00:00And so, Erin, Daily Caller.
00:02Thank you, Sean.
00:03Will the Department of Defense commit to firing or otherwise disciplining any remaining leadership
00:08that were directly involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal?
00:11So we're in the process of figuring out what that investigation will look like, but I'll
00:17tell you as somebody who served in Afghanistan and watched that unfold, I mean, I was horrified
00:25in a lot of ways.
00:27You think about how much time and blood and treasure and American life that was lost in
00:31Afghanistan over 20 years.
00:33You think about that for a second.
00:35I'm 43 years old.
00:36This country was at war in Afghanistan for 20 years.
00:39So almost half of my life, this country was at war in Afghanistan.
00:45And I personally watched, you know, the men in my platoon, but also my larger brigade
00:50combat team, which was a part of the 10th Mountain Division, 3rd Brigade.
00:54We bled the ground red in Afghanistan, and I watched my men do extraordinary things in
01:01support of a grateful nation and in support of the mission there.
01:05And to watch Afghanistan be surrendered in the way that it was, was extremely difficult.
01:13And I think something that President Trump and Secretary Hexeth really understand is
01:19that when America makes a decision to get involved in any conflict, we have a moral
01:27obligation to have a clear-cut end state to what that operation looks like, a clear exit
01:33strategy to what that operation looks like, and to make sure that victory is clearly defined.
01:39And I think in Iraq and certainly in Afghanistan over the last 20-some years, I think maybe
01:46we've struggled a little bit with those finer points.
01:49But I'll say that President Trump and Secretary Hexeth, they understand that when America
01:54gets involved in a fight, it's our job to also end that fight as fast as humanly possible
01:58because we have a moral obligation to win and win decisively.
02:03Otherwise, you're going to have an entire generation of American warriors wondering
02:08what the hell it was all for.
02:10And I know, listen, I know that every day I wake up and I draw breath, I think about
02:17the men who I served with who were my friends who never came home from that fight.
02:20I've lost 30 friends in my support of the Afghan war, 30.
02:26And you ask yourself, you look yourself in the mirror, you ask yourself, what do we have
02:29to show for it?
02:31Not a whole lot.
02:32And so your question of will those, will people be held accountable, I think we have an obligation
02:38both to the American people and to the American warfighters who fought in Afghanistan to hold
02:44the leadership accountable in some way.
02:46Now we don't know what that looks like right now, but to hold the leadership that was in
02:49charge of the Afghan withdrawal accountable, because look, if you have a private that loses
02:54a sensitive item that loses night vision goggles, it loses a weapon.
02:58You can bet that that private is going to be held accountable.
03:00The same and equal standards must apply to senior military leaders.
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