verge of get the routed by the taliban. u.s. forces would step into the fight. killed in afghanistan since then. to this day the pentagon claims there is no combat mission in afghanistan. the facts on the ground speak completely different story. >> bret: arguably the marines and soldiers who were suiting up to go in and try to rescue american civilians and get them out of afghanistan, that is a combat mission; however you look at it. >> they have to be ready for that i don't think they are going in there to conduct offensive operations against the taliban. they are going from to try and protect u.s. citizens and get them out. but, you know, they are going in armed and they will fire if they need to to protect people, no question. >> bret: i only have a few seconds left here, greg. what do you think the lesson from afghanistan is after almost 20 years? >> you know, there is a lot of lessons, the biggest one is uberous. the u.s. government across four administrations really thought they could build up an afghan government in their own image