on the instalment plan. at every point along the way over the last 20 years, we made decisions about what troops would or would not do in afghanistan, how many troops there would be, where they would be, what their mission would be, but at the core of this, israeli pakistan, you know, the taliban are not independent actors, to call this an insurgency, is really, i think, misspoken. it s really a proxy war, and without an effective pakistan policy to punish pakistan for continuing to support the taliban as well as the haqqani network and other militant groups that pakistan uses to prosecute as palestinian afghanistan, we re pretty much doomed to see a return of the taliban. sorry to interrupt you there, but you probably know, joe biden has said that he sees that the whole thing isjustified in as much as afghanistan can t once again become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against
first of all, thank you for having me, and the short answer is no. i have been a very long standing and vocal critic of just about everything that the united states has done in afghanistan. you know, this was, to call it what it is bluntly, a defeat and it was a defeat that was purchased on the instalment plan. at every point along the way over the last 20 years, we made decisions about what troops would or would not do in afghanistan, how many troops there would be, where they would be, what their mission would be, but at the core of this, israeli pakistan, you know, the taliban are not independent actors, to call this an insurgency, is really, i think, misspoken. it s really a proxy war, and without an effective pakistan policy to punish pakistan for continuing to support the taliban as well as the haqqani network and other militant groups that pakistan uses to prosecute as palestinian afghanistan, we re pretty much doomed to see a return of the taliban.