all the warnings he was given by allies, by military top brass, they have drastically overestimated the fighting power of the afghan armed forces, they have underestimated the speed with which the taliban would advance and that leaves you with a situation today of helicopters ferrying diplomats to the airport, the ambassador being ferried to the airport, the flag being lowered over the kabul embassy, diplomats being told to shred documents. not quite the fall of saigon, but not far short. the bbc sjon sopel. let s get more now on the international perspective and speak tojim townsend. he was president obama s deputy assistant secretary of defense for europe and nato. now he s now at the center for new american security. hello, thank you forjoining us. kabul has fallen to the taliban,
surprises and shocks, and the collapse of the republic was one of the horrible surprises that we got. you are a student, you are young, i am guessing you are in your 20s, you will not remember the taliban regime of the 1990s, all you will have no will have been the afghanistan that has just fallen, a will have been the afghanistan that hasjust fallen, a democratic will have been the afghanistan that has just fallen, a democratic one, one that was working with western forces. just try and describe how that feels. ., forces. just try and describe how that feels- that feels. you know, i feel betrayed- that feels. you know, i feel betrayed- i that feels. you know, i feel betrayed. ifeel that feels. you know, i feel betrayed. i feel that - that feels. you know, i feel betrayed. i feel that the - betrayed. i feel that the international community and our partners, ourallies, international community and our partners, our allies, abandoned us, they left us alone. they have thrown us to th
could be rights. there s so many things that could be unraveled if this taliban advanced could be unraveled if this taliban advanced content news. there is so much advanced content news. there is so much at advanced content news. there is so much at stake and we don t want to id much at stake and we don t want to go back, much at stake and we don t want to go back, they want to move forwards. i go back, they want to move forwards. i don t go back, they want to move forwards. i don t know go back, they want to move forwards. i don t know what else to say, it s idon t know what else to say, it s usually i don t know what else to say, it s usually concerning and worrying. i feel like usually concerning and worrying. i feel like we can tjust sit on our hands feel like we can tjust sit on our hands in the west, considering we ve made hands in the west, considering we ve made such hands in the west, considering we ve made such a hands in the west, considering we ve mad
country. what s the significance of pulling back on those? they re exercises just like physical exercises or think of sporting events. you prepare during exercises and during training to get ready in the event of war. right? and for me, the key thing here is deterrent. you want to make sure your enemies, and i still consider north korea an enemy of the united states and ourallies, have no doubt about what you ll do in the case that we are being attacked. so in both the european theater and the asian theater, i think they re vitally important to deter our enemies. when it comes to north korea, do the russians and chinese have common interest or are they adversaries in termsf th relationship with north korea? well, they both have complicated bilateral relationships with the north koreans over the years. it goes way back, decades, in
leland: we wait and see if we hear anything from the president. thank you. liz has more. elizabeth: president trump s decision to pull the united states at at the iran nuclear agreement is getting mixed reactions to say the least. congressman, thank you for joining us. believe it or not, i think i know what you will say but i want your response on record on what you think of the president s move this week. i think it was a mistake to withdraw from the agreement for many reasons. mainly because there s not a strategy. if the president intended to break the deal, i would have disagreed with that but it would have made more sense to go to ourallies , to the other signatories on the jcp a to draft a strategy because now we we are in a position where we have to trap sanctions on iran.