This is John Batcheter, conversation with Hossain,

Connie, former ambassador from Pakistan to the United States,

now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute

about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

What went wrong? The same focuses on timelines, on the U.S.

impatience, on the clock that the U.S. keeps when it interferes, intervenes, in some fashion, invades in

another land.

The Saina County on the Taliban, Afghanistan, the U.S. commitment from 2001 to 2021 and lessons learned about the U.S. commitment

from 2001 to 2021 and lessons learned about the failure of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

More of this later tonight.

I think I agree with Bill that it was when the political elites and the media started talking about withdrawing

from Afghanistan.

Look, wars cannot be fought according to a fixed timeline. We will start the war at 9 a.m. on such date and

end it at 6 p.m. on such date irrespective of where the enemy is. In fact when you do that you give rise to what the Taliban leader,

La Omar used to say, the Americans have watches, we have the time. And so basically when you say,

we have a schedule for getting out,

you are just signaling, okay,

you guys have until such and such time

to wait us out. And that's where the problem began. And this is not just in this war. I think this is a bigger question for America's political elite, media elite, and even the general public to think about. Never start a war unless you have the

will to win it, which basically means the defeat of the enemy, not having an artificial timeline by which you must withdraw.