I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, April 15th.

We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should remain

there in 2021. That, of course, was President Biden yesterday announcing that he will withdraw all U.S.

troops from Afghanistan by or before September 11th, the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

It's a poignant and somber exit date, one that honors the nearly 3,000 lives lost that day,

but also admits that American militarism can only go so far in healing that loss and preventing

others like it. It's been 10 years since American troops

rooted out al-Qaeda and killed Osama bin Laden. And since then, we've tried to help the Afghan

government build a civil society and stave off the Taliban. Neither venture has succeeded.

So what did we lose? Are we admitting that the Afghan army is untrainable

in 20 years to compete with the Taliban for dominance or to stop them from being a safe haven

for terrorists again if they choose to? And what happens to girls' education and other women's

rights that we at least to some degree took it upon ourselves

to protect. Does the U.S. have any influence left on human rights without troops? Did we have any

even with? Here with me to go through some of these questions is David Sanger, White House

and National Security correspondent for the New York Times.

Hi, David. Great to have you back on the show. Welcome back to WNYC.

Good to be here. Can you remind listeners about how former President Donald Trump

paved the way for this Afghanistan decision? He wanted to get troops out by May 5th,

which is now the date that Biden said

troops will begin to leave. Are there any differences in the Biden and Trump versions of the exit?

There are some differences, though I would have to say that we are in a situation where the question isn't just the date, but it's how

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