This is GPS, the Global Public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States

and around the world. I'm Farid Zakaria coming to you live from New York.

Today on the show the Taliban are bearing down on Kabul after a lightning fast

march across Afghanistan. We will get the latest live from the capital city. My

guests include the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen.

Also Mahbubah Saraj, a fierce advocate for women's rights in that country.

We will also look at climate change. After a UN body released a stunning report

this week, climate envoy John Kerry will help us understand how bad the

prognosis is and what can be done about it. And the Greek Prime Minister will

tell me about the wildfires that have devastated his nation.

But first here's my take. As we watch the tragedy that is unfolding in Afghanistan,

let's first dispense with the fantasy that the United States was maintaining the

peace there with just a few thousand troops and that the situation could have

been managed with this small commitment. For the last couple of years it sure

looked that way to Americans because Washington had made a deal with the

Taliban and as a result the Taliban was deliberately not attacking US and

coalition forces. For the Afghans the war had been intensifying. In the summer of

2019 the Afghan army and police force suffered their worst casualties in the

two decades of fighting. It was also the worst-spirit for Afghan civilian

casualties in a decade. In 2018 when the United States had four times as many

troops as this year the fighting was so brutal that 282,000 Afghan civilians

fled their homes in the countryside. Frustration with the Afghan government and

...