Page 623 - Bases News Today

That we have to fight our way through and we have no bases in the region with afghanistan surrendered by a russia and iran and china and former russia client states. we have nothing to go back into so the intelligence is crystal clear if they hasnt been wasnt clear are being disingenuous. steve: thats a polite way but when biden said july 8 the intelligence said to him when it was put to him that if you do this the afghan government will collapse and biden said no, that is not what the intellige...

That was one advantage for the taliban, is that they have bases, safe zones outside of the country in pakistan. i want to ask you this. because you will hear from a lot of people, including the biden administration, we have no choice. end the endless wars, weve heard that before and we had to get out. but is that true? could the u.s. have kept a relatively small military footprint there and avoiding this? and would that have been in our interest? >> absolutely. all we had to do when the taliban ...

Of days. the entireity of the biden administration strategy was predicated on having the window of time to complete the military withdrawal. we didnt even get to the beginning of that withdrawal until the taliban were in the presidential palace. every stage, we underestimated the taliban, overestimated the afghan government and what were seeing right now is the consequences of that failure to appreciate the magnitude of the situation. jillian: americas top general, general mark mille, he was on ...

Escape, it seems shocking that president biden could have been so wrong. >> you had a really massive intelligence failure here that the u.s. did not realize how quickly the taliban could take over. >> i mean, joe, this is not our typical conversation where were talking about taking sides. it seems like everyone is in agreement, that this was completely mishandled. >> sure, and we saw general jack keane of this network over the weekend making a great point, other military analysts on tv as well i...

Interest. >> mr. secretary, blinken seems to be saying this was the least of all bad options, what were watching right now. >> well, youre right in the fact that there were no good options. but lets go back to 2014, jim. i was secretary of defense at the time. thats when president obama said americas combat role, our mission is over. we pulled out tens of thousands of troops. we closed hundreds of bases, and president obama said, every president has said before and after obama, were not going to...

>> translator: yes, many times we attacked this base when america was here. we did operations. we were using ieds. the americans had their helicopters, weapons and tanks on the ground. the mujahedin resisted very well. >> now they roam through whats left of the tactical operations center. anything of value will be stripped down and sold. walk you through whats left of these american bases, you have to ask yourself what was it all for? americas great experiment with nation building now vanished i...

Strength. in the last week, really, its been this remarkable spread throughout the country. but they have been planning for this moment. as soon as u.s. troops started leaving, closing down their bases, the taliban swept in and the afghan government has all but disappeared. >> well, if it was a corrupt shell then why did we spend so much money on it? did we know it was corrupt when we were investing in it? >> we did. we didnt want to level with the public the degree of the corruption just how ba...

Even after 20 years of support of the military it collapsed. so maybe its on us as well. heres a helicopter. were not going to show you every single one because its been constant. but the shock when the u.s. pulled out of bagram air base, bagram air base was taken back by the taliban. they freed the prisoners outside of kabul. when the military pulled out of bagram, without properly informing those who were to take over the base and turning off the power so the afghans couldnt figure out how to ...

Several years ago. but all along the afghan government weve tried to prop up and train their security forces, we spent billions and billions of dollars on turned out to be a corrupt shell incapable of remaining in power on its own and fending off the taliban. so all these years the taliban has been slowly gaining power. so we have been gaining military strength. in the last week, really, its been this remarkable spread throughout the country. but they have been planning for this moment. as soon ...

Spring, in may. and right from the beginning there was just -- the air force and afghan commandos who were resisting and both of those are quite small units relative to the big army that the u.s. trained and equipped. so i dont know why the u.s. military would have thought that it could have lasted another couple of months when very early on, entire divisions were falling. and then war is all psychological. its about momentum and the taliban got the momentum and they broke the morale of the afgh...