'Special Report' All-Star panel on US response to Taliban's gains in Afghanistan

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Mollie Hemingway explains 'impossible task of nation-building' in Afghanistan

'Special Report' All-Star panel analyzes the US response to the Taliban's gains in Afghanistan

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report" August 13, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. 

TRACE GALLAGHER: Let's bring in our panel, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at
"The Federalist," Charles Lane, opinion writer for "The Washington Post,"
and Steve Hayes, editor of "The Dispatch." Welcome to you all. One month
ago today, Mollie -- not today, but one month ago, maybe a few days after
that, it seems that President Biden said it was highly unlikely that the
Taliban would take over in Afghanistan. Today Congressman Mark Green of
Tennessee, also an Afghan vet, he said this. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARK GREEN, (R-TN): The truth of the matter is this surprised them.
They were not expecting this. No one in Congress was briefed this was going
to happen. They got caught with their pants down.

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: No outcome has to be inevitable here.
I'm not going to speculate about surprise. We're obviously watching this
just like you are watching this and seeing it happen in real time, and it's
deeply concerning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: He wouldn't speculate about surprise, but it sure appeared to be
a surprise, Mollie. Your thoughts?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": The pundits and media
and politicians are talking about the incompetence of the exit or how
surprised they are about what it is like to leave Afghanistan. But they
shouldn't be surprised. This is the natural result of 20 years of failed
strategy. They should be talking about the incompetence of the strategy
that this country used for two decades.

We went from using our military to fight and win wars into the impossible
task of nation-building. When we were attacked on 9/11, we needed to have a
swift and serious response. We did that. But then President Bush took his
eyes off the ball. We got mired in the Iraq War. He and Cheney and Obama
and Biden then took on this task of nation-building in Afghanistan, the
country historians call the graveyard of emperors. That is what people need
to focus on so that we never do it again. When our military is used, we
need to have clear, strategic objectives. We need to get in and get out.
And that is what people don't want to talk about, but it's the most
important lesson to learn right now.

GALLAGHER: She makes a good point, Steve, because the idea really was after
9/11 you go in and you attack the people that attacked you, and then it was
about democracy building. Hopefully their thought was that was going to
stop al-Qaeda from coming in. And here we are 20 years later, and it seems
like the door is back open for Al-Qaeda to come back in, Steve. Your
thoughts?

STEVE HAYES, EDITOR, "THE DISPATCH": Yes, it sure does. Al-Qaeda never left
Afghanistan. It's important to have a big discussion about the overall
strategy, and I think there are plenty of ways in which the strategy in
Afghanistan failed over the past two decades. But it definitely matters if
the Biden administration was surprised by the swiftness of the Taliban
advance. You have had statements from Biden administration officials in
recent days that are very close to Baghdad Bob territory. You had Ned
Price, you just played a clip of him a moment ago saying last week that the
Taliban want a durable solution through negotiations. There is no evidence
whatsoever that the Taliban want a durable solution through negotiations.

You have had other senior administration officials talking about how the
United States would threaten to isolate the Taliban if it takes Afghanistan
by force. The Taliban isn't worried about being isolated. And by the way,
as this is all unfolding, the Taliban can look next door to Iran, which is
the world's greatest state sponsor of terror, continuing to conduct attacks
against Americans and our interests, and we're not isolating Iran. We're
inviting Iran to be part of the world community. So the arguments that you
are getting from the Biden administration suggest that they were surprised
by this because they are so incoherent.

GALLAGHER: And it's not fair to say, Chuck, that John Kirby wouldn't use
the word "combat," but, boy, he was really hesitant. I want to watch this
back and forth with he and Lucas Tomlinson and get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LUCAS TOMLINSON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Do you consider this a combat
mission?

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: This is a very narrowly focused
mission of safeguarding the orderly reduction of civilian personnel out of
Afghanistan.

TOMLINSON: Marines and the soldiers that are now strapping on going to
Kabul, this isn't combat?

KIRBY: Lucas, Lucas, what I'm telling you is, and I have said it before,
they will have the ability to defend themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: They're trying to fly civilians, Chuck, out of what used to be
Kabul International Airport, right. And the Taliban is maybe hours or days
away from taking over. It sure looks like this could become a combat
mission.

CHARLES LANE, OPINION WRITER, "WASHINGTON POST": It could. A great question
that I think no one knows the answer to is what is more in the Taliban's
interest, to stand back a while and let the Americans go peacefully so they
don't risk retaliation from these very capable U.S. troops, or to somehow
engage them and bloody them and try to embarrass them further and make
things even more difficult for President Biden.

I just want to go back to what Mollie said with her second guessing and so
forth of this mission and focus on today and what is happening today. And
what is happening today, whether you like it or not, whether we should have
been there or not, is that thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people
who depended on us are now left high and dry and exposed to tremendous
potential reprisals and violence at the hands of this extreme Islamist
group, number one.

And number two, allies all over the world, Japan, Korea, the Middle East,
Latin America, are all asking themselves today, are we going to end up like
these folks in Kabul? Maybe highly imperfect and so forth, but put their
trust in the United States. And at the end of the day, one fine day the
president said, contrary to the advice of my military advisers who tell me
that with just 2,500 troops we can make a go of it, we are leaving.

GALLAGHER: Yes, and Mollie, you can respond to that. These people, these
interpreters, these people who we depended on for years need to get out.
We're trying right now to get them out.

HEMINGWAY: It's absolutely true that the Pentagon did not make good exit
plans, in part because they were trying to trick President Biden into
staying there. That's what our Pentagon has done. That is how they have
been able to keep people there. But the fact is that rather than focusing
on what's in the Taliban's interest, we need to be thinking about what is
in our interest. It is not in our interest to spend trillions of dollars,
20 years, and all of the lives that we lost for a mission that couldn't
even be sustained for a few days without that level of support.

GALLAGHER: Here we go quickly, Winners and Losers. Steve?

HAYES: My winner are air conditioner repairmen. With nearly half of the
country under excessive heat watch, they have been awfully busy lately, and
I think are making some good bucks. My loser is David Mikkelson, the head
of the left leaning factchecking outfit Snopes who was busted with more
than 60 articles of plagiarism. Plagiarism used to be a capital offense.
People can recover from it now, but he should be more than suspended in my
view.

GALLAGHER: Chuck?

LANE: My winner is the state of Texas and the Republicans who currently run
it. They are going to pick up -- they are confirmed to pick up two seats in
the House per the census that came out this week. And call me captain
obvious, but my loser this week is Andrew Cuomo, the former, soon-to-be
former governor of New York, forced to resign over the sexual harassment
case.

GALLAGHER: He did resign? Mollie, you last?

HEMINGWAY: My winner are parents who are taking on the school boards for
pushing bad ideas such as Critical Race Theory and other racist ideas on
their children. My loser, Secretary Mayorkas who is overseeing the
humanitarian disaster at the border caused by the Biden administration's
policy.

GALLAGHER: Thank you all. 

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