The end of the vietnam war. And President Jerry Ford never said a word. Never once. There was no press conference. There was no statement to the country. He issued a Written Statement after the final helicopter came out. There was none of what were seeing in these last two weeks. And, so, we have seen two of these. We have seen two big losses after Multidecade Wars. This is very different from vietnam. And it is actually a good point. We saw the Commander Today formally announce that the last aircraft was clearing afghan air space. We then saw Secretary Of State blinken give a formal address to the country explaining things in terms of the Diplomatic Mission of doing those things. We have just seen tonight a statement from lloyd austin. But now were going to get another speech on this matter. We have seen several already from President Biden. He says hes going to talk about his decision to not extend past August 31st and the Military Advise he got not to do that and why he thinks its all right to leave. It is a lot of accountability in terms of people saying, yeah, this is me. This is happening on my watch and here is why i did it this way. That is not what were used to. Last time what we got was a Written Statement read by the press secretary, a Written Statement by the President And Henry kissinger, Secretary Of State also attending the Press Briefing at the White House. But it was astonishingly routine. It was not that Big A Day in the White House Press Briefing room. People saw it coming for quite a while. And there was a tremendous amount of relief, really. There were the questions that are similar to what you are hearing now, but nothing like the ongoing analysis of every little bit of the exit. And at that time, they were only aware of two Helicopter Pilots who have been killed in the evacuation. Turns out there were two marines who were shot and killed that no one even knew about at the time the final day. So it is a very different thing. But the echo is very strong between the two. Oh, yeah. And, i mean, and with all of these things, no war is like any other war and no exit from any war is the same. But the echoes from our history, i mean, you hope that you learn. But basically you It Rate and it doesnt always necessarily get you smarter. Yeah. Well see what the president says tomorrow. Yeah. Thanks, lawrence. Thank you, rachel. At 3 29 p. M. Today East Coast time, Americas War in afghanistan came to an end. Here is how it began. 26 days after 9 11. Good afternoon. On my orders, the united States Military has begun strikes against alqaeda Terrorist Training Camps and military installations of the Taliban Regime in afghanistan. These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of afghanistan as a Terrorist Base of operations and to attack the Military Capability of the Taliban Regime. I gave taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands. Close Terrorist Training Camps. Hand over leaders of the Alqaeda Network and return all foreign nationals, including American Citizens unjustly detained in your country. None of these demands were met. And now the taliban will pay a price. We will win this conflict by the Patient Accumulation of successes. By meeting a series of challenging with determination and will and purpose. We did not ask for this mission, but we will fulfill it. The name of todays military operation is enduring freedom. We will not waiver. We will not tire. We will not falter. And we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail. Thank you. May god continue to bless america. The American News Media and the political class found nothing to criticize in that speech, not one word. But we did waiver. And we did tire. And freedom didnt not endure in afghanistan. Here is how it ended. Im here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from afghanistan In The End of the Military Mission to evacuate American Citizens, third Country Nationalists and vulnerable afghans. The team lifted off from the airport on august 30th, this afternoon, at 3 29 p. M. East coast time. Tonights withdrawal signifies the end of the Military Component of the evacuation, but also the end of the nearly 20year mission that began in afghanistan shortly after september 11th, 2001. It is a mission that brought Osama Bin Laden to a just end along with many of his alqaeda coconspirators. Sadly, that includes 13 u. S. Service members who were killed last week by an isisk suicide bomber. We honor their sacrifice today. No words from me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifices and establishments of those who served, nor the emotions theyre feeling at this moment. Also killed in the 20year war were at least 66,000 members of afghanistans military and police, 51,191 members of the taliban and other opposition fighters, 47,245 afghan civilians including children and babies. 1,144 allied Service Members including from Nato Member states. 444 aid workers. And 72 journalists. The number of civilian deaths could be much larger, but that is the official number, 47,245. You can call the 20year war americas longest war only if you are willing to overlook the 300 years of war waged against the people who were found on this continent when the europeans arrived. Americas genocidal war against nato tribes did not officially end until the beginning of the 20th century. Today President Biden issued a Written Statement saying, i want to thank our commanders and men and women serving under them for their execution of the dangerous Retro Grade from afghanistan as scheduled in the early morning hours of August 31st kabul time with no further loss of american lives. The past 17 days have seen our troops execute the largest Air Lift in u. S. History, evacuating over 120,000 u. S. Citizens, citizens of our allies and afghan allies of the united states. They have done it with unmatched courage, professionalism and resolve. Now our 20year Military Presence in afghanistan has ended. I have asked Secretary Of State to lead the continued coordination with our international partners to ensure safe passage for any americans, afghan partners and foreign nationals who want to leave afghanistan. And joining us now, one of the 800,000 people who served in the military in afghanistan, a former u. S. Marine captain who served two tours of duty in afghanistan. Hes now the democratic candidate for senate in missouri and the attorney Affairs Analyst and columnist for the daily Beast And Usa today. He is the host of deep state radio podcast. Let me begin with you as someone who served there. You were thanked today by General Mckenzie, by President Biden. What are your feelings as this 20year war has now finally officially come to an end . Yeah, thanks, lawrence. For me it is just this this feeling of grim relief that its final over and that it should have happened a long, long time ago. And, so, you know, America Kind of forgot what was going on over there for a long time. And last week when we lost 13 Service Members, that was a reminder to them of what many of us experienced while we were overseas. And, so, for me this week and what im seeing right now is just, you know, it is really a reminder of probably the saddest, most somber moment of my life. And that was standing on a line in afghanistan in the middle of the night with about 100 other marines saluting the dead body of a fallen member of our baaal on. Im grimly relieved there will not be another u. S. Member experiencing that. I find it striking president Bushs Announcement of this war. What he said in that speech about the objectives. And for everyone in the last two weeks who has been saying we should stay there longer and we shouldnt be exiting the way were exiting. We shouldnt be exiting quickly on the biden schedule, if you can call that quickly after 20 years. Not one of them, not one of the justifications for staying in afghanistan was included in anything george w. Bush said in the Announcement Speech for this war. It was always to preserve something or some kind of condition that existed after the war started. The arguments about whats going to happen to liberal education in afghanistan, issues that had absolutely nothing to do with the start of the war. Yeah. I think there was a brief period of grace there for George Bush where he got it right. He got the response to 9 11 right. And i think he got launching this mission right. If he had done what he said in that speech, he probably would have been okay. I think any u. S. President would have done precisely what he said. Send in u. S. Troops for a mission that was counter terrorism targeting alqaeda, targeting the taliban that was helping alqaeda. But he didnt speak of an exit. He didnt speak of the broader mission that we drifted into. And what happened was that we, as you have pointed out several times over the past couple of weeks, lawrence, we drifted back into the same sorts of mistakes that led to the vietnam debacle. We didnt have a clear exit. We didnt have sufficient force. We didnt have a clearly defined mission. That was the less son that general Colin Powell had drawn from vietnam. And we forgot about it. And the consequence was the casualties you listed and the lives of 800,000 americans who served alongside with us being changed forever. Some in the worst way possible. But all of them, as lucas indicated, haunted by the experience. Lets listen to more of what President Bush said on october 7th, 2001, about what the mission was. And it certainly does not sound like a 20year mission. We will make it more difficult for the Terror Network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans. Initially, the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves and other hiding places. Our Military Action is also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive and relentless operations to drive them out and bring them to justice. Lucas, i think when we were listening to that, whether people were in favor of it or not, it didnt sound like this is going to be ten years. This is going to be even five years. This sounded like not exactly a surgical strike, but it sounded like it was going in there, not trying to build a nation, certainly. There wasnt one word about building a new government or a new military in afghanistan. Yes, lawrence. And heres the thing. You know, that mission that he just described was accomplished very quickly. The taliban was scattered. Alqaeda was bumped out of afghanistan and we accomplished that Military Mission. And you know what . Back then the taliban was extremely weak and maybe the government would have had a chance to sort of recover and build an afghanistan that looks a little different. By the real irony about the 20 years we spent there is the fact that the taliban got to use those 20 years practicing against the greating Fighting Force in the world. If you want to get good at something, you should practice against the person who is the best. So they learned to fight, to organize, do pr. They learned to do all of these things and that is why they were able to take over in just two weeks, because they learned how to do all of that. The real tragedy for me here, like a huge tragedy, is that i still see on tv people talking about how we need to stay just one more day, just one more month, just one more dollar as if as if the 20 years, the 2. 3 trillion that collapsed in two weeks werent enough. Theyre the same people that, you know, their reputations are at line on this. Theyre making money for it and theyre deciding they want to keep us there because they feel like it is the right thing to do for them. It is a huge systematic institutional set of dishonesties that is really like just torn the american People Psyche as they saw what happened in the two weeks. Thats really something we need to not lose sight of and make sure that we fight that narrative. Lucas, let me follow up on that because President Bush also said in that Announcement Speech for that war, speaking directly to military personnel, he said, your mission is defined. Your objectives are clear. Your goal is just. When you were in afghanistan, did you feel that your mission was defined and your objectives were clear . When i was in afghanistan so i learned the language of southern afghanistan, and i deployed there twice. The winter of 2012 13 and then 2014 for most of the year. My job was to work with the afghan forces to try to make sure that they were ready for the mission. Mind you, this is after we had been there for 13 years on that second deployment. And my job was still to make sure they got all the equipment, all the ammunition, all the Food And Everything else that they needed to get through the fighting season. After 13 years. And so at that point, like how can my mission be to solve this in six months if it hasnt been solved in 13 years . And the answer was that it was never going to happen. The only reason we were there is because people on both sides of the atlantic, right, you got afghans at the very top of their stratosphere and then people here in america who were Making Money Off of that war, a grab and go operation and leaving the rest of us to try to solve out the problems while afghans arent getting any Food Or Equipment because it is all getting taken off the top. So, yeah, i had a mission, but it wasnt anything that was ever going to be successfully concluded. The taliban takeover in 2014 was inevitable and we saw that Inevitability Play out over the last month. Lucas and david, thank you very much for starting off our discussion tonight. David, please stick around for more later in the hour. Thank you both very much. Coming up, we have breaking news on the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, an intensive Search And Rescue operation is underway in louisiana where more than A Million people are currently without power. Well have the latest next. Nee. Sorry . Limu, youre an animal only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. vo when you are shopping for a new vehicle, how do you know which brand you can trust . With subaru, you get kelley blue books most trusted brand winner, seven years in a row. In fact, subaru has won most trusted brand for more consecutive years than any other brand. No Wonder Kelley blue book also picked subaru as their best overall brand. Once again. Its easy to love a brand you can trust. Its easy to love a subaru. Up here, success depends on the choices you make. But i know ive got this. And when it comes to controlling his type 2 diabetes, my dads got this, too. With the right choices, you have it in you to control your a1c and onceweekly trulicity may help. 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There are more than 2,000 people in shelters tonight. The levies around New Orleans did not fail as they did in katrina. More than A Million people do not have power in louisiana. There is no power in the city of New Orleans. Crews are working to restore power, beginning with hospitals that are now relying on generators. A Louisiana Power Company says it may take up to three weeks for some people in the areas to have their power restored. Ida is now a tropical storm moving north through mississippi. Today President Biden told the governors of Louisiana And Mississippi and mayors in both of those states how to get more help from the White House. The main thing i want to make clear to all of you is were providing any help for you that you are going to need. And, so, ive got as i said, ive got my Senior Adviser here with me. You all know him. Hes a New Orleans native. Hes a congressman from louisiana, was a congressman of louisianas second district for ten years. He knows the area. He knows the people and those who have been affected by ida and he knows how to get things done in the government. While fema is our lead for on the ground response, if there is something you need that needs my attention, send the direct line to the White House throughout this. Go to cedric, hell get you what you need, if we can. Joining us now, Ali Velchi in New Orleans. Ali, what is the latest tonight. Reporter the latest is this is a dark, dark city. This is a roofing from a nearby building that collapsed. But im here in the French Quarter that would look like this if you had lights, but there are no lights anywhere in New Orleans. Thats because while the cities levies and pumps which they spent about 16 Billion on since katrina worked to keep this city dry during this storm, there are no lights anywhere. There is no power going to anywhere in this city whatsoever. The company that produces the power here says all eight Transmission Lines are dead. So there are Bucket Trucks and people going around Fixing Trees that have fallen on power lines. Theyre repairing all of that. But it doesnt matter because there is no power coming from the source. They will try to get power to people between 7 to 10 days. The sewage and draining Company Authority here, they obviously need to be able to sanitize water, so theyre getting some help from the electric utility. Police, infrastructure like street lights, hospitals. But if you are a commercial or a residential power, you are not getting power. If you dont have a generator in New Orleans and it is a densely packed city, so a lot of people dont have generators here, you are not getting power for 7 to 10 days. In the hard hit areas, theyre saying three weeks or longer. Some of the parishes outside of New Orleans that did flood, by the way, they are not getting power for a while. While there is very little loss of life in New Orleans, i believe we only have one confirmed death in the city, there is a lot of threat in outlying parts of louisiana in those parishes that in orderer new Orleans Parish to the west. Due south of us in lafayette. Grand aisle, they are somewhat prepared to ride it out. This is not the catastrophe people were worried about. This is entirely different. We hope people get their power back very soon. Is there any temporary plan on power, or is it just sit and wait until the system begins to work again . Yes. Yeah. The mayor has actually said, if you left the city dont come back. Do not come back. You are going to be in a hot place. People are actually walking around. You dont see too many of them but people are walking around because their houses get very hot. It gets to 90 in the day. Feels like 100 because this is a humid city. There are shelters and cooling centers being opened. Not everybody has figured out how to use them just yet because theyre hoping this changes soon. But as they realize on day two, three, four it will be this hot, you may start to see some of those places being used. Thank you, ali. Really appreciate it. My pleasure. Joining us now lieutenant general, former commander of the joint Task Force for Hurricane Katrina. General, what is your assessment of the situation and what needs to happen next . Well, we have good coordination between the state and the federal government and the parishes, with good communications at all those points. All that is a result of lessons learned from katrina and the levies held. The issue now is the grid is broke. The grid is broke. Water and electricity is broke. And i dont see how were going to sustain half A Million to A Million people without clean water and without sewage in a metropolitan area or in the countryside. I think the conversation now must turn to Search And Rescue. Get the people out that are stuck in their attics or need to be gotten out immediately and then focus on the Evacuation Plan. And that Word Evacuation come up again twice today as when we completed one and we need to start another one. People cannot live in that metropolitan area without water and without sewer. And which leaves the other thing, the ability to cook. And a lot of infrastructure is broke. Stores are closed. There is a few around that have some food, but the infrastructure is broke. We need to encourage people, and i think fema has the capacity and the will to provide hotel vouchers. That program needs to start immediately because the leadership today, with all due respect, they were out doing assessments and doing Search And Rescue. But the next phase of this, we need to start encouraging people by people can go get gas, Couch Serve with relatives or go to a hotel. We cannot keep that many people in that city with the grid as broke as it is right now. And on top of that, the electrical Grid And Water grid, the Telecommunication Grade is broken. And so many people we operate now on the ability to be able to talk and get information. A lot of people need to hear whats being said on television dont have the ability to see or hear it because the grid is broke. And i think that the language and the focus has to be now on encouraging people to evacuate, providing them hotel vouchers. And fema as the capacity to do that. But that need to be the charge of the day once the Search And Rescue is completed. So, general, there is no point in trying to truck in massive amounts of drinking water. Is it your view that you really have to get the people out . Thats the mission . I think thats the mission. If you brought bottled water in, youre talking a couple gallons of water for everybody to drink and then there is no place you can try to put generators on them. So youve got to focus your Infravuk Chur on the critical things like the hospitals because the hospitals are full because weve got a lot of people in louisiana who refuse to take the shot. So those hospitalized are fixed. They have to stay where they are taking care of the people. On top of this, were doing this in a covid environment. We used to have places where we would put 500 people in auditoriums and gyms. A 500 Person Shelter now might hold 150 to 200 people. Wherever we send the people to, theyve got to be able to follow Covid Protocol because so many of them dont have vaccination. In metropolitan New Orleans, were in better shape. But in rural areas, there is a lot lower area of vaccinations. So we need to get on with evacuating folks until we can get the grid back up and keep the city and the metropolitan as well as the countryside safe. The Industrial Complex took a big hit. There will be no economy in New Orleans. The federal government is going to have to figure out how they will subsidize those governments immediately so they can continue to pay the payroll in two weeks. The same thing happened after katrina. Most of these parishes dont have a lot of cash on them. They depend on Sales Tax coming in. So all those issues got to be dealt with. But first survival. Search and rescue and lets get on with a viable Evacuation Plan providing gas to people so they can drive and giving them a voucher or bringing wide bodied airplanes into the airport. General, thank you very much for joining us. Really appreciate your expertise tonight. Good luck to the first responders, lawrence, and to those people who are awaiting help, help is on the way. Thats the message they have to hear. Thank you, general. Coming up, we will be joined by a doctor at Childrens Hospital of New Orleans, which is dealing with the Hurricane Aftermath amid the Coronavirus Surge there. Thats next. Wait. Do we haveo thank our moms twice . I dont know. laughs breyers. 100 grade a milk and cream, and loaded with delicious cookie pieces. Better starts with breyers. Ayy, ayy, ayy yeah, we fancy like applebees on a Date Night got that Bourbon Street Steak with the Oreo Shake get some whipped cream on the top too two straws, one check, girl, i got you bougie like natty in the Styrofoam Squeaksqueakin in the Truck Bed All The Way Home some alabamajamma, she my dixieland delight ayy, thats how we do, how we do, fancy like, oh Darrells Family uses gain flings now so their laundry smells more amazing than ever. Isnt that the Dogs Towel . Hey, Me Towel Su towel. More Gain Scent plus Oxi Boost and febreze in every gain fling. Four hospitals in louisiana were evacuated as Hurricane Ida approached this weekend. This video shows part of the roof of one of the evacuated hospitals being blown off yesterday. Hospitals in louisiana are overwhelmed with covid patients, more than 2,400 people are hospitalized in Louisiana Tonight for covid19. Joining us now is dr. Mark klein, physician in chief of Childrens Hospital in New Orleans. Hes a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist. Dr. Klein, thank you very much for joining us again tonight. This is a much more difficult night than when you have been with us before. What is the Situation Tonight at your hospital . Well, lawrence, you know, we have taken a couple of punches to the gut. We were dealing with covid, of course, for the past couple of months, and that has been exhausting for our nurses and our doctors and hospitals have been very full along with most every hospital in louisiana. And about the last thing in the world that we needed was a category four hurricane, but, you know, here it is. We have been locked down since early Yesterday Morning about 6 00 a. M. We brought in a crew of doctors and nurses and other Health Care professionals, and we locked the doors and we literally rode this thing out. We had substantial Structure Damage to our hospital. We had some water on the ground floor, some water coming through the roof on some upper floors. But other all, we did reasonably well. We lost power, like everyone else in the city of New Orleans and went on the backup generators. Were still on those today. But the good news is that all of the patients came through safely. Our team took good care of them and they have weathered the storm and now were on the other side and it is just dealing with the aftermath. How long can you run on the backup generators, and has Patient Care been affected . Patient care has not been affected, lawrence, fortunately. The generators give us lights and power for all of the medical equipment in all of the Patient Care areas. It is really only the nonessential areas of the hospital like my office, for example, that dont have airconditioning or lights. So were in the dark in those sorts of areas. We have about a Sixday Supply of diesel right now for the generators. There is six generators, so there is some redundancy there. But im assured that more diesel is on the way and there is no issue with trucks getting in and supplying us on a continuous basis. So although we have done some Contingency Planning around what might happen if we needed to evacuate, we have the fuel to keep the generators running. Dr. Klein, what about your own life and then the lives of the other medical personnel there . Can you go home . Are people have peoples homes been affected so that they either cannot go home or cannot get back to the hospital to work from home . Yeah. Its an excellent question. And i havent seen my house. So i couldnt tell you what it looks like or if its been damaged at this point. And thats true for all of the Health Professionals who have been locked down here in the hospital. These are mostly young doctors and nurses. And its really a fantastic story. These are people who have small children in many cases. And we even had examples of doctors who took their spouses and their kids to safety, evacuated them to places like atlanta and birmingham, and then came back to serve the hospital and to take care of other peoples kids. And it is a remarkable story of selflessness and commitment. Anyone who thinks that the younger generation thats Coming Up is not committed to the work that they do is dead wrong. They should see these Health Professionals and the fantastic job theyre doing. And many of them dont know whether their houses are still standing or inundated with water, and they wont until they have an opportunity to leave the water in some number of days. What is your guess about when you will see your house for the first time . Maybe saturday. Maybe at the end of the week. Im hoping. But, you know, thats okay. Im happy and privileged to be working alongside some fantastic people here and i dont think i have ever been prouder to be a pediatrician, lawrence. I have to be honest with you. To see the work that these young doctors and nurses and pharmacists and everyone, to see the work that theyre doing has been really inspiring for me, even for someone like me who has been at it as long as i have, i just find myself incredibly impressed. Dr. Mark klein, thank you very much for the heroic work that you are doing and that everyone you are working with is doing at that hospital. We appreciate you joining us tonight. Thank you, lawrence. Thank you. Coming up, the eighth Secretary Of State to serve during the War In Afghanistan and today he became the first to describe americas objective in postwar afghanistan. Thats next. 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We discussed how we will work together to facilitate the Safe Travel Out of afghanistan, including recovering. We appreciate the efforts to make this happen. This would enable a small number of daily charter flights, which is a key for anyone who wants to be part of afghanistan moving forward. Were also working to identify ways to support americans, afghans who worked with us. We have no illusion that had any of this would be easy or rapid. This will be an entirely different phase from the evacuation that just included. It will take time to work through a new set of challenges, but we will stay at it. Joining us now is national Security Expert and distinguished physical low at the Quincy Institute for responsible State Craft and back with us is david. I was listening to the Secretary Of State today. And i was thinking back to what the Secretary Of State Henry Kissinger had to say when we left vietnam. We just have these two Multidecade Wars that we were driven out of in defeat to compare to each other. And Henry Kissinger and the american government had absolutely no plan about how to deal with vietnam in any way and have any communication with them about anything after we fled that country. And, so, what we are seeing today is an approach that wasnt even dreamed possible leaving vietnam. And as the future turned out, vietnam became such a peaceable friend of the united states of america that thats where the Vice President of the united states was being welcomed as a distinguished visitor just last week while the evacuation from afghanistan was going on. All of which is to say i think from my perspective, we have no idea what will be happening in afghanistan in the next 10 years or 20 years. I was really struck by Secretary Of State blinks Address Today because you are seeing him start to pivot to what Joe Biden said he wanted to do in the beginning of his administration, when he introduced his national Security Team nine months ago, they talked about reimaging national security, about shifting away from war as the primary instrument of u. S. Power and that will address the real Security Threats we face after this failed 20year global war on terrorism, meaning climate change, pandemics, racial injustice, income inequity, threats to democracy, et cetera. You see tony Secretary Of State blinken start to take this burden on. And that includes trying to find a way to relate to the taliban. The Rag Tag Group armed with basic weaponry that just defeated the worlds only remaining super power. And we now have the task, unlike Henry Kissinger, Tony Blinken has the task of how do you develop relations with this group. Can there be flights . Can you get the rest of the americans out of afghanistan . Can there be regular flights as the taliban said today where people could freely leave afghanistan . Are there incentives we have to induce the taliban to do this . So youre right, lawrence, we have no idea how this relationship could develop. We could be looking at a very different story than the one thats been painted in washington circles over the last two weeks. I want to take a look at this imagery released by the Department Of Defense of apparently the last american soldier to leave afghanistan. This is major general chris donahue. He was the last person to board the final c17 leaving kabul. And, david, that seems to be the final, that image of the american presence in afghanistan. That will be juxtapose with the final image of the american presence in vietnam which of course was the helicopter taking off. And, so, with that on this final day, what can be said about what america accomplished and what america learned . Well, i hope we learn a lot. Clearly there was some benefits that were brought to the afghan people in terms of increased literacy, access to the internet, exposure to ideas like democracy and so forth. But when we went in to afghanistan with the objective of eliminating terrorists, there were perhaps several scores of terrorists there. One estimate was 170 alqaeda members in 2002. By the time they left, there were terror cells throughout the world. The number of terrorists had grown A Hundred fold. The Terror Threat was much greater. The war on terror was the wrong idea, executed in the wrong way, and it failed. While we remain safe here, threats exist throughout the world. But i think we have to ask ourselves how did we get into a situation where, once again, we entered into a war. It drifted without mission. It lasted 20 years. It cost 170,000 lives overall. It cost 2 trillion, and it distracted us from all the things that joe just enumerated. And, so, on the one hand we need to learn those lessons. And on the other hand, we need to make that pivot. The real lesson of afghanistan is to put it behind us, to manage it in a way that Secretary Blinken described. And then to move forward building back better, investing in ourselves and finding a way to engage with the world as Secretary Blinken described several months ago, not from the perspective of american exceptionalism, but from the perspective of engagement with equals in real partnership. Listen to more of what Secretary Blinken said today about what our lessons should be. The War In Afghanistan was a 20year endeavor. We must learn its lessons and allow those lessons to shape how we think about fundamental questions of national security and policy. Joe, that was the less son we were supposed to learn from vietnam, the fundamental questions of national security in Foreign Policy. And the less son i learned from vietnam was a teenager was, dont do that again. Dont do any kind of war like that again. And that, seems to me, was one sentence away from that Secretary Blinken was saying in that passage. Thats exactly right. And for 20 years we did not. I mean, what is now referred as Vietnam Syndrome was when we listened to those lessons, when we understood that this was a lost war that we never should have started, that was cofoundly mistaken. But then what happened in washington was the determined effort to turn that narrative around and it developed first with Nixon And Kissen ger and then with other proponents in the washington Foreign Policy establishment, a stab in the back narrative, a myth that we didnt lose the vietnam war. No politicians in Congress Cutoff Funding for it. Thats why we lost. And you saw that justified. You brought up in the early days of the Iraq Invasion to say, no, we could have won the vietnam and we could win the iraq war. We just have to stay it. And you see it now in washington with this insidious myth thats being developed that this withdrawal, as one person called it, was a withdrawal of choice, that we could have stayed in afghanistan, that we could perhaps have won in afghanistan if cowardly politicians on the far left had not declared the war lost. This is a debate to shape the future of american Foreign Policy. Thank you both very much for joining us again tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Well be right back with tonights last word, which includes the poem quoted by General Mckenzie today. And here. Which is why the scientific expertise that helps Operating Rooms stay clean now helps the places you go too. Look for the Ecolab Science certified seal. So then i said to him, you oughta customize your Car Insurance with Liberty Mutual, now helps the places you go too. So you only pay for what you need. Hot dog or. Chicken . Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. 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And get started with a great offer on fast and reliable Internet And Voice for just 64. 99 a month. Plus, ask how to get a prepaid card up to 500. Call or go online today to learn more. Comcast business. Powering possibilities. Today general Kenneth Mckenzie thanked every american who went to afghanistan in the 20year war. I would like to offer my personal appreciation to the more than 800,000 Service Members and 25,000 civilians who served in afghanistan and particularly to the families of those whose Loved Ones have been lost or wounded. Your service will never be forgotten. My heart is broken over the losses we sustained three days ago. As the poem by lawrence goes we will remember them. The last 18 days have been challenging. Americans can be proud of the men and women of the Armed Forces who met these challenges headon. The poem quoted by lawrence was publish in the london times in 1914. The poem is entitled for the fallen. This is the passage General Mckenzie quoted they shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of The Sun and in the morning we will remember them. That is tonights last word. The 11th Hour with Brian Williams starts now. Good evening. Day 223 of the biden administration, and as we come on the air tonight, were following two major stories. The u. S. Has officially ended its 20year War In Afghanistan. It is now tuesday, August 31st there. The deadline President Biden set for all u. S. Troops to be out of the country. Afghanistan is now run by the taliban. Well have much more on that in just a moment. Also tonight, millions of people across louisiana