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eligibility criteria apply for HSBC Premier. The views expressed on this podcast are those of the

participants, not of Rogers News. Was America right to abandon Afghanistan to its fate? And what

role will China play now? That's what Pete Sweeney and I will be discussing in our first segment

on the Views Room this week. Following that, we'll tackle the seismic shifts B.HP is experiencing

under Chief Executive Mike Henry's leadership.

Welcome to the Views Room, a podcast from Reuters Breaking Views.

I'm Anthony Curry, one of the editors of Breaking Views, coming to you from Down Under in Melbourne.

We'll return here later in the program to dig into the latest happenings at mining giant B.H.P. The cities and

countries' largest company by market value. First, though, let's turn to Afghanistan. The country

is back under the control of the Taliban almost 20 years after the United States invaded and removed

them from power. Their return has been swift, exposing poor US intelligence in the short

term, and in the longer term, America's failed two-decade attempt at nation-building that cost

at least $2 trillion and more than 250,000 lives. Fears now grow for human rights inside the country,

not least for women who weren't even allowed to be in public without a male chaperone under Taliban rule, let alone get an education or have a career.

The events of recent days have raised many other questions, including from our perspective

about America's choices and whether China now gets involved in the country as well.

Joining me to discuss this is Pete Sweeney up in Hong Kong. Afternoon, Pete, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you, sir? Good, thanks. Good, despite the news, of course, we're seeing. So, obviously, I mentioned there the human toll there and also the financial toll. But if we're to look at this, if we take a step back, and let's think about what America did. And obviously, we're channeling here to the extent one of our colleagues in America, Richard Beals, who's written about this, as well as you have this week. So what does this say about America's leadership? What does it say about whether America from a financial, political, moral perspective, whatever, should have stayed or gone? What's our thinking on this?

Well, I don't think either I or Richard believe or anybody, really, that I've met, that I find

credible, thinks that there was a viable long-term strategy for the United States to stay

...