and admits what is a tragedy there, perhaps it is callus to talk about the influence around the world. but when the u.s. seemed to abandon allies, that has a consequence for the united states and for u.s. security. clearly it did. you have british mp s in parliament looking at a non-u.s.-led mission to stop a humanitarian disaster and a full scale civil war. allies of the united states, close allies of the united states are now effectively saying the u.s. cannot be relied on because of is happening in afghanistan. that is a problem for america. it is clearly first and foremost a problem for people in afghanistan. 3,000 troops were holding the peace there. they were making life tolerable for thousands of afghanistans and america have lost forces on a large scale over the course of the last couple of years.
no, what i meant is that the optical problem was the speed with which it is happening. this is a terrible situation and not what anyone would have wanted. and by the way, the administration has talked over and over about its efforts to help translators, to help humanitarian workers and those of us, i m sure all of us are on the the screen have been to afghanistan and saw the incredible work that afghans did and service of american troops and american humanitarian organizations. yes, we have to stand by them. we have to do our best and we re trying to. that is a terrible situation. but, again, i come back to this idea that if we agree that our time in afghanistan has come to an end, after 20 years, instead of fighting a 20 year war, we were fighting 20 one-year wars and it is time to withdraw. they were advising president obama to do back in 2009 and
congresswoman chrissy houlahan, former congresswoman donna edwards, thank you both so much for starting us off today on a day like this. i m grateful. john heilemann is sticking around with us. when we return we will be joined by former cia director john brennan and retired four star general mccaffrey to talk to them about how we failed to see this coming. the speed with which the taliban has advanced has surprised everyone as we brace for the fall of the afghan government. plus, the urgent need nor the january 6th committee to investigate not just what happened on that day but the flood of new details we are learning about the disgraced ex-president s pressure campaign to overturn an election he lost. what we know about how long we can expect the delta variant to circulate in this country from other countries where it has already left as the white house marks the biggest vaccination day in more than a month. that s good news. deadline: white house continues after a quick bre
be good actors. they were posturing they would come to the table and negotiate a peace settlement. they obviously haven t done that. we have the opportunity to try to hold their feet to the fire on these issues by not recognizing their government, amongst other things. but we also have an obligation to the people of afghanistan, many of whom, as we have all been talking about, women and children. many of those women are some of the most powerful allies we ve had in the 20 years in afghanistan who have really been on the front lines in many ways, fighting for us and for their country. so it is complicated. it is an enormously complicated situation, but as we stepped into this conversation we all recognize it is something that the american people would like. it is the appetite of the american people to do this and to move forward on this, and it is our responsibility as leaders to do it as respectfully and responsibly as we possibly can. donna, a senior white house official said to me
what we re concerned about. both of the candidates for american president in 2020 were for getting out of afghanistan. the white house, and john kirby made this clear, too, the last president made a deal to get out in may. why are we so surprised with how quickly the taliban has taken over the country? was there a problem with the intelligence? surely we knew how capable or incapable the afghan security forces were, and i wonder where your head is on those two points? happy friday, nicolle. not a happy one in a lot of ways seeing this unfold. i think that the decision, the starting point is, as you and donna point out, is that this president and the former president were both aligned with where american public opinion is on this, on the question of continuing the war in