Page 1020 - Capability News Today

>> reporter: and they did, david. we have heard over the years, you heard it, too, the military touting the capability of the afghan forces, but after 20 years, $83 billion, they just laid down their rifles in many instances. this is something the u.s. is going to have to take a hard look at to see what was wrong with that training. david? >> martha raddatz with us all day long here. martha, ian, stephanie, thank you. and our coverage of afghanistan will continue on "nightline" and first thing i...

Ground, what would you advise the american military to do right now in terms of -- put on the military hat and say what is the best way in this worst-case scenario to get out of it and make sure that the loss of life is minimized? >> weve got to secure the airport and create some order there and assurance that everybody there is going to be able to get out. thats the first thing we need to do. second thing to do diplomatically is reach out to the authorities within the taliban and others like pr...

Tough questions. ive asked this administration for months, when are you going to get the interpreters out, when are you going to get our afghan partners out of there, when are you going to have isr intelligence capability out of the country? they have done none of this and now its a scramble to the airport and none of the planes are flying out right now, its essentially closed down. i think this could be worse than saigon itself. >> now, they are saying that if there had been a residual force le...

Capability going dark. no isr capability. our embassy now being taken over and the visual of the taliban flag being hoisted above our embassy, thats a visual and an image that i think will be very damaging to a lot of americans and the american people and the afghan people are the losers and the winners are russia, china and iran. >> you were in yesterdays briefing by the defense secretary, the secretary of state, the chairman of the joint chiefs for house members. did you get any answers on why...

Capability. there is going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the united states from afghanistan. the likelihood there is going to be the taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. steve: well, he was wrong about all that stuff. brian: not even close to right. steve: apparently "the washington post" did a story this morning at 3:00 in the morning. and it tells the story behind the scenes in the situation room...

Said only five weeks ago, its pretty clear that he did not see this coming. he said on july 8th that there was no way that you were going to see a hurried departure from the american embassy in afghanistan. he said that he believed that the afghan security forces were far stronger and far more capable than the taliban. that may have been the case, but they didnt use that capability. they basically picked up and surrendered. and thus an event that biden thought he had maybe 18 months to worry abo...

Al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. al nusr in syria. isis attempting to create a califfate and syria and iraq and establishing affiliates in multiple countries in africa and asia. these threats warrant our attention and our resources. we conduct effective counterterrorism missions in terrorist groups in multiple countries where we dont have permanent military presence. if necessary, well do the same in afghanistan. weve developed counterterrorism over the rising capability that will allow us to ...

The trouble is that theres a big difference between having the capability to defend yourself and having the will to defend yourself and the afghans did not have the will to do it. and in addition to that, the military and just about any professional organization always has the capability when presented with an opportunity to do something, to say they can give enough resources. they can do it. can you do this mission? yeah, we can do this mission if you give us enough resources. unfortunately, th...

With a dependency on not just the american military but american contractors and nato support. and so when we left without the capability that theyd come to rely on, they lacked the will because they didnt know that they could carry this into the fight against the taliban that had been hardened through decades of battle. so hes basically making the judgment that look, if we stayed inevitably we were going to be mired in what was an ongoing civil war. it was an ongoing civil war. and that that is...

0 that they are the ones that have protected our nation for the past two decades by taking the fight to the terrorists in iraq and afghanistan, and not allowing them to attack our homeland. and, unfortunately, we see the resurgence of the taliban and the reconstitution of al qaeda in afghanistan. so i worry about the homeland. but that is the very first thing that our president needs to communicate is to these brave men and women, a heartfelt thank you. the second thing is how are we going to ev...