it was trump that made that promise. decided that talking to the taliban was the right thing to do. he set a deadline, whichjoe biden actually pushed back, because he thought it was too soon. so if you're going to blame all of this on weakness showed over afghanistan, that's on donald trump. well, i don't think so. i think many presidents have tried to get out of there. i think it was the way it was done, stephen, more than anything, and trump would have had conditions on the ground. i don't think he would have had an unconditional surrender to the taliban, or given up bagram air base. i was in favour of the residual force to, you know, protect the region and the homeland. having said that, it did project weakness, and irrespective of afghanistan, this waiver of the nord stream ii pipeline — no european country that agrees with this other than germany, whose chancellor, former chancellor schroeder, is the lobbyist for