needed, those are important, but even more important, does this indicate that isis is now starting to find those weak spots in our military operations overseas and starting to get away from the caliphate and more towards the small-scale, very lethal types of operations. that s probably the most important thing i would want to know. that is a bigger, broader question and the impact on our military. elliott, one of the questions that still doesn t have an answer of the many is the force is if the forces conducting the evacuation did a head count as they were pulling out, does that surprise you they don t know that yet? i would imagine they certainly did do a head count but, you know, in the chaos of that situation, and depending on the way the forces were exfill rated they might have been exfiltrated in waves and sometimes it can be difficult in the heat of something like that, a fire fight of that intensity,
we re going to stay until the afghan government can stand on its own and not necessarily artificial numbers. any reason to think that s any time soon? no, it s probably not. we re probably going to be there for a while. joining me is elliott ackerman, a decorated marine corps veteran who served multiple tours. he s a writer based in the middle east and the writer of green on blue. elliott, welcome. good to see you. you are the perfect person to talk to about this given your vast experience. when you look at the situation on the ground, the state of the afghan army and state of al qaeda and now isis, is this the right move? i think at this juncture it s the right move but we as a nation are in a space where we re having to redefine what have been our classical conceptions of war and peace. in 2015 the afghan war was still going on. five u.s. service members were killed in afghanistan this year. that s five too many, but it s a
the fighting but supporting the afghan government that is actively engaged in the fighting. to pull all the plugs and go home, it s an enormous rusk and it s going to leave a vacuum. the question is, who fills that vacuum? elliott ackerman, thank you. donald trump is sticking to his guns insisting if he d been president, 9/11 never would have happened. we ve got your round-up of political headline flps. and larry david s impression of bernie sanders last night on snl. i m the only candidate up here who is not a billionaire. i don t have a superpac. i don t even have a backpack. i carry my stuff around loose in my arms like a professional, you know, between classes. i own one pair of underwear. that s it. but demand for our cocktail bitters was huge. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us.
the apprentice. i m extremely tough on people coming into this country. i believe if i were running things, i doubt that those people would have been in the country. i m not blaming george bush, but i don t want jeb bush to say my brother kept us safe because september 11th was one of the worst days in the history of this country. hillary clinton returns to capitol hill thursday to testify in a hearing. this will come a week after huma abedin sat down with committee members for more than six hours. this morning benghazi committee chair trey gowdy addressed accusations from both sides of the aisle that the committee was set up to go after hillary clinton. there s no evidence. there are three people who don t know what they re talking about. the two republicans members of the congress have never asked for an update on our committee. they couldn t tell you a single document production we ve received, and the former staffer left in june. he has no idea what we ve done sin
trust me. but at least you re dressed not like a clown today. i m happy. how is my show? your show is great. am i in it? my new usa show debuted in the fall. mika is a love interest. is that howism being cast? a secret from us. i m in his show. i didn t know i was a love interest. nice way of putting it. really? oh, god. we ll talk. so dorian is here with us and richard engel. on capitol hill senior political editor for the huffington post sam stein. we re going to get to your interview with president obama in a moment sam. good job on that. but first, a disturbing report of an isis hit list surfaced over the weekend urging sympathizers to kill american soldiers. a group claiming allegiance at islamic state has published names, pictures and alleged addresses of active and retired military personnel online. the group claimed 100 americans carried out air strikes against isis targets in iraq and syria and that they should be killed as a result. defense officials