Inside Uncle Sam's Kabul Debacle

Brut India

Were the Americans right about what's going on in Afghanistan ever?

Transcript

00:00Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?

00:04No, it is not.

00:06Your own intelligence community has assessed that the Afghan government will likely collapse.

00:11That is not true.

00:12The likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything

00:16and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.

01:00Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan inevitable?

01:06No, it is not.

01:08Your own intelligence community has assessed that the Afghan government will likely collapse.

01:14That is not true.

01:16The likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything

01:20and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.

01:24Your own intelligence community has assessed that the Afghan government will likely collapse.

01:58The United States did what we want to do in Afghanistan, to get the terrorists who attacked

02:21us on 9-11 and deliver justice to Osama bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat

02:28to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base from which attacks could be continued against the

02:33United States.

02:35We achieved those objectives.

02:37That's why we went.

02:39We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build.

02:43And it's the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their

02:48future and how they want to run their country.

02:51Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?

02:55No, it is not.

02:59Because you have the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped, as well-equipped as any army

03:06in the world, and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban.

03:13It is not inevitable.

03:15You trust the Taliban, sir?

03:18Is that a serious question?

03:19It's absolutely a serious question.

03:21You trust the Taliban?

03:22Oh, I do not.

03:23You trust the Taliban to take over the country to the Taliban?

03:24No, I do not trust the Taliban.

03:26Mr. President, will you amplify that question, please?

03:29Will you amplify your answer, please, why you don't trust the Taliban?

03:32It's a silly question.

03:33Do I trust the Taliban?

03:35No.

03:36But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and

03:41more competent in terms of conducting war.

03:45Your own intelligence community has assessed that the Afghan government will likely collapse.

03:50That is not true.

03:52Can you please clarify what they have told you about whether that will happen or not?

03:56That is not true.

03:58They did not reach that conclusion.

04:01The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army.

04:06They're not remotely comparable in terms of capability.

04:09There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of

04:14an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.

04:18Will the United States be responsible for the loss of Afghan civilian lives that could

04:23happen after a military exit?

04:25No, no, no.

04:28It's up to the people of Afghanistan to decide on what government they want, not us to impose

04:34the government on them.

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