past. the fourth reason is we are right next door to who we say is our principle great power in china. we should stay in afghanistan from a military professional s point of view. i understand from a citizen s point of view this is getting old and extremely old with no potential success involved with it, but there s two ways to look at this. last question to you on that sobering note. andrew, you covered capitol hill impeachment hearings taking up a lot of oxygen. when i was down there i know for the first hearing there were no votes. other work continues on capitol hill. right. there were those who would agree with what the colonel is saying. they would believe there is a need to stay there, we need to do this right, et cetera. how much of that conversation is happening on capitol hill? it s the idea of walking and chewing gum at the same time. democrats can do both, focus on impeachment at the same time whereas republicans who i talk to who regularly speak with the
trumpification which is when donald trump takes the military, associates it with himself, his own brand and then allows it to subvert the rule of law. so we re watching donald trump make the military something that is completely above reproach just like his white house and that is something that we don t do in the united states of america. we don t make institutions that are above reproach. we can like them very much but everybody, everybody has to pay attention to the rule of law in this country, and that is a very scary thing. that s beyond politics, at least politics as we know it. that s like some banana republic stuff. let me turn back to the colonel here. what do you make of that? i think it s spot on, absolutely spot on. what we have in afghanistan right now is the same thing we had in vietnam when i left in 1970. we don t have a legitimate government in kabul, not to the majority of people in afghanistan. what we have is a government
kurdish allies. so now we re looking at and trump is saying that isis is defeated is just poppycock. isis has metastasized. it s in sudan, nigeria, eritrea and it s turning into an al qaeda-like outfit which is very dangerous. they have a global capability. they can strike anywhere. yes, we and the iranians and syrian main forces defeated the caliphate but we haven t even captured ali akbar baghdadi, the osama bin laden of isis. trump is dealing in a dream world of his own political making. it helps to have some experience in the world and with foreign policy if you ll be president. and we re seeing that now. colonel lawrence wilkerson, always great to talk with you. and coming up the chief law enforcement officer of the united states is ripping down the wall between church and state because, of course. that s next. urclean,
by the roadside as they shout allahu akbar and proudly saying film me, film me. multiple u.s. officials say the video and photographs appear genuine. the turkish-backed militias which u.s. officials say include al qaeda and isis supporters, are also apparently taking prisoners. kurdish officials say turkey is on a campaign to ethnically cleanse kurds off their land. turkey is defending its operation saying its targets are kurdish fighters who turkey designated as terrorists. the situation on the ground is deteriorating rapidly. joining me is colonel wilkerson, former chief of staff to secretary of state colon powell. i wonder what you make of the fact that this decision was made by the president without consulting his national security team. funny you should ask that,