what he is doing. support him vigorously. eugene, what do you make of that sentiment? well, i think his line about republicans feeling no shame and democrats feeling shame too quickly is certainly right. we ve seen it time and time again. and i think there s a bottom line question. do you or do you not think it was time for the united states to leave afghanistan after 20 years? should we have stayed or should we have left? if you think we should have stayed, don t have to say for how much longer. but if you think we should have stayed, then maybe you have a point to make. if you agree with the basic premise that we should have left, then i think president biden, maybe he sounds defensive, maybe he sounds self-justifying but i think he s right. i think there s no graceful way to lose this war.
all means necessary to help local officials enact those measures. well, with that, let s introduce the starting line on this wednesday night. the national political correspondent for the new york times. retired four star u.s. army general barry mccaffrey, decorated veteran of vietnam. former cabinet member, former member of the national security council, and the founding director of columbia university s national center for disaster prepareness. he advises us on public else. also a professor of pediatrics at the albert einstein college of medicine. given the topic at hand, i would like the begin. but 15,000 americans left in afghanistan. what do you make. president s comments of staying beyond 31 august, if necessary. and i don t mean this any way but seriously, are we asking the
population of say, 30,000 people who were going to want to leave ultimately, that s several days, maybe several weeks worth of work. and i think the president was absolutely correct in his interview on abc to say that we will probably have to stay beyond august 31. he didn t want to telegraph it but i think that s our only option. that s what we should embrace. we ve got troops there to do that and that is what u.s. policy should now be. who knows, maybe:00 renew the c-17 program for the what it is and has proven to be over there. it is our life line right now. jeremy bash, i can t thank you enough for bringing your expertise and taking our questions on tonight s broadcast. coming up, new evacuations in california as one wildfire grows eight time in size.
baaam. internet that doesn t miss a beat. that s cute, but my internet streams to my ride. adorable, but does yours block malware? nope. -it crushes it. pshh, mine s so fast, no one can catch me. that s because you all have the same internet. xfinity xfi. so powerful, it keeps one-upping itself. can your internet do that? the idea that the taliban would take over was premised on the notion that the, somehow the 300,000 troops we had trained and equipped would give up. i don t think anybody anticipated that. the president is on defense in the wake of the taliban takeover in afghanistan. his own party about to convene congressional hearings. politico reports it this way. the pending democratic-led
see it now? well, first, i don t think anyone inside the intelligence community really believes that this was an intelligence failure. because for the last year and a half, the intelligence community has been warning that the taliban would take over afghanistan if the coalition left. in fact, in early april of this year, the intelligence community released the annual worldwide let the assessment just days before president biden made his announcement announcing the withdrawal. . in assessment they said the afghan government would struggle to keep the taliban at bay. well, boy, were they right. now, i think what s fair is that it is unclear at this hour whether or not the intelligence assessments presented the national security principles were specific as to the timing that kabul will fall. to be fair, an intelligence assess kmt get the big picture right. the afghan national security forces are weak. they will ultimately crumble.