed like not releasing Gitmo prisoners and killing people who deserve to be killed? While then staring counsel the communist chinese empires fall when they try to do too much in too many places, thats happened to us in Afghanistan. Scale back realize this threat, isnt going away otherwise. Brian to your point, we will get another nine slash eleven, because if we are going to turn our backs- and they are not going to stop Steve so PETE as we look at the image of the phi you actually guarded at gitmo- is he actually one of the Taliban leaders the Taliban, what they are trying to do now? You know

people were terrified as soon as they get to town. They are just going to start killing people left and right. They havent done that in a widespread way, but they are trying to show that theyre, responsible leaders and the world should trust them and they are saying hey. We would love to have women join the movement, and things like that has the Taliban actually turned over a new leaf, or is this just spin? Oh, give it time Steve give it time good old fashioned Taliban propaganda, what they have a legitimacy advantage and legitimacy problem. Their legitimacy advantage was that the afghan government was so corrupt and so incapable that when they rolled in they could prove hey. I can solve your land dispute that otherwise someone else with a different ethnic background will take a bribe and not resolve. I will resolve it swiftly. We talked about it very directly. Legitimacy was important. Their legitimacy problem will be now they are going to become

more heavy handed. They have shown that, of course, they are not going to treat women respectfully. They are going to have the brutal executions they have had in the past. Of course, they are going to kill anyone with that worked with earns in. They are going to overplay their hand with the more western side of Kabul, which is a very small part, but there is a part of that in can a full thats, not what theyre worried about what they are worried about is the massive people average ultimately observed religious Muslims who may not like the Taliban but recognize they may be more effective in their everyday lives than the corrupt, failed central government of the afghan government that we created or the afghan military. So it is a bad choice. No one wants to choose the Taliban. A lot of people will by default because they have to ask the Russians ask us. After twenty years they are a resolute bunch who believe the other thing we have missed in our intelligence have missed in our intelligence.

They believe the the can a the Y ever accounted for when it came to our Defense Department Ainsley. Just five weeks ago, Joe Biden said he doesnt trust the Taliban, and that was a silly question to the reporter. Now the White House says theyre willing to transfer power to the Taliban with conditions. If they uphold Rights Steve, they took the power Ainsley, they protect. The rights of women and girls. Is that a smart move PETE? What condition? What condition are they going to honor? We left we left and we left with our tail between our legs. We left looking like fools. We left looking weak, unfortunately, and I dont like saying any of those words, but we are on the way out. We are setting conditions according to whom its not going to happen, and so, ultimately, the Taliban will be exactly who they are. The question is Brian, and I think this is an open question.

How willing are they to openly work with Al Qaeda, knowing that connection with Al Qaeda and ISIS would be the nexus by which we would go in start killing Taliban senior leaders, not that we want that we dont want entangled in that we will see Brian PETE, I can answer for you. One of the conditions MIKE Pompeo said openly divorce yourself from Al Qaeda. They wouldnt do it. They would jump around and not say it. We understand side by side right now and more are going to flood into Kabul to celebrate this big victory over the world Super Power, the United States of America. We also understand this. Just maybe, if you go back to Afghanistan, you might remember them Rany next Gitmo Guy, he got out of Gitmo. Do you know why he told the State Department Shop keeper his dad was sick answered worked with measures, Americans that was able to get him out number two. I think its important to point out Admiral Kirby said on another network that he is working to get everybody out with american visas

im, not sure. I would feel good about that, because there are eighty thousand applications. Eighty thousand applications, the people in Kabul cant move. Can you imagine if you in Kandahar or Herat? What are you going to possibly going to do its not happening you cant get to the airport you cant get through the checkpoints, our soldiers and others that paratroopers that are. There are felony secure the evacuation at the airport. They are not going to push out into Taliban country at this point. This is a policy that we are stuck with because of the lack of planning that existed throughout that entire process. As far as Al Qaeda is concerned, you are right in negotiations. They have said were not going to work with. They have said both sides of their mouth. They wont disown them. We wont work with them. We know exactly what theyre wig they are. Fellow Islamists, they are Islamists. Whether or not the Taliban seeks to strike us at home remains to be seen, but they will make the marriages they need to to maintain their power. You are right. They are flooding into that capital city,

its going to be ruthless and brutal. I think our evacuation efforts are going to be meager compared to what. Why would we believe what Kirby is telling us right now? Why? Why would we believe what Millie is telling us after the disaster that unfolded on their watch? Dont? Buy it what they have been selling us for twenty years? Didnt work Steve. You know, because the images are so bad PETE. You know the White House and the State Department is in damage control mode. The Secretary of State Blinken yesterday got on the phone and called United Kingdom China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, just why Steve had to explain? Hey, listen, you know, apparently, this is why we did it because he didnt have a good answer. Pete here is another lie of the afghan war that we were part of a coalition. I had a patch on my shoulder called nine isap. We called it. I saw Americans fighting. There were fifty flags at the embassy,

fifty flags at the airport of countries that were supposed to be art, PA of this coalition. Do you know how many of them fought? One, the United States of America sure the Brits had some good troops, Brian Australia, PETE? I worked with good australian troops. The Canadians want toed, do more Brian, the french PETE, the French wanted to do more, but politicians held them back, ultimately not about the troops but political caveat that their assembly sent them with, which meant they couldnt actually go out and fight. We are a part of a coalition where every other member of the coalition cant fight, except for us, and now we are calling them and asking for their help or explaining something to them. They werent there for us, they were falsely there with their flag, but they werent invested. It was an american boy out there, alongside Afghans who cant read, who cant write, who cant count trying to give them a country and ultimately they did the best they could its time to leave. We shouldnt have left this way what a disaster from the Biden administration, but I dont know

what tolls say: Brian for twenty years for people watching for twenty years, there hasnt been a major attack on our homeland, not close because PETE, true Brian, I would argue because of the work done over there, not because Afghanistan became this great democracy, but because we kept an eye on the people who he hate, plot and plan most as technology advance. The plots would have been easier to execute. It would have been much easier since think about whats happened over the last twenty years with digital technology. But now we are not seeing that that has a lot to do with the what the men and women doing over there nothing to do with Karzai and Ghani. Now they have to stop in their tracks. Now look at massive refugees heading into Western Europe. I dont know like two years ago what happened in Syria yeah. We have massive refugees heading into our southern borders as well. Where are the politicians with courage saying you are not coming it doesnt exist because we are led by globalist leaders who cant even enforce their own borders of. Why would we think they are

going to win wars? Why would we think they will execute ruthlessly against the enemy? We could have done that Brian with and not tried to build a false Afghan neacial army in a nation building exercise, I think its a bit of a false choice. God bless the people who invested there the way they could with the limitations they had and it is saddening to watch whats happening. I do pray for the people there Ainsley me too think about those 19 year old girls who have never known what the Taliban really looks like and they are about to find out its heart. Breaking PETE people jumping jumping fro wells of airplanes, trying to get out of that country. Brian fifty thousand Afghans that did fight they did believe PETE. They did Steve. Thank you very much for joining us. It looks like you are at Camp David. I know you are in the middle of a family, vacation PETE, thats right, Steve, ten feet away from where PETE is an RV and heading West PETE its starting to shake, because the kids are waking up.

My wife Jen is right. There waking up in beautiful Indiana, beautiful Campground of America Ainsley. Now you can write it.