then we started to take back territories and then it was very hard again. i appreciate this is a difficult question about your enemy, but i wonder how you would describe vladimir putin. translation: i don t believe that murderers have - any distinctive features. it is not about talent. it is not about geniuses who we should describe and remember. we talk about murderers. they may be different mass murderers, emotional ones. however, there are very pragmatic ones. he is a pragmatic murderer. he gives orders. he doesn t do anything with his own hands, but that doesn t relieve him of the responsibility. that is very important to understand. he loves power greatly, and that is primitive. it is very, you know, primitive. in english: it s not too smart. translation: here, l he clings with a number of tortured people. ..in ukraine, or it was in chechnya previously. after chechnya, you remember there was georgia and abkhazia and many more different conflicts, in syria and africa. e
kabul airport. afghan families desperate to escape the taliban s fanatical rule. they ll run behind you with the ak 47. and boom, boom, boom. our country is right now is finished. no more afghanistan. after 20 years of fighting. the united states military has begun strikes. the taliban will pay a price. and tens of thousands of of a began and american lives lost. we try not to think about it, because when you think about it, then i get like this. the united states became the latest super power to suffer defeat in afghanistan. we have defeated britishers, and now americans. and a generation of afghans who grew up knowing freedom saw their dreams denied. the taliban reimposed strict islamic law. i came here on this last trip less than two weeks ago, and afghanistan was a republic, backed by the united states. now it s an islamic emirate, run by the taliban. it did not have to be this way. the united states war in afghanistan started a lot earlier th
martha: we re expected to hear questions about that today and the full context of what that conversation was. my next guest knows what it s like to sit across a negotiation table with leadership of the taliban. chris galinda has fought the taliban as a commander in afghanistan. he s sat down at the table in an effort to try to find a way forward for the country. he serves multiple tours in afghanistan and an advisinger to our top generals there. he s the author of zero sum victory, what we re getting wrong about war. he joins me now. great to have you with us today, colonel. obviously you have so much experience in country and dealing with this issue. so i think one of the things that i want to begin with based on your history of trying to solve this problem starting in 2017, 18, when you see the coordination that the pentagon and the military was telling us about, how hurt so many people were by it in terms of what was going on at the airport, seeing the united states sa
the decision was made that a second bolstering force would be sent in, basically to help them, bolster what they were doing and get them. the force was a considerable force, bringing with them a considerable amount of weaponry, skill, combat experience, almost unparalleled among the u.s. military. and that second force was sent in on one of these, a huge u.s. army helicopter. there were 38 u.s. pretty cynical on board that helicopter. it was ten years ago this month, august six 2011 and that night somehow it may have just been a lucky shot, with a low tech rocket propelled grenade, but somehow that gigantic helicopter with all those men on board was shot down. and the toll was absolutely devastating, everybody on board was killed. it was 22 u.s. navy seals. three u.s. air force airman, five u.s. army and national guard soldiers. seven commandoes from the afghan national art me, seven afghan commandoes and afghan translators, also u.s. military working dog that was assigned to
taxis off. there are people holding onto the aircraft, as it takes off. and as it flies away. at least two people were seen falling several hundred feet from one of the planes. sickening. haunting, as well. this photo posted on the website defense one. about 640 people, according to defense one, on an aircraft designed to carry 102 troops. afghans, desperate to leave. right now, according to the pentagon, there are about 2,500 u.s. troops securing the airport. late today, the president said their number will rise to as many as 6,000 but only to secure the evacuation. before that, in words laying blame squarely on our former ally, the president justified his decision to end all-military involvement. so, i m left, again, to ask of those who argue that we should stay, how many more generations of americans daughters and sons would you have me send to fight afghan afghanistan s civil war? when afghan troops will not. how many more lives, american lives, is it worth? how ma