we re doing there is thousands of troops are still in afghanistan because the military is trying to create a secure government in which the afghan government can stand up, the u.s. troops are there in support of the afghan government and security forces so the country doesn t fall again to the taliban like they did before 9/11. i think that s the basic idea we all have as americans as to what we are doing in afghanistan. but into the middle of that fight yesterday, the new administration decided to roll out a gigantic super bomb that had never been used before in combat. the united states has had these megabomb gbu-43/bs, mother of all bombs for 14 years. they cost about $16 million each. no other commander in chief has ever seen the need to use one before now. but yesterday, they decided to roll one out in afghanistan.
at the pentagon tonight. good evening, when the u.s. air force tested this bomb in 2003, the club that resulted reached 10,000 feet in the air. this weapon was designed for the iraq war but never used on the battlefield until the day. we have the greatest military in the world, and they ve done their job as usual. at 7:32:00 a.m., they drop the largest nonnuclear weapon in the u.s. military has ever used in combat. the gbu-43, a 21,000-pound bomb known as the mother of all bombs are massive ordnance air blast. described a complex of isis tunnels. we targeted a system of tunnels and caves that mattis fighters used to move around freely. the united states takes the fight against isis very seriously, and we must deny them operational space, which we did. singh the top general in
they have another bomb much larger than that one to penetrate if you need to to get underground. it has a concussive effect and collapses the tunnel. this is a bad guy area, to be sure. this is giving the afghan forces and the americans in the area problems for over a decade, this province area. this particular bomb, this gbu-43 as it s called, replaced another one from the vietnam era called a daisy cutter. you know, when you re talking about a commander, i m going to channel some of my former combat commander status on this, you literally look when you target areas, it s something called a joint munitions employment manual. it s a guide for your targets to say, this is the target, this is the kind of situation we have, what kind of weapons should we drop on this, this is a perfect kind of thing. it s a tactical system, though, and we shouldn t get all breathless about this being something that president trump ordered. because this was something commander on the scene wanted to drop i
they re doing. frankly, that despite evidence of success publicly. president trump talking about the optimization of the tropic of the moab. the technical term, the massive ordnance air blast, also nicknamed the mother of all bombs. 11 tons of explosives. they dropped it in afghanistan going after fighters in tunnels and caves in the nangarhar province. a testing video, and it is, it does send a message, nor what you think about it, it is a massive blast. we don t know the damage that it caused in that area, but we do know it does send a message, not only in afghanistan but also around the world, and this comes as foreign policy is leading the day with president trump and let s bring in our panel. charles hurt, opinion editor for the washington times. kristin salty sanderson,
wikileaks, i love wikileaks. boy, that wikileaks has done a job on her, hasn t it? this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. joining us now, malcolm nance, msnbc counterterrorism and intelligence analyst. david corn, washington bureau chief for mother jones and an msnbc political analyst. and david frump, senior editor. i want to talk about the massive bomb that was dropped today and your interpretation of its use and what you think it might have been able to achieve in that usage. well, the gbu-43 is really just an area destruction device. it s designed to make a big blast over pressure. a lot of earthquaking, knock down tunnel, destroy people and tunnels that are out in the field. it s just another bomb. and i think people are sort of looking over the fact that it was dropped in a combat zone. a b-52 carrying 32 j-dam bombs