troops are reported on the move in several areas, but it is also clear the russians are meeting resistance from muslim tribesmen and units of afghanistan s army. in 1980 the soviet union had moved into afghanistan. it was in nicaragua. it was in the caribbean. there was a feeling that the united states, and i felt it, the united states could lose the cold war. there was a model of behavior during the cold war, and the way i often described it, it was the red side of the map and blue side of the map, separated by the iron curtain. and the rest of the world we competed for. that fundamental clash between communism and capitalism, between dictatorship and freedom was the dividing line in the world that people assumed would last forever. but there was a revolution starting to stir. there has been an unexpected development abroad. polish workers in the baltic area are standing firm in their strike against the government. the demands of striking
and there was some wisdom in that. they sent in a bunch of cia officers with suitcases full of money and they hired a bunch of tribesmen to go after bin laden. u.s. officials say american commandos, operating with opposition forces, got within two miles of a cave system that osama bin laden was holed up. but they could not go any further. there was a moment where we had bin laden bottled up inside tora bora, we knew where he was, but the road to pakistan was left open. opposition and u.s. special operations forces rolled into the tora bora mountains in support of fleeing al qaeda fighters. but the pentagon says its anyone s guess where bin laden is. al qaeda got away. bin laden went off to pakistan. but what was very striking how quickly it turned to iraq. i never say anything s inevident, but if i were saddam hussein, i d be thinking very carefully about the future and i d be looking very closely to
based and it will be economic and plit us call and diplomatic as well as military overt and covert. the concept, especially by don rumsfeld, was we want a small footprint. there was some wisdom in that. they sent in a bunch of cia officers with suitcases full of money and hired a bunch of tribesmen to go after bin laden. command forces got within two miles of a cave complex where osama bin laden is believed to be holed up. they could not go any further without exposing themselves to fire. there was a moment where we had bin laden bottled up. we knew where he was, but the road to pakistan was left open. opposition and u.s. special operations forces rolled into. the mountains in pursuit of fleeing al qaeda fighters. but the pentagon says it s anyone s guess where bin laden is. al qaeda got away.
tribesmen to go after bin laden. joining us now, cnn presidential historian tim natalia. i was at the pentagon in september 11th, 2001. does not seem like 17 years ago. did anyone expect at that time we as a country would still be fighting in afghanistan, these 17 years later, and in iraq 14 years after the iraq invasion? no. and that s partly because the mission shifted. the problem now is that afghanistan is an unstable place. do you leave afghanistan and then take the risk that it becomes a petri dish again for terrorism. and that the taliban comes back? tell us about the forces at play here. first of all, you had president george w. bush following we think 2016 was a difficult moment. a disputed election. decided by the supreme court on political lines 5-4. what, eight months after that,
arment they needed to conduct a proper attack should there have been in that case. even if the green berets are operating in that manner to deescalate and make contact with local tribesmen, i did provide security for civil affairs groups and i understand that concept, we still should have had air power online, full communications everything we need in case something should happen. thanks very much for joining us. thank you. coming up, we ll have more on breaking news, president trump trying to distract from the russia probe saying the only collusion came from hillary clinton. can he make the investigations go away by changing the subject? new clues are revealed what top u.s. officials knew about the assassination of president kennedy. why is president trump still keeping some documents under wraps? stay with us. you re in the situation room. does not propose to conduct last them.