The Independent Republic of Mike Graham on Talk Radio.

Welcome to the Independent Republic of Mike Graham right here on Talk Radio.

It's been a very, very difficult few days for an awful lot of people.

The Marines were repatriated, as I say, to America yesterday.

Joe Biden was seen at the airport as the coffins were being taken off,

draped in American flags and star-spangled banner.

Always a difficult moment for anybody.

Some of the families getting very, very worked up about the fact that their children died in vain.

Tobias Elwood, who is, of course, Conservative MP, chair of the Defence Select Committee, wrote a brilliant piece in the mail on Sunday in which he said, if this is what defeat looks like, I don't know what does.

The reverberations for what happened last week are still going on.

Let's talk to Tobias now.

Tobias, very good morning to you.

Good morning.

Thanks very much indeed for joining us. A great piece at the weekend in which I think you encapsulated all of our thoughts

in terms of what's happened, why it happened, how it could have been stopped. The carnage,

as you describe it, has been caused entirely by Joe Biden and his policy. And it could have been

so different, couldn't it? It certainly could have done.

He picked up the same policies that Donald Trump started with by agreeing to all the conditions that the Taliban asked for in Doha and the talks that were taking place, the biggest

of which, of course, was the withdrawal of the US forces without any ceasefire in place,

without any agreement as to how the government

of Afghanistan would move forward. And by doing so, the Afghan forces straight away lost their

top cover. They lost their support, even for their equipment. And I'm afraid some of the bigger

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