You probably know has spent big portions of the last two decades of his life In Afghanistan during the war there. Richard also weeks ago reported on some of the last fierce fighting by Elite Afghan Commando Units Fighting against taliban forces. We now know that was some of the last fighting like that that there was In Afghanistan and richard was right there in the middle of it. But now that the taliban have been able to take control of, first, all the provincial capitals, and then the whole country including kabul, without fighting at all, not in a Military Operation but just in what appears to have been a negotiated surrender by afghan government forces and the Afghan Military, all over the country, as the taliban have now walked in to kabul without Firing A shot, richard has been there reporting around the clock as they have taken over. Again, as i mentioned be we have been battling some technical difficulties, as you might imagine, for some obvious reasons but i do believe weve got
Way in which the Exit Strategy was implemented, there really was no plan as far as they were concerned. That illustrates a second problem. Although i have plenty of scorn to heap on, The Other Side is the afghan leaders, both political and military, were equally responsible for this because they failed to take advantage of the opportunity to get corruption under control and to focus on making a strong security force, notjust on using it to make money and get power for various warlords and various other people. To your second point, i very strongly agree because i have been arguing since 2017 that we should announce our withdrawal and continue with another 18 to 2a months of support at that same level, give everybody a chance to get their mind wrapped around this, to understand they will be responsible, to coordinate everything so it is done in a very professional and logical manner. Unfortunately that did not happen. We had a chance, when the deal was made in february 2020, we had 111
Kirby provided an update on the defense Departments Role in the removal of u. S. Civilians and afghan refugees from the country. This is just shy of 40 minutes. Mr. Kirby good afternoon. A couple things at the top here. So look, as we headed into the weekend, i thought that it would be helpful to give you a brief update about where things are with respect to the military support to the State Department in afghanistan. And i want to say at the outset and i probably shouldve said this yesterday, you guys know that this is a Planning Organization. Thats what we do here. And pllanning for these sorts of contingencies is not unusual. In fact, its quite common. I want to say at the Outset And Shouldve said this yesterday, you guys know this is a Planning Organization. That is what we do. Planning for these sorts of contingencies is not unusual. It is quite common. And one of the reasons why we have been able to react as quickly as we did in the last day or so is we had plenty of Contingency
Good afternoon. A couple things at the top. As we head into the weekend, i thought it would be helpful to give you a brief update about where things are with respect to the military supports of the State Department in afghanistan. I want to say at the Outset And Shouldve said this yesterday, you guys know this is a Planning Organization. That is what we do. Planning for these sorts of contingencies is not unusual. It is quite common. And one of the reasons why we have been able to react as quickly as we did in the last day or so is we had plenty of Contingency Planning in the works and a lot of it complete because, as i said many times from the podium, we are watching consistently the Security Situation on the ground. So i can give you a brief update of a few additional details, since yesterday. Now, as i do this, i think you can understand that i am not going to have every detail that you might want. There is operational security that will be a concern. We are going to observe that he
Vaccine misinformation, lies about vaccines and vaccinations are as old as themselves. Unfortunately today with all of the tools that exist in 2021, the reality of the misinformation and lies is arguably as infectious as any of the diseases that thankfully we know have vaccines to help prevent, including Covid19 And Covid19 vaccines. As incredibly grateful the Senator Klobuchar has taken time from her busy day on the hill to lend her voice to this conversation, she has just been a tireless advocate in calling out those who are superspreaders of misinformation, calling for more Content Regulation that are from the social media companies and others who really are the gatekeepers to what information so many of us see and therefore consume. I am thankful for her time today and even more thankful Senator Klobuchar come over to you. Sen. Klobuchar youre such an incredible Role Model and i love that youre taking on this issue with the Clinton Foundation. I also want to thank our other guests.