AFTER TWO DEBATES, NO EXPLANATION: 2/8: Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End Hardcover – by Jerry Dunleavy (Author), James Hasson (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2024
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Kabul-Untold-Bidens-American-Warriors/dp/1546005307/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1701296521&sr=1-1
America’s chaotic retreat from Afghanistan in 2021 was nothing short of a horror show. Women and children were trampled to death outside the gates of the Kabul airfield. Desperate Afghans fell from the landing gear of departing planes. Taliban fighters mercilessly whipped and humiliated U.S. civilians trying to access the few square miles still controlled by American forces. Countless Afghan interpreters were abandoned to the mercy of the Taliban after risking their lives alongside American troops for years. And thirteen U.S. service members—eleven of whom were still in preschool on 9/11—were murdered in an ISIS suicide bombing that could easily have been prevented.
Still, the full story is worse than anyone imagined. Drawing from hundreds of hours of first-person interviews, investigative reporter Jerry Dunleavy and former Army Captain and Afghanistan veteran James Hasson provide an exclusive, no-holds-barred account of the disastrous events of August 2021. Kabul is packed with shocking and infuriating exclusive details about fatal politics and bureaucracy that contributed to the catastrophe. The authors also tell, for the first time, inspiring stories of the bravery and sacrifices exhibited by countless Americans on the ground.
Kabul's original reporting includes eyewitness accounts from servicemembers of all ranks who participated the rescue effort, inside information from senior intelligence officials, interviews with high-ranking members of allied governments, harrowing stories from Americans and Afghan allies willfully abandoned by craven officials in Washington, and exclusive details about veteran-led rescue missions that continue to this day. Chapter after chapter, Kabul depicts American government at its worst and “ordinary” Americans at their best.
1940 KHYBER PASS
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John John Batchelor with Jerry Dunleavy and James Hassan, the author of a new book |
| 0:09.6 | Cabell, the Untold Story of Biden's fiasco. |
| 0:12.0 | James, I come to you because the untold story of Biden's fiasco. |
| 0:25.0 | James, I come to you because you've spoken of Bagram and my understanding is that it was perfectly designed to do what you said to hold the country together. It's either 40 kilometers or 40 miles outside of Baghdad, |
| 0:29.0 | outside of Kabul, which would have been perfect for the operation of evacuation. |
| 0:34.7 | It also had all of the facilities to hold itself with troops and Air Base also was a listening post on China. It was magnificently well placed. |
| 0:45.8 | All of that is true. In doubts raised about leaving Balgram behind, the president |
| 0:52.3 | and his counselors, Mr. Blinkin, Mr. Sullivan, the National |
| 0:54.8 | Security. We're always mentioning 300,000 troops. You and Jerry make 300,000 a little |
| 1:01.3 | song that they sing for several chapters. What were they talking about, James? |
| 1:06.8 | Yeah, it's a great question. I'm really glad that you asked it because I think this is an underrated aspect of the |
| 1:16.3 | Biden administration's decision to withdraw, how they withdrew, and also how they |
| 1:21.8 | sold it to the American people. |
| 1:25.4 | As you mentioned, they repeatedly throughout the the spring of 2021 and even throughout the summer. |
| 1:37.0 | After President Biden announced that we were going to withdraw all troops, |
| 1:42.2 | they repeatedly claimed that the Afghan military was 300,000 strong. And President Biden at one point point said and I believe this was in his |
| 1:55.3 | April 2021 speech announcing the withdrawal from Afghanistan claimed that they were |
| 2:10.0 | therefore from Afghanistan claimed that they were therefore almost as strong as any, you know, first world country military. And they used this talking point to sell the idea that they could leave and the |
| 2:16.3 | Afghan military could simply, you know, carry on. And that 300,000 figure is just simply false for several reasons. First, the number that their calculation included local police, border police, and all kinds of other semi-paramilitar |
| 2:41.3 | units, which is absurd because if you if you think about it |
| 2:47.0 | I mean we wouldn't say that the the US military is is 10 million strong because we're counting police forces in Peoria, Illinois, or somewhere else. |
| 2:58.0 | It just makes no sense. |
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