Transcripts For CSPAN Discussion 20240704

I think President Trump was the right president at the right time. I think his policies were good. [laughter] i had a great working relationship with him. I told him the truth. When he was doing something right, i supported him. When he was doing something wrong, i showed up in his office, pick up the phone, and said you cannot do this. We had a very Good Relationship in terms of that. Having said that, i think we need a new leader. I dont think he will be good going forward. [laughter] [applause] when you ask a president ial candidate was the first thing you would do, some tend to go with what they would do with congress. I will tell you that a president should always control what you can control first. That is your agencies. The first thing i would do is what i did in South Carolina. You do not put in a politician. You and people who know their constituencies. No other challenges. We sent people from every agency to clean it up. Pull down any sort of bureaucracy and make it more efficient so it is working for the people again. Pull out problem children. You always have to do that along the way. Some of my agencies we tweaked, some of them we got it. Gutted. Look at justice, intelligence, those are agencies will probably have to gut because i think they have become so weaponized and political. After we did those things, each of the agencies had to do goals every 90 days to show the taxpayers what they were doing. Then we looked at their budget. And the spending the agencies would do. They would spend out of the simple fact that they did not think they would get the same amount of money in the budget next year. What we did was put all of their spending online. We called them out for that spending. You could open up closets with towers of computers and enters that were never being used. We started incentivizing them to give money back to the taxpayers. And then they started competing with each other. I would do that with our agencies as well. I would give you an example of my style. The accountant in me is unmeasurable. I believe that you as a taxpayer need to see your return on investment. You need to know the Government Works for you. When i was at the u. N. , my very first week there, you know youre trying to find your feet, there is a lot going on. There was a person that the u. S. Who got on the phone with the press and told them everything i was going to do. It was none of the things i was going to. I did not know who this person was. I told my staff, find out who that person is. I want them gone. You are never going to get to them. It was john kerrys sister. She worked at the u. S. Mission of the u. N. I said, she has to go. They say, you cant. She is here for six more months. I said you get her keypad at her computer, i will pay her for six months to sit at home. We did not let her back in the doors. You have to make examples of people. You have to set the tone of your agencies to let them know youre not going to up with any of that. [applause] i will leave you with this. You can look at all of the candidates. I am the only one who has been a twotime governor who took a double digit unemployment state and turned it into an economic powerhouse. I was at the u. N. I negotiated across from china, russia, and all of those countries. I dealt with 193 countries. We have to have someone who is used to doing all of that. I focus on results and that is what i will continue to do. When i told you i ran against the longestserving legislator at a high merry. When i did that, people laughed at me. And i got to work and i earned their support and we won. When i ran for governor, i ran against an attorney general, lieutenant governor, a very popular congressman, and a state senator. I had 3 in the polls. The least amount of money. I worked South Carolina like nobody else and we won. When i got to the u. N. , they said i did not have enough experience. I got to work and i took the take me kick me sign off of our back. I have been underestimated in everything ive ever done. It is a blessing, because it makes me scrappy. No one will outwork me in this race. No one will outsmart me in this race. We have a country to save. We have to hit a few benchmarks in this race. We wanted to have a good march we had thousands of people show up in charleston, South Carolina, and send us off. That is the third primary in the country. I have done over 30 events in iowa. Im going to keep on coming back to earn your support. [applause] you notice were not doing any shortcuts, we are doing as many townhalls, answering as many questions. We will state to make sure you feel heard. 160,000 donations from all 50 states. 91 of them were less than 200. We dont throw money away. I am not flying private like the rest of the guys. I am doing jetblue and spirit airlines. We are staying in a lot of resident inns. We are going to make sure the money goes to commercials and tv where we can hit the masses. You will see me finish this, we are about to take kick into full gear. So what i will tell you is if you liked what i had to say today, go tell 10 people, go tell them to go to nikki haley. Com. Go tell them to invest in our campaign targeting if you dont like what ive had to say today, shhh, dont say anything and dont tell anyone you were here. God bless you, thank you very much. Announcer Congress Returns from its summer recess in septeer with the busy legislivfloor schedule ahead. Both the housendenate are expected to cut federal spending bills, funnghe government through next year to prevent governnthutdown. Current government funding expires oseember 30. Lawmakers are facing end of the month headlines to reauthorize the faa and pandemic preparedness for the program the senate will continue work on more of a binds nominations including for the federal reserve. Watch live coverage of 1000 cspan, presented onspan 2, and a reminder that you can watch all of our congressional coverage with our free video at cspan now app cspan n app or online at cspan. Org. Announcer in 1848 husbandandwife william and ellen craft went on the mission of emancipation. They left georgia, avoiding slave traders, Law Enforcement all while trying to conceal their identities. The author of master slave husbandwife recounts their hearing journey north and the impact of the fugitive slave law passed earlier. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on q a. Listen to all of our podcast on our free cspan now app. Announcer cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including contest. You think this is just a Community Center . It is more than that. Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Announcer comcast support cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Announcer coming up next, a discussion about three women from the afghan female tactical mattoon who trained and worked alongside special forces facing deportation. Current and retired military officials assess what went wrong during the u. S. Withdrawal from afghanistan in august 2021. Later treasury secretary janet yellen and the irs commissioner on modernizing the irs, and they comment on the downgrading of the United States credit rating. Coming up, a discussion about three women from the afghan female tactical platoon who trained along u. S. Special forces and are now facing deportation. The discussion is hosted by the womens Foreign Policy group. Welcome. I am the executive director of the womens Foreign Policy group. On behalf of our board and our staff, and importantly, our value coorganizers, as i call your name, please stand. Composed of 68 afghan women trained by the military embarked on dangerous, highprofile missions and pursuits against the taliban. With the distinct ability to communicateertise, these women exercise relentless spirit and unabashed strength during hardship. They worked alongside the Cultural Support Team, consisting of highly trained american female soldiers to interact with women and children during u. S. Special operations missions. Over the harrowing first days after the fall of kabul in 2021, 41 members of the female tactical 10 were evacuated to the u. S. Now, following their service and sacrifice it face a new set of challenges in this country. From citizenship and economic inclusion, to ensuring the survival of their families still living in afghanistan under taliban rule. They continue working alongside their American Partners to bring the remaining 27 ftps and family members to safety. We are deeply honored to have here this evening with us as our keynote to begin the conversation a leader who is integral to supporting these brave women Freedom Fighters who served alongside our u. S. Servicemen and women, including our green berets, navy seals, and army rangers. General joseph is a retired u. S. Army fourstar officer and a former commander of the u. S. Central command, u. S. Special operations command, and joint special operations command. During his 39 years in the military, he commanded special operations and conventional military forces at every level. His career included combat in panama, afghanistan, and iraq. During his extensive time in afghanistan, the general made a personal impact on the afghan female tactical platoon. His steadfast leadership empowered female soldiers both afghan and american to succeed at all levels. In january of 2022, he became president and ceo of Business Executives for National Security. Bens. During the afghanistan evacuation in 2021, he advocated for numerous afghan partners and their families, including the female tactical platoon. His support and his advocacy are major reasons why over 40 members of the female tactical platoon are safely in the u. S. And here with us in person this evening. Thank you for your leadership. We are so incredibly grateful to you for sharing your time with us this evening. The floor is yours. [applause] good evening to everyone. Over the course of my career, i served multiple tours with both conventional and special operations organizations across the country of afghanistan. Over 18 years of Service Since 9 11 before i retired. I helped orchestrate the plan to dismantle al qaeda. And other organizations like them or supporting them to include the taliban who were operating across the region. Along the way, i gained a great appreciation for the goodness of the Afghan People and their our aggressive. And required us to confront terrorist organizations where they operated. Which was often in villages and especially among the Afghan People. Over time, we understood that our ability to have the impact we wanted against these networks required a temple and a mode of operations that was unprecedented when compared to other military experiences. This resulted in dozens of operations every day almost exclusively conducted at night. It brought undesirable impacts for the Afghan People. Exposure to the hazards of combat, tactical mistakes, segregation of families during our operations. And the wrath of violent extremist organizations imposing their will on peaceful afghans who were seen to be actively or passively supporting our american and naval operations. We worked very hard to reduce these impacts using technology to keep people safe, information approaches to inform people and eventually altering tactics on the ground. One of the impacts we were most keen to mitigate was the effect of our operations on women and children who were often on the objectives where we were operating. While our principal focus was always on safeguarding civilians, we recognized there could be practical military advantages to that approach as well. Once this need was identified, our system swung into rapid response, acting on the direction of the then u. S. Commanding general, admiral eric olson. We identified, recruited, and trained female officers from all u. S. Military services, but predominantly from the army, to serve as Cultural Support Team members. Their job was to accompany our strike forces, to be on the objectives with them and use their skills to not only safeguard women and children, but where appropriate, gather information to support our military mission. The training was regress and comprehensive. Rigorous and comprehensive. They were required to meet every standard required of male counterparts on the strike forces, including carrying heavy loads and employing weapons to defend themselves when necessary and or special operators. And their special operators. The program was an immediate success and when combined with modified tactics and other approaches helped further minimize, but not completely eliminate civilian casualties. Information gathered by our team Cultural Support Team members and family members often aided our tactical ops and i personally witnessed this while accompanying our strike forces. As we have often heard, they enabled our ability to talk to the other 50 of the population and i personally witnessed an afghan woman after talking with one of our Cultural Team members, pointing directly to her husband and saying that is the man you want right there. Kind of a form of righteous there justice for her. Afghan women were also very surprised to see other american women on the objectives with them, and this had a huge impact on them and provided an example of empowerment. This approach was not without risk, and several support team members were killed or wounded in combat operations. Their stories are well told in the excellent book ashleys war. We see the pictures here. But overall, the program was so successful, that we continued to develop and expand the male units, we encouraged an afghan leadership listened them to and afghan leadership listened to them to create an afghan version of Cultural Support Teams known as the female tactical platoon who would especially serve with Afghan Special operations forces. As you can imagine, the introduction of this approach in a culture that held women in a particular role was a challenge to a particular role was a challenge, but one that was largely overcome by the perseverance and discipline and professional excellence of not only the afghan women assigned to the female tactical platoon, but also the professionalism of the u. S. Cultural support team members who trained and developed them, and leaders in the afghan army who not only believed in the program, but inherently appreciated that it was the right approach. Their impact was legend. It increased effectiveness, safeguarding afghan civilians, and breaking down cultural barriers. The female tactical platoon served as an example of the positive leading role women could and were already playing in modern Afghan Society. For me, the example of the Cultural Support Teams and the female tactical platoons were a significant factor in my 2015 recommendation to the then secretary of defense to open up all combat specialties to female Service Members and in doing that, we talked with our cst partners and they were the most influential factor in my recommendations to the secretary of defense. As if the example of courage and bravery was not enough, this Extraordinary Group of women of afghan and american women saved their greatest lesson for when the going was most difficult, during the evacuation of kabul nearly two years ago. In a lifetime of service, mostly in combat and around combat troops, i was never more inspired than by the efforts led by american women, military and civilian, to successfully evacuate their afghan counterparts under arduous, dangerous conditions, and of the sheer bravery and courage of the female tactical platoon members to get themselves and some of their family members out. Americans have no reasonable frame of reference for the fear absorbed and the tenacity demonstrated during that evacuation. We can never forget those who were lost or gave so much for their freedom, and we must tonight and on the upcoming second anniversary of this evacuation rededicate ourselves to helping them and their families. Their sacrifices cannot have been made in vain. We have no reasonable recourse but to do the right thing. Today, afghanistan is in a humanitarian political crisis that demands international attention. The taliban believes it is doing the will of god. Purifying Afghan Society to create a perfect islamic emirate. The combination of these efforts these taliban purification efforts along with poverty and extremism and lack of education is a toxic combination that is not good for the Afghan People or the region. The rollback in rights, Democratic Values and human rights is eye watering. Women and girls have officially been denied the opportunity to education. The taliban has issued over 60 decrees reducing space for women in Afghan Society, including most recently ordering the shutdown of hair salons across the country, denying an important cultural opportunity for women to gather among themselves and talk outside the home. Outside of their homes. Females previously served as military or Civil Servants are being deliberately targeted. Overall, freedom of expression and of the press is severely restricted. If even existence. Civil society is all but nonexistent. Exclusion is widespread. Minorities, not just women, are being persecuted. Across the country. There is a spike in Child Marriage and child labor. We cannot afford to turn our eyes away from the situation in afghanistan today. The fact is, the diminishment of human rights and Democratic Values in afghanistan is a National Security threat for the United States, our partners in the region, and all our friends around the world, and if you do not believe me, you just need to travel less than two miles from this location to visit the pentagon 9 11 memorial and be reminded once again of the cost of taking our eyes off the threats to our citizens and to our friends and interests. There are things that can and must be done. We must draw attention to the deteriorating situation in afghanistan. Accountability begins in the court of public opinion. We must clarify pathways and properly support the visa process to ensure those who help us are served quickly and effectively, and we should prioritize our females, partners in the female tactical platoon and their families for this progress. We must support nongovernment organizations and government elements, including from the united nations, who is working to relieve the crisis in afghanistan. We must support organizations like Freedom House and others that work to support human rights defenders and pursue a diplomatic process that holds the taliban accountable and has as its goal to peacefully restore Democratic Values and human rights for all citizens of afghanistan. We must confront the abuses we see in afghanistan and support our friends and partners. We must honor those who stepped up and did their duty. We must aspire to the example that has been set for us by the brave women of the afghan tactical platoon, putting country and family first, it being willing to put skin in the game, and willing to exhibit that resilience to see it through. I am very proud of all of our afghan female tactical platoon members and Cultural Support Team members. I think they represent the very best in all of us. Thank you for the opportunity this evening, and i look forward to the rest of our time together. [applause] thank you, general, as always. What an honor to be here representing the penn fed credit union. Im the president and ceo. I think what i represent tonight on behalf of the credit union and foundation is the commitment to service. As a former military officer, i learned at a young age coming out of west point what it meant to train men and women to go into harms way on behalf of a nation and i learned during my time in the pentagon how we can never forget the men and women we ask to go into harms way to fight on behalf of our nation so we are here tonight because of the penn fed foundation, we do not just thank veterans for our service, we demonstrated through our actions. We demonstrate it through our actions. Two years ago, during the pullout of american troops from afghanistan, we knew our afghanistan allies were in danger. The women you are about to meet are just a few of the courageous afghans who risked their life to serve alongside our u. S. Troops. These women, members of the female tactical platoon, were personally and directly recruited and trained by an elite group of american servicewomen. Known as our Cultural Support Team. Those american heroes exemplify bravery and loyalty. About 10 members of that team worked relentlessly around the clock to evacuate their sisters when we evacuated kabul. Amidst the chaos at the airport, they succeeded in bringing 43 afghan women and immediate family members to the United States, and i cannot thank my board enough for their support. [applause] i cannot thank my board enough for their support. They provided the funding and the donors that provided funding to allow us to take good care of these women who deserve to be taken care of. For two years, the families have faced tremendous hardship, grieving the loss of loved ones they had to leave behind while adapting to a new life in america. Put yourself in their shoes. Drastically, middle of the night, even their country, coming here to learn a new language, trying to secure employment and move forward with their lives. Many with Young Children with them. Our foundation is honored to have played a small part in supporting these families but the reason we are here tonight is because the struggle is not over. Only 11 of the 43 female tactical platoon members have been granted asylum and that is not right. The rest remain in limbo, uncertain of the future for them and their families. Our afghan rescue and Resettlement Program has aim to provide them with some stability during this challenging time. The foundation is proud to stand behind them as they did for us and all americans. We know the value, grace, and work ethic they bring to the communities across america. It is a tremendous honor for me to introduce the next part of our program. We will hear from some members of the female tactical platoon and one American Woman who worked alongside them in afghanistan. I would like to introduce amanda ripley. Who probably needs no introduction. Multiple bestsellers, an accomplished journalist for politico, and her reporting on afghan women soon after they arrived in the u. S. Has been important, but what she taught me is that in america we need hope, agency, the ability to influence and do things that have an impact, and dignity. I think what amanda will highlight tonight is that when you meet these women, they have all three and they represents the best of america. Represent the best of america. Our afghan partners. Thank you for being here, amanda. [applause] amanda good evening. It is good to be here with you all. I would like to invite my esteemed panelists to join me up here. I will introduce you more formally in turn. Lets give them a round of applause. [applause] ok. A couple of years ago, i got a call from my editor at politico, who said she had a story for me. I know there is at least one other reporter, jennifer is here. Are there or there are there other reporters here . You know when an editor calls you and it is their idea, you are always like, this is not going to be good. [laughter] i asked three other people and they all said no and now they are coming to me. So i was like, ok, tell me. She says, believe it or not, there are a few dozen elite afghan soldiers, allfemale, who served alongside u. S. Special operators for 10 years in afghanistan, that did incredible things to fight the taliban and isis. And now, they are in the United States, scattered across the country, starting from scratch. And i was like, you had me at female soldiers. This is an amazing story. Thank you. In 20 years of writing for magazines, i have never, ever gotten the privilege to work on a story that so changed my own conscious and subconscious ideas about afghan women, about female soldiers, and about refugees. It was a true honor to work on this project, and i am very grateful to the teams for putting up with a lot of foolish questions, graciously, as i learned what to ask and all that i did not know, which was a lot. Im going to ask some more foolish questions right now. You are used to this by no w. But i just wanted to tell you how much this has meant to me and i know that many of you in the audience have had similar experiences. I want to start by briefly introducing our panelists. A six year veteran with the female tactical platoon. She is currently living in spokane, washington and she works hard and also plays hard, she enjoys kickboxing, boxing, and mixed martial arts. [laughter] farida spent five years as a member of the platoon until the fall of kabul. She is currently living in lancaster, pennsylvania, where she works as a Security Guard for a shipping company. At some point, i believe you were taking three english classes simultaneously. Im not sure how that is possible, but maybe you can tell us in a minute. And then we have rebecca edmonson, who spent 10 years in the u. S. Army and three of those years deployed in afghanistan, where she served alongside army rangers and members of the female tactical platoon. Currently, rebecca is working for the penn fed credit union supporting the female tactical platoon. Ok. I have talked a lot. Like, oh my gosh, is she going to talk this whole time . No. Could you tell us, what was your job like as a member of the female tactical platoon . Ok, well, i started working with stp in 2015. Stp is a group of females working alongside u. S. Special forces and Afghanistan Special forces. So one american and so when american and Afghan Special forces went into a mission together, they found out they are missing something. The mission is not completed. Because afghanistan is traditional, because of that, the men criticized the women. They hired stps to complete this mission. First they hired a couple stps and after when i joined, it was just 11 stps. We had training the same as the special forces training and information to different parts of afghanistan day and night. We went to go to the missing in searching for a person over the taliban. A person of the taliban. When women and children come out from the compound, we ask the tactical questions. We post them to the team. It was very successful and helped in the success of the mission. Working as stp, the possibility is to help the mission, help the teams be successful in the mission. This is our job we do. In 2021, there was more than 50 stps working there. Amanda so when you started, it was a Smaller Group and a group and it grew because it was so successful . Yeah. Amanda as the only one on stage who has not been in combat, im going to clarify some things. This often looked like, what, getting on helicopters and going into remote places in the middle of the night, and what would you do when you got there . When we got there, we would go to the taliban house in search for a special person. Amanda you are searching for commanders. Someone you want to talk to. Yeah. When the children and women come out, we ask them the questions. The tactical questions about the target. Amanda so youre interviewing the women and children and searching them as well i assume and trying to quickly build trust. But also we are trying to find the target, the information about the target. Because mostly they hide something from the woman. Amanda there might be weapons hidden from the women or children in the home somewhere. Yeah. Amanda i would imagine being a woman is very helpful in the situation. Yeah. It is very helpful. [laughter] amanda can you explain why . Although i have ideas, can you explain why it is helpful . It is helpful because when the man is going into the taliban house, they want to search the women and children. When they see a female soldier, we can ask them, because in afghanistan, it is because of the religion and culture, usually the man cannot touch the woman and cannot speak with them sometimes. They see a female, and it is easy for them to talk and ask about the situation. About the target. Amanda so it is a lot less threatening and offensive, maybe, to have a woman . We are starting to get a picture. I have a lot of questions, but im going to quickly jump to rebecca. So, when you first heard about this program, to create a platoon that was doing what american women were already doing, what you had some apprehensions initially, right . Definitely apprehensions. So, to put it into perspective, when i first deployed as a cst, i was told before i ever arrived that i would be working with the ladies of the female tactical platoon. I was cutting my teeth and learning what it meant to be a cst at the same time. Amanda im just going to pause for a quick acronym check. You all may know this, but it took me months to figure this out. Sorry to interrupt you. Cst is the Cultural Support Team, that is the american female special operators. Cst, ftp. Same thing. Amanda female tactical platoon. Military grade. What are you going to do . We do the same job. Amanda one is american. One is afghan. Sorry. My kneejerk reaction to learning that was, oh my god. Like, i have this additional tasking. Not only am i supposed to deploy and understand what im supposed to do as a cst, now i am also charged with training and advising, advise and assist with the mission, our ftp counterparts. At first, i was kind of shaken by it. You know, i thought, i dont even know how to do this job. How am i supposed to guide somebody else, for them to be successful . It started off a little bit rocky, if i am being perfectly honest. I came over there with a lead of with a lot of preconceived notions about afghanistan and the culture, and i guess i was in my american brain at first. And it took me some time to get to know them as human beings and to realize the value they brought to the mission, and it did not take very long for me to realize they were actually better at performing this function than i was, because they grew up there. They are invested. They speak the language. They understand the cultural nuances. And so, i grew tremendous respect for them pretty quickly. Understanding that, really, they needed to be in the lead and i was just in the background. Amanda you have called that experience the highlight of your career, which you probably did not anticipate. Oh god, not at first. It was a bittersweet scenario. I think for me, it was a lot of pressure. I felt like not only was i trying to prove myself as the token female amongst the sea of 200 plus army rangers, but i was also sort of responsible for this other capability that was also learning at the same time. And so, i felt like if they were not successful, then not only did i have to worry about how i performed on missions, but i was also worried about how they were doing. And so, i was really uptight. I was an e5 sergeant by the book. At first, i was not trying to get to know ftps as human beings. And it took me time to realize that we are in this together, and if we are going to be successful, we have to bridge that gap, and get to know each other on a more personal level. Amanda it does seem like a very strong bond developed between you and other ftps. Ive heard stories about latenight henna parties. [laughter] a lot of cooking. Dancing. Amanda a lot of dancing. Sharing stories. Cooking with inadequate ingredients creative cooking we will call it. Farida, can you tell us a little bit about some of the challenges you faced working alongside male Afghan Special operators . As you know, afghanistan is a very traditional and religious country. It was really hard to work with to work especially in special forces. I had to talk and talk with my i had to talk and talk with my family to convince them. When i convinced them, i had to keep it a secret, because i did not want my relatives to know i am working in the military. It was super dangerous. Also people did not have a good idea about women. I was happy that i was in the military. It was hard for us special forces, because we were female. Women can work as hard as men. But you know, after all of the training and missions, they can do as much a man can do. Some ftps did a better job than men. Amanda you can say it. They did. [applause] we proved we can do everything they can do. Still, it was hard for them to accept it, because we are female. Yeah, it was very hard. They said, you are a female . What are you doing here . They were surprised when they saw us. They asked a lot of questions. Some of them said, you are working with a lot of men. It was really hard. Sometimes it happened when we were in kabul. We did missions from the scorpion camp. We had to go to base. When we get off the bus, all the passengers were looking to us. It was weird for them. They were looking back to us. They had bad thoughts about us. It was very hard. Fighting with tradition was more hard. With all the problems, we just continue. Amanda let me get this straight, so there were many rings of challenges. There was convincing your family. Then keeping it secret from the neighbors. Did you have a story you told about where you were going . Yeah. I told my family, im working in a clinic. Amanda a clinic. Yeah, a clinic. I said, i have training for three months. Amanda medical training. Yeah. Amanda any cia agents in the room. [laughter] so you said that you work in a clinic. And then you had the afghan male special operators who had their own issues. And also, like rebecca, wanted to prove themselves and felt stressed and worried. And then you had the american male special operators. The female also. So we are getting many challenges. And then you have the people whose homes you were searching, who were shocked i assume, to see a woman in uniform, and afghan woman. At the end you mentioned taliban and isis leaders almost as an afterthought. Also challenging, no doubt. But there were many challenges. The ftps, they continued their job. I am super proud of my coworkers. Super brave women. [applause] amanda one of the things i noticed and this could have just in my impression but was that sometimes i know as a woman who has not like this in some maledominated areas there is a real impulse i think, at least there was for me to act like a man. To try to fit in to assimilate. But i just noticed with the platoon members i have spent time with, i did not get that sense. It was like maybe there were so many hurdles that you were like, this is who i am. Im not going to pretend i am you. Is that right . Rebecca . I will weigh in on that. Amanda am i wrong . You are onto something. I would argue that dynamic actually existed more on the u. S. Side than it did in afghanistan. I definitely had colleagues that took up chewing tobacco and all the things. Just trying to fit in. But i think what was so lovely about the ftps is they kind of owned who they were. And they paid respect to the culture. They had to respect certain nuances within their culture, otherwise they would have just been beaten down by their colleagues, so they had these very rigorous left and right limits of what they knew they had to sort of abide by otherwise there would be backlash. And so, i always had tremendous respect for them in that regard because they had this whole other layer of challenges and difficulties they encountered just to integrate into their unit. Whereas an American Woman like myself integrating with army rangers, you could just bro out and it was kind of same same. But their role was very feminine. And the men i think respected you more because you adhered you were not trying to be one of the guys. Amanda it is a very complicated thing it is like threading a needle. Its interesting. I am also thinking about all of those challenges you listed and im thinking about your commander for many years is here. I think you are all going to meet in a minute. I remember her saying to me, none of that was as hard as starting over in the United States. So id love i would love to shift to the evacuation. Farida, what do you remember from the evacuation . That the evacuation was really crazy. When we got to the airport, all of a sudden, the crowd of people, it looked like all of kabul came to the airport. The soldiers were trying to keep people away from the gate. People were scared of the taliban. Everyone was trying to get to the airport. They were pushing each other. The american soldiers and taliban were trying to keep people away from the gate. They were doing the warning shots. They threw the flashbangs. To keep people away. Amanda the teargas. Yeah. The only thing i cannot forget, the children and kids were crying. This is something that is very painful for me. The other thing, when i saw the taliban had our weapons, it was painful for me. It is hard to talk about. But the ftps were trying to get in. Some ftps, they had a kid im sorry. Yeah, it was really hard. They got to the airport. Some ftps had kids and they could not make it. We were behind the airport. We were outside of the airport all of the day and night. The whole week. Finally, we contacted an american soldier in the airport. They helped us to walk and camp in the airport. Amanda a nightmarish week. Yeah. Amanda where did you eventually end up, once you got on the plane . Yeah, that was in the airport, after that, we got a flight to the uae. And then we spent two months in the uae at a refugee camp. After a twomonth process, i got to the United States and spent another three months in virginia. Yeah. If we counted, after six months, i started my own life from zero. Amanda after six months. Is there anyone with you in spokane . Yeah. This is something other people did not like. Starting a happy life in the United States. I have two nieces, 11 years old and 16 years old. It was hard for me to take care of them. The camp was really crowded. A lot of different people and a lot of families. My two young nephews. I was always very worried to have to take care of them and keep them safe. It was really hard for me. Amanda what have been some of the challenges for you since coming to america . When i came to america, the first challenge is the language. We take some english courses. They show the people the culture. All different for us. Fortunately, the Cultural Support Team has helped us, giving every stp a mentor and helping navigate with their english classes and appointments. Amanda it was sort of amazing how many of the american counterparts managed to just help create a new infrastructure here, which is very difficult. Right . I often thought about how hard it was and how there were 70,000 other afghan refugees who did not have that, which is shocking. I cannot even get my head around it. So the language was a huge challenge. I assume worrying about everything happening in afghanistan is a huge heartbreak. Was a huge heartbreak. Yeah, being a part, being apart, far away from your family. That they were in danger still. Amanda because of the work that you did. And you are the enemy of the taliban. After i came to the United States, two times the taliban came to my house. Searching for me. Asking for my brother or my mother. They said, we hear there is someone working for the military here. They said there is nobody here. They continue to come. They captured my brother for two days and we didnt know that. Theyve searched our houses. They took my car. Now they have to change their location every two months and go somewhere else to be safe. Amanda ok. So let me put this into context. We have 40 women who spent 10 years in combat alongside American Special operators seeing more combat than most American Veterans alive today and they are now kill onsite by the taliban because of the work they did. Now their families are in danger. Now they come here and Congress Still has not passed the afghan adjustment act or anything that would legalize their immigration status which we will hear more about. I believe 11 of the 40 women platoon members have had their asylum grants come through. I will tell you, when the story came out, i thought surely once people know about this, this cannot stand. And i was pretty cynical before this, so it is shocking to me that i got that so wrong. When i called the pentagon for comments before the story came out, they did not know about the female tactical platoon. Thank god for the general who was like, i knew about them. He agreed to be included in the article for which i am grateful. But i thought, once people knew, once more people knew, once members of congress knew, surely an adjustment act would be passed just like it had been in a bipartisan way for the iraqis and the enemies refugees and others. Enemys refugees and others. So i think the feeling for me is mostly one of shame. And i would ask all of you who have a Voting Member of congress, because i do not i live in washington, d. C. To consider reading about the afghan adjustment act and what else can be done, and reaching out to your member of congress if you have not already. As a reporter, im not supposed to say these things, i dont think. But i dont see how i cannot. Because it is not right. We are almost out of time. I want to ask you to tell us what are some of your hopes for the future . Well, when i came to the United States, i started everything from zero. Most of all, taking english courses and trying to improve english and going to college and continue education. Most of all, trying to change the military. The dream we have in afghanistan and the military that we are not able to live. Dreaming about the future and achieving our goals in the u. S. Amanda you are dreaming about any the future. The mission continues. Is that what you are saying . Yeah, because of the experience we have in afghanistan. It helps us to get into the military here. And improve our career. Amanda one of the things i learned from talking to you and your colleagues is it is less about how we can help refugees and how they can help us. There is a huge amount of talent, grit, and experience that we are not taking advantage of. These women have been thoroughly vetted. No one in this room has been vetted like the women in this room. I promise you. Maybe the general. Lets it. Thats it. [laughter] so there is a lot of experience and strength i think we could use. I am no expert on the military but that is my sense. Thank you. Amanda it seems like a lot of stps would like to join the u. S. Military. We would love to join the military. It is a similar life. Amanda what do you need to join the u. S. Military . I need my green card. My citizenship. Amanda there it is. That is what you need. You need a green card. Yeah. Another hope stps have is helping our families when they come here, because we cannot do anything for them, because they are in danger. Our hope is we live together and be safe. Amanda you would like to also bring your family here and the first thing that has to happen for that to happen is to get a green card. I would like to have us all give a round of applause for our panelists. Thank you very much. [applause] would like to also bring your family here and the first thing that has to happen for that to happen is to get a green card. I would like to have us all give a round of applause for our panelists. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you. And now, rebecca is going to fill us in on what is about to happen next. Im going to take just a quick shift. We are going to have a panel to follow. We are going to play a video i am so proud was created. My work with the foundation, a big effort has been about telling the story and raising awareness. You will hear from some of the colleagues who reside in blackburn, virginia. We will get right back after it in a few minutes. More to come. Thank you all. [applause] i met the ladies of the female tactical platoon in 2012. In 2016 i had the honor of working with the entire platoon. At that time it grew to 28 women at once. We were training at their facilities in kabul. Fortunately because the foundation is a military centered foundation that supports veterans and spouses in the community i think there was an obvious desire to respond to the emergency and the crisis that was taking place when afghans were being evacuated from afghanistan. The ftps had only a matter of hours to save either their loved ones, to destroy any evidence of their business before they could come to the airport with the clouds on their back and if they were lucky their child or their younger sibling. Me and my husband together in military with the American Military and special force. I am happy because i am safe. Many people helped me and helped my i am safe here. No food in afghanistan. No job in afghanistan. It is very hard. Very hard. For my country. For my new home. For my husband. My hope for them is finding happiness whatever that might look like. At this point, so much of their heart is missing back home in their families. What they are veterans. They are just not American Veterans yet and that is what we are working towards. Is that one day they will be seen as at least afghan American Veterans that risk their lives alongside of us. Some of them gave their lives. To us they are no different. They are just as deserving and if not more because everything they put on the line for our country. [indiscernible] good evening our panelists are getting my but im going to go ahead. My name is renata, i am the council at Paul Hastings law firm, before becoming esg counsel i was the firms Global Pro Bono counsel. It has been my honor to lead the Afghan Legal Task force, a Task Force Made up of global law firms. Together, we all represent all of the female tactical platoon that relocated to the United States. We also work alongside the sisters of service in all of their efforts to serve this Incredible Group. In august of 2022, we realized we needed to do this together. We also realized we needed to make a very public showing. Amanda in august of 2020 two we realized we needed to do this together. D that point earlier. Weve filed each of the female tactical platoon members of asylum applications within two days of one another in a very visible effort to alert the u. S. Government. We did so not only to let the world know that these heroes who were here in the United States but that they were here without permanent status. A wrong that surely needed to be righted by the United States government. As a former deputy chief counsel for the u. S. Department of Homeland Security i felt a personal commitment to ensuring these women were given the benefit that they deserved and that they could move on with their lives and continue to contribute in a meaningful way. I am very sad to report as you have already heard that only 11 of the asylum applications we filed have been granted to date. Todays panel is going to discuss the many challenges the female tactical platoon has faced from evacuation to their time in the United States. We are honored to have today Jennifer Griffin with us to moderate this distinguished panel. Jennifer is the chief National Security correspondent for fox news at the pentagon. She will be joined by ambassador idella roche who served as the last ambassador from afghanistan to the United States. Also on the panel is mary, former commander of the Cultural Support Team program for the u. S. Military and also the founder of sisters of service. We also have a former commander of the female task former commander of the fema title platoon. And last but certainly not least we have a legislative director from with honor and also a u. S. Marine corps veteran. Im going to welcome the panel up now. [applause] thank you so much for that introduction and i want to thank amanda for doing such a beautiful job of teeing up the discussion thus far and i would like to jump right in and pick up on some of the themes she was drawing out from the Previous Panel because of these are really important themes. One thing i would like to start with is this issue of training. And before we get started, i should say my relationship to afghanistan goes back to 1994 because i spent my honeymoon in 1994 when i was a young journalist. Cutting my teeth. It is a place that is so important to me and my family and to my husband who is also a journalist and the women i am not surprised to hear amandas description of the women and how they knew who they were and they knew the parameters in which they worked and they artfully navigated the u. S. Military as well as the Afghan Military and there were some of the most effective. They were the secret weapons that allowed the u. S. Military to do what they needed to do in these dangerous situation. I would like to start with the commander of this Incredible Group of 40 women for 10 years. I would like to explain a little more about the kind of military training you were provided by the u. S. Military. Thank you so much. We had all kinds of training the soldiers should know about. Like shooting host weapons. I think they can here appear just speak up a little bit. I think they can hear. To speak up a little bit. Jumping out of the helicopter. To land. Yeah. And how to searching people. Searching houses. All the kind of training that soldiers should know in their mission. It was necessary for them. Any kind of training. So you went through basically the same special forces training men would go through, afghan men as well as american men and women. Nothing different. Tell me about one of the most dangerous nights or one of the more dangerous missions. I know there are many but tell me about one you were personally on or one of your sisters was on. Show missions took place in the taliban and other houses. They have weapons. They have soldiers. They have bodyguards. I cannot say which one is more dangerous. The last mission i did was in 2015. That mission, more than 70 soldiers were killed. Unfortunately two of my american male colleagues were killed in that mission. She is humble. That mission, she came out on a rope. Helicopter hovering anywhere from 30 to 70 feet and slid down a rope under gunfire. Not a lot of u. S. Service members had done. But there she was tiny as she is right now. You can imagine she is pretty fierce. Came out of the helicopter. Taking the fight directly to the enemy and that was a huge target and a huge win for the United States as well as the Afghan People. She is being humble. [applause] show less how many languages do you speak . Just one. [laughter] well, two. Most of the women, how many languages are they speaking . The stps. And mary, you work alongside these women. Tell me your experience when kabul was falling. Where were you . What went through your mind and what did you do . Heavy question to start off with. April of 2021 we heard the news along with everyone else. We sell the president announced we were going to withdraw from afghanistan. A group of the Program Manager of the time out of fort liberty, with carolina. There was a group of us. We were not sure what was going to happen but we knew these women were going to be in great danger if we did pull out. Not because they cannot take care of themselves. The very obviously can but they had three strikes against them. Female in a country that does not value life the same way. They were a minority that is still today very heavily persecuted which is difficult to watch. They were female soldiers that had served directly sidebyside with us. Somebody in the Afghan Military decided to make a recruiting video about them sorted the about them so their faces and names were all over the place. We knew they were in great danger. A group of about 10 of us decided to start dedicating a large portion of our time trying to apply for special immigrant visas. I am not great about talking about immigration. It was a system set up for interpreters. We thought maybe if we applied for these visas will be able to get them to the states somehow. I remember talking to our little group. Any of whom are here today in the art many of whom mark your today in the audience. He thought if we got one out it would be a miracle. We did not think we have the capacity. What we did not realize was the strong allies we had in the community. People like the general who was writing letters to congress for us and generating these huge forces. People like Christy Rogers who helped put on this event today. We suddenly got connected to this Massive Network of people who were saying how can we help. The day afghanistan fell i was in the mountains in North Carolina on vacation. We had been summoning these applications. We knew that things in afghanistan were pretty dangerous but we did not know it was going to fall so quickly. We got the phone call that the taliban were encircling kabul. One of the most difficult things for me is to hear the false narrative that the Afghan Forces just drop their weapons and not fire a sickle shot. They were ordered to lay down their weapons several days before hand and told to go on leave. It was night choice it was not a choice by them. Heaven help the taliban if they had their weapons because they wouldve been in a world of hurt. We knew the taliban had captured their personal information. Scorpion is a Training Base they were located at. I remember her calling me a few days before him. She is one of my closest friends. We were keeping in close contact. And her just saying should i go back and try to get some of my stuff. I was like terrified for her. I was like police do not go to the taliban held territory to get some of your stuff. It was terrifying for us to be on the other end appeared to have heard how difficult the scenario was. A lot of my counter parts here tonight were kind of helpless sitting on the phone waiting for people to help us. I think i racked up like a thousand dollar phone bill to afghanistan because her phone kept dying. She would switch out phones with somebody else and i would call some new number. We would have people helping us trying to direct us to different parts of the airport and trying to get them in one gate. One of my favorite phone calls from an stp mary can you send a car out to get us. We have been waiting 12 hours. This is like day one. I was like if i could send a card to get you guys i would have done a long time ago. It was just chaos. You heard them talk about the gunfire and grenades. We were helpless knowing that the taliban was turning to go doortodoor directly looking for the female tactical platoon. We were so wakeful to a lot of people in the room tonight who were able to help us form this amazing coalition we have going on. Those two or three weeks around the evacuation i think only slept a couple hours just on the edge of our seats trying to figure out what was going to happen to our sisters over there. Just kind of feeling helpless. We will pick up on that side of the story. You were here in washington. You were the ambassador when kabul fell. What happened in your world and your life. I think my world started to crumble even a little earlier as soon as i arrived to washington. I started to work as the ambassador of afghanistan at the unit nations. I arrived early july to washington. I got my credentials to be able to meet government officials here. My first meeting was with dod. We were already in the midst of chaos on the ground. It started like that. The last friday when i was in the office. Sunday the collapse happened. It makes me emotional every time i talk about it. I made countless calls to every single representative my office could it hold of could get hold of. At the end of each call i had a plea. My plea was please make sure kabul does not fall. People like her were in town. They had come from every part of the country. I biggest fear was as the taliban comes to power there would be a slaughter of them. I could not take it. The embassy still has some of the calls on record. I came home exhausted. I think i made 25 or already calls. I came home exhausted. My mom asked how was and of course i cannot explain things. That is how my anxiety was. M that sunday morni that sunday morning. I woke up your none of us had sleep because we knew something was going to go wrong. I picked up my phone. The screen was full of messages and missed calls. I started to shake. I said something is off. As soon as i picked up my phone my first call was to my husband because he was in afghanistan. He told me he would not leave. I called him. He picked up. His First Response was im fine. Dont worry pierre that is when i knew things dont wary. That is when i knew i should be worried. I think from that moment onward. For more than six months i was disoriented. Lost, confused. Hard impaired lost trust in everything i believed because i always said even in the darkest time of my life at the time which i did not know there was a more darker time arriving and that was the five years of my life as a teenager when i lived in the taliban times the first time they came into power. Even then i had hoped because i thought this will end. This will come to an end. Because of that end and that hope i always had a direction. That direction was to study hard and even when education was banned for girls i studied hard at home. That sunday morning, i think i just did not know what is hoped or how do i even have a direction to move forward because whatever i believed, it was broken. Believing in the leaders. Believing in the international standards. Leaving in allies. Believing in friends. It was all gone. That is probably the life of every afghan. I was listening earlier. I heard when the hope really comes to having your family here and earlier our hope was for a proper democracy and freedom and stability in afghanistan. We all talked about the strength of afghan women. It is true i think. I also heard that as a women a woman and we are in maledominated space we are pushed to act as men. I think it is true it is pretty unique to afghan women. Regardless of which space we were ink our strength was so strong that we kept the sisterhood but at the same time we fall and we moved forward. And now sometimes thinking so small i mean it is not small but thinking about a hope that is magnitude smaller compared to what it was, it is heartbreaking but i think we have put our life together somehow one way or the other and youre trying to hold on to what can be the future. Host we are sitting here almost two years to the day after couple fell after kabul fell. As a nation we brought more than 70,000 have danced to the country. Most of them are in limbo. An example of how broken our immigration system is. Wrote and promises. The shame broken promises. The shame amanda mentioned. We all feel it. The veterans feel it. Tell me about your involvement and where we stand in terms of getting these individuals who did actually make it out, these afghans the proper papers so they can start their life and be welcomed here as they should be welcomed. Show less text yet so just to start with, this is not just an example of where immigration system is broken. This is an example of how our congress is broken. This is an example of how her entire system of government is severely damaged right now. This is something that has brought a partisan support. Something when you talk to people, you talk to stuffers on capitol hill they agree with you yet it still has not gotten done. That is what makes this so frustrating. Not just as legislative director but as a marine corps veteran this is incredibly frustrating. This should have been done already. So where it stands already where it stands right now, there is legislation out there. Recently with the National Defense authorization act, there was an effort to get this included in the Senate Version of the bill. It had broad bipartisan support. However they could not reach an agreement at the last minute so it did not go through. That is where we stand right now. Now moving forward, i want to emphasize we will continue working on this because it is the right to do. It is the moral imperative and or significant National Security implications for not getting this right. We will have other opportunities. An omnibus later on this year or early next year. If there is a continued resolution and one of the things is the defense bill was around every year. Those are next three opportunities. Those are opportunities because they have to this will have to be attached to a larger bill because the way our politics is working right now, very few individual pieces of legislation are able to move forward. We are going to have to attach it to a larger bill. Host i want to know what caused it to not be in the Senate Version. Whose fault is it . [laughter] i am a journalist. I can ask these questions. There is plenty of blame to go around. One of the issues we have right now as we are still negotiating with both republicans and democrats. We are very much involved in trying to move this forward. As much as i would certainly like to go into why this did not why this was not included, instead of looking backwards and casting blame i think it is important we continue moving forward. The last thing i want to do is make our negotiations more difficult. As much as it would be satisfactory in the moment. [laughter] everyone can go and google who held this up and write to them. Mary, lets go back to the situation for these afghan women, the ftps and their families who are here and dont have asylum and dont have green cards. Tell me about what kind of work are they doing, how are they surviving, how are they supporting themselves . Every some examples of the kind of work they are doing and the kind of work they were doing before and the juxtaposition. First i hope everybody noticed when they were talking, did you notice when they were talking about the female tactical platoon, the big smiles that came over their face because that made me proud to watch them talk about their work and what they are doing in afghanistan. One of the most striking things for me is seeing you have heard them talk about how hard it was to start over and as an american soldier i cannot even begin to imagine the difficulties they have faced. One of the things i am most proud of is watching some of my fellow csps. We have set up a network. While we were in the evacuations she came up with this idea to set up one u. S. Servicemember with one afghan servicemember. It started off as one cst with one ftp. As the need has grown we have had more people step up from all backgrounds. Shameless plug if youre interested in being a mentor or helping out with an stp. We could use more of them. There is plenty of information out there. This oneonone relationship allowed us to mentor our sisters. Very capable but just not used to what it is like to be in the u. S. Everything from how do i set up a phone plan, how do i just do these tasks that are simple for us that are difficult for them. If you think about what that is like to be a powerful soldier, these are some of the most courageous and forgive my language but badass women sorry, mom ive had the honor to work with. And then to wake up one morning and the taliban who you have been fighting artificially in charge, pictures of them to the palace, going from that powerful position to the next day, they are not nothing. Note we know how powerful and good will these women are but just to feel how everything is taken away from you. Where are they working now . They are working at places like panda express, chickfila. Places where we are super grateful these organizations have given them jobs but certainly they are so incredibly qualified to be in positions across the department of defense, the different intergovernmental agencies. There is a need. We have a recruiting crisis, we have those seeking to join the u. S. Military and we have a need for them. The military wants them. They would be perfect at the pentagon and the top Senior Leaders say they want them to join. But every time we go to investigate, without a green card they cant join. Without asylum paperwork, why is this a National Security issue . For a couple reasons at some point in the future we are going to go to war again. It is a question of when and where, we will need allies. Who will stand with us. If this is how we treat our allies who stand beside us after 20 years of war, this is not going unnoticed. Al jazeera came out with an article talking about the challenges, afghans that stood beside us and are in the United States now, you can be certain that russia and china are talking about this as well. This is something that is playing to their advantage, it has been published in Chinese State run newspapers. They talk about how this reveals the true nature of the United States, we make false promises, we dont follow through, we dont take care of our allies. It is so dangerous about that is against the heart of what is our unique superpower in terms of our standing in the world. Yes we have a great military but what is really our secret is our alliance system. That alliance is based on the trust that we have built up. It is based on our reputation. What we are doing i continuing to not fix this problem is we are undermining our alliances. We are undermining the trust we have spent decades building on. At some point, if it has not already that is going to catch up with us and it is going to hurt us and we need to get this done now. Host what does the afghan adjustment act do . What would it accomplish . The afghan adjustment act would essentially expand the eligibility of visas. When it was originally thought of it was done with interpreters in mind. If you had a direct contract with the u. S. Government or a u. S. Contractor, this would expand eligibility beyond that scope. It would make more veterans of the Afghan Military eligible. Host one of the problems is the ftps were not translators so technically they did not fall under the special immigrant visas category. Because they were soldiers. So the act was not written for them. Show less that is correct it was written at a time when we were still in afghanistan, we have not taken the necessary steps to update that law to reflect current reality. Host so they really need a waiver or this afghan adjustment act in order to fasttrack or even just keep moving their application. Right. If and when that becomes law that would expand eligibility so that they would be eligible to get that visa and green card. Host i would like to take a moment if i could and call a lifeline to renata because renata has been working for the past two years diligently and not enough has been said about the volunteerism and the amount of time, renata is a lawyer that worked at dhs for most of her career. She has tried to navigate the system and how you have gotten 11 across the finish line in terms of asylum. Explain to us how the system is working, where the holdup is, and what do we need to understand in terms of how to fix this problem . Show the system is clearly not working. We applied for asylum for all of the ftps well over a year, now it will be one year. There was an executive order that was put out by the Current Administration that committed to adjudicating these operations, allies welcome to asylum within 150 days. That was the timeframe that the Current Administration put out that they were going to endeavor to do. I regulation and by law they are supposed to be adjudicating asylum applications within 180 days. But for some sort of extenuating circumstance. My opinion is that the current applications are caught up in what is a background vetting nightmare. That the multiple agencies that are involved in that process have not been able to remedy and fix in any way that is satisfactory. Or that answers any of these questions. Show host which is so unacceptable because to even be on a military base in afghanistan they had to be vetted by the fbi. They have their biometrics. The taliban have their biometrics. So why cant the u. S. Government take their biometrics, match them up, talk to the commanders. There needs to be communication. There needs to be interagency communication to resolve this problem. I want to make a point that is important. The parole process and temporary protected status process are not substitutes for a permanent status grant for members of the female platoon or other members of the afghan community. Those pathways do not provide permanent status in the United States the same way that asylum does, the same way that the afghan adjustment act would. The government has now reauthorized parole that cannot be a substitute for the kind of relief we are asking for. Parole was used, humanitarian parole was used at the time of the 70,000 coming to the u. S. Because it was such a race to get people into the country and so they use that humanitarian parole but now two years later it is just dragging on as a bandaid. It is not providing them the ability to work, to support their families, to go to school and get on with their lives. Host what was it like, what have you heard from your sisters going through the asylum interviews . How are you treated by the u. S. Government . For the few teepees ftps, with the interview my interview was short. But the other girls, they talk about their interviews and said our interview actually took three hours and they asked a lot of questions. One of them even complained that the officer, as a soldier in afghanistan they use weapons and we did not know how to use a weapon or Something Like that. They asked a lot of questions regarding this issue