Well, I'm just really pleased to have a conversation about something incredibly difficult and developing and changing.

So I just want to start by saying it is Monday morning around noonish, eastern time, 10 o'clock mountain time,

and things are changing so fast on what is happening in Afghanistan, that that's the context from which I'm having

the conversation with Mindy Belts, who's senior editor at World News Group, and has been covering

the Middle East for decades now. She's the author of a book. They say, we are infidels on the run from ISIS with persecuted Christians.

That's a big part of her emphasis as a reporter who is a Christian, has spent an awful

lot of time in the Middle East.

And Mindy, I just can't say thanks enough because I know, you know, for you, this story is not only moving fast,

it's not only kind of your beat for so long, but these are a lot of your friends in Afghanistan

that are being affected by these dramatic changes. So thank you so much for having the conversation.

Sure. That's all true. And I appreciate you asking the questions.

Well, you know, what's your take?

I mean, I'm just going to let you talk for a bit because it's moving so fast and there's

so many political fingers being pointed in blame.

And there, of course, is the Christians on the ground

who were decimated 20 years ago and recovered and now decimated or are being threatened

with decimation all over again. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, that's one of the things that I think

Americans have a hard time appreciating is, you know, I wouldn't just say decimated from 20 years ago. I would say that, you know, we've heard only bad news from Afghanistan for most of these 20 years since the U.S. war began. And the problem is that we haven't seen the good side. And the last time I was in Afghanistan,

I spent a lot of time at the University of Kabul, and I came away just energized by what I was

seeing from this college generation there. The women were not wearing the full Taliban burkas.

They were out in the streets in their scarves, talking to men, going to classes. I went to classes where

they were sitting in a room with other men. This was, this was revolutionary and it was a new day.

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