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Art of war in the age of peace. we heard jake sullivan over the weekend, putting at least some of the bring on the military for bagram being close, saying that they used kabul rather than bagram. but they didn't have much of a choice because president biden did not allow them to put enough forces there to keep bagram open and to have hamid karzai operating, as well. >> i think you are right to think about the requirements for patrolling and otherwise protecting a large base like bagram on your own. we used to think about this back in the day on various research trips to afghanistan, trying to ...

On bagram, for example. the president is fond of saying now the military commanders say that bagram field said it wouldn't be much use. mark milley said it was ant tack call support. why was that? as milley testified or as he said in a news conference on august 18, he said the mission was to protect the embassy. obviously the embassy is in kabul. there was no thought that you would add forces to keep bagram open. he wanted -- what biden wanted was forces out. they had to surge forces in to kabul to protect the embassy they hoped, which failed obviously. but it was the nature of the mission giv...

The president is fond of saying now the military commanders say that bagram field said itf wouldn't be much use. mark milley said it was ant tack -- tactful reasons, it wasn't much support. why was that? as milley testified or as he said in a news conference on august 18, he said the mission was t to protect the embassy. obviously the embassy is in kabul.on there was no thought that you would add forces to keep bagram open. he wanted -- what biden wanted was forces out. they had to surge forces in to kabul to protect the embassy they hoped, which failed obviously. but it was the nature of the ...

Flipped sides is not all that surprising, is it? couldn't we have kept bagram open longer and put a higher priority into an evacuation and a well-planned evacuation? >> looking back on it now, yes, there should have been better preparation and planning and i must tell you that the retro grade of thousands of the u.s. military and doing that safe and securely is an immensely complex exfort. you have to coordinate with the host government officials as well as air lanes and partners, i think that defeat, and coordination and cooperation did not go as smoothly as was hoped, and i do think that the...

Paperwork and we don't have enough resources to get it done. was it a mistake? was there a lesson learned from closing bagram when they did. >> when you talk about a operation like this, poppy, you very much attempt to centralize things primarily because of the force requirements. had we kept bagram, kandahar, sharif, you could go on and on and the number of air fields that were available that could potentially be hubs for evacuations, you're talking about an requirement for force protection, processing and troops available. 2500 troops were in afghanistan when this operation started as a resu...