S8 Ep176: The Vetting Failure and the Lack of an Exit Strategy in Afghanistan: Colleagues Husain Haqqani and Bill Roggioexplain that the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan was exacerbated by the lack of a methodical exit strategy, unlike the British who organized
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Summary
- The Vetting Failure and the Lack of an Exit Strategy in Afghanistan: Colleagues Husain Haqqani and Bill Roggioexplain that the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan was exacerbated by the lack of a methodical exit strategy, unlike the British who organized their departure and evacuation lists well in advance; critics argue that the U.S. imported significant security risks by rushing the evacuation, bringing in over 100,000 Afghans without adequate vetting, and while there was a moral obligation to help those who served, experts suggest that wholesale importation of citizens from a war-torn country was not the only solution and that better vetting or resettlement in third countries should have been considered.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Bats with my good colleagues, Hasei Kani and Bill Rajo, and we're looking at the |
| 0:09.5 | D.C. tragedy of recent note by a man who was trained as a fighter for his country, Afghanistan, |
| 0:18.0 | by the United States during the 20 years or more, the U.S. and its allies were in Afghanistan. |
| 0:24.5 | When they left, however, this man's unit and his family were part of a bargain that was made |
| 0:29.8 | that the U.S. promised to get them out and resettle them in the U.S. |
| 0:34.6 | if and when they provided security for the retreat from Karzai Airport in downtown Cabell. |
| 0:41.9 | Bill, you had comments, and then I'd like you to answer the question about the U.S. commitment to |
| 0:47.6 | Bagram and Kabul. |
| 0:49.3 | Has anyone, in your experience, at Sencom then or Sencom since since, all the retired men since have they commented on this catastrophe? |
| 0:58.5 | Go ahead, Bill. |
| 0:59.0 | You had a question. |
| 1:00.3 | Yes, sure. |
| 1:01.1 | And, you know, look, had we stayed in Afghanistan, it would have been Fortress Kabul, Fortress Bogram, possibly some other key provincial capitals. |
| 1:10.6 | The Taliban, you know, I tracked this. |
| 1:13.3 | I was the one who created that map that showed the Taliban taking over districts. And it was |
| 1:18.8 | significant at the point that the withdrawal was announced. I concur with Hussein. We built the wrong |
| 1:25.3 | military. We also built the wrong government. It needed a more |
| 1:28.6 | decentralized government. How we built the military set the Afghans up for failure. But I wanted |
| 1:34.8 | address really quickly the problems, you know, of bringing in, you know, our allies here, right? |
| 1:41.8 | We have problems here. I agree gun violence is an issue. |
| 1:47.5 | But we should be careful about importing other people's problems, right? |
| 1:51.8 | You know, further problems, specifically a country that's been at war for five decades, |
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