why he didn t resign. had he resigned over that disagreement, then that would have actually struck a blow for civilian control, would it not? well, i mean, his answer i thought was interesting to that. he said to resign would have been a political act and i am a military man. yeah. and then he said very movingly my dad didn t get to resign at iwo jima. that kids at abbey gate didn t get to resign, they didn t have that choice and i don t, either. i thought that was a good straight up answer from the general. so where do we go from here in counterterrorism? because when you look at what happened in our initial strike, it didn t it turned out we didn t get that right. why shouldn t that lead us to question whether an over the horizon strategy is worthy and do you really think we re going to be using russian bases to launch counterterrorism strikes into afghanistan? so, you know, over the
based on what they call pattern of life. they re basically looking at a vehicle they believed had some association with an sizis safe house and watching this vehicle using overhead surveillance drones to see it s going here, there, we think we can build a pattern that suggests that this is a suspect. that this is a legitimate target for a counterterrorism strike. but at the end of the day by the time the missile was launched, they didn t actually definitively know the identity of the target. they just built this pattern of life that they believed suggested that he was isis. the flimsy clues as i think you said in your story. working off what they could without more assets on the ground. that is the future of counterterrorism afghanistan. one of the things we heard repeatedly from former intelligence officials and even current officials we re talking to now if this strike went so badly while the united states still has a presence on the ground, what does that say for the biden admin
made by the previous administration. it was made by donald trump. and the flaws of that deal, which called for an immediate exit of all u.s. troops with no lingering presence, with a limited way to do counterterrorism strikes in the future, those were from the previous administration, that agreement. and people should just keep that longer lens both offered by julian and by matt dowd as we process all the things that you, colonel jack, have talked about. it is a complicated picture. we ll look forward to the rest of president biden s interview with george stephanopolous and continue to follow this with all your help. julian barnes, colonel jack jacobs, thank you for starting us off this hour. matt dowd sticking around. when we return, much more on the breaking news of last hour. president biden calling out in some of the most direct terms to date those red state governors amid rising coronavirus cases in their states.
even with u.s. troops all but gone from afghanistan, the biden administration still hasn t finalized its policy for pursuing terrorists inside the country once the last troops have departed. this comes as the wall street journal is reporting taliban fighters have already taken control of dozens of new districts since the u.s. abandoned an air base last week. let s head to the pentagon and oren liebermann. isn t time running out for the administration to make decisions about this policy? reporter: effectively, yes, there s a matter of weeks left million the u.s. is done with the withdrawal of forces from afghanistan. the clock is ticking. u.s. military leaders made it clear they ll continue counterterrorism strikes on suspected terrorists planning attacks against the u.s. homeland or the homeland of allies. but the policies, the procedures, the approvals around
from afghanistan by the september 11th deadline has the cia scrambling. this is according to a new report in the new york times. in the times they say it s creating intense pressure on the cia to find new ways to gather intelligence and carry out counterterrorism strikes in the country. joining me now is one of the new york times reporters who is behind the story, mark mazzetti. he s washington investigative correspondent at the times and a national security analyst. this is interesting. i love how you lay this out. tell us why the cia is in a bind. for about 20 years they ve used a large military presence in afghanistan kind of as a cover do their operations, to gather intelligence, do various counterterrorism strikes, use bases along the eastern border to go into pakistan, and with the military leaving, they no