business of nation building, and it s worked. sometimes we have been in the nation building business and it hasn t worked, the bottom line is arguably, where is afghanistan today, compared to when we went in? in terms of nation building, if you will, it s vastly better. women and girls have real rights, there 1 million of afghan children in schools. medical capabilities and access for tens of millions of people, life expectancy has gone from the mid forties to the late sixties. an extraordinary set of accomplishments. we did it, ali, not just for the altruistic reason that it is good to help other countries, we did it because that is counter insurgency want to one. you build up a society and therefore they re less inclined to go with the insurgents. at the end of today, all those gains could be washed away, in
afghanistan. i hear your the point laura. the president campaigned directly in 2016 not just on repeal and replace and trade and tariffs, he said we re not the world s policeman. he was honest about that in terms of syria and afghanistan which is now the longest war ever. laura: 17 years. men and women guys, everyone has to reframe. we re watching schumer with his glasses down on the end of his nose, we re supposed to think he s really serious about this. remember what donald trump campaigned on. let s watch. president trump: we re getting out of the nation building business. our moments of greatest strength came when politics ended at the water s edge. we have created the vacuums that have allowed terrorism to grow and thrive. i want to help all of our allies but we are losing billions and billions of dollars. we cannot be the policemen of the world.
pulling out, and not just repeal and replace, in the trade and the tariffs. but he also said, they were not the world s policeman. he was honest about that. 17 years. everyone is a refrain. we are watching schumer with his glasses down on the end of his nose and thinking is really serious. remember what donald trump campaigned on. watch. president trump: we are gettingut of the nation building business. we have evacuated terrorism to grow and thrive. i want to help all of our allies, but we are losing billions and billions of dollars. we cannot be the policeman of
go into the nation building business as it did in iraq and afghanistan and i d imagine that policy holds for syria. what appetite is there for doing the work of nation building that was not done in other arenas that kind of set a fertile ground for the growth of groups like isis? that s the cloud hanging over the foreign policy of this administration and what brings all of us together and if you re not going to be consistent, you put aside one element of historic u.s. influence. if you decide not to get involved with something like the marshall plan, then you butt aside another tool. to the extent that trump critics have always said that this administration is unwinding american power, financial influence, our retreat from the
not active any longer and is basically defeated in iraq and syria, specifically in iraq. we heard a new figure coming out of the baghdad government there. they re saying it s going to take $100 billion to fix up the cities, the towns that have been occupied, fought over and destroyed by isis in the north and the west of that country. mosul, the main city that saw so much damage, they re saying they could use the $100 billion themselves. the hitch is, the trump administration is saying that it won t pony up anything near to what is needed towards that figure. iraq is hoping the rich gulf neighbors will get involved. the u.n. is involved in repairing some of the structure. we ve seen the damage up close. it s horrific and monumental. in the words recently of secretary of state rex tillerson, the u.s. is no longer in the nation building business. in this case, rebuilding.