During an interview with retired General Stanley McChrystal on Tuesday’s CBS Mornings, co-host and Democratic Party donor Gayle King rushed to protect President Biden from criticism of his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan by dismissing the legitimate questioning as “Monday morning quarterbacking.” She fretted that people weren’t being “fair” to the woefully incompetent administration.
“And as you watched this unfold, did you think that there was anyway that it could have gone – that it could have worked? That the plan could have worked the way it was executed?,” King wondered to the General, desperately trying to imagine a scenario in which Biden hadn’t suffered a massive foreign policy failure. “Well, I think it certainly could have...A certain amount of it’s fate,” McChrystal replied, offering the answer she hoped for.
King then complained: “And there’s a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking, a lot of ‘What we should have done, we could have done, why didn’t we do.’ And I don’t know if that’s necessarily fair.”
McChrystal remarked: “Well, I think, you know, you put people on the field, coaching the team or playing, it feels very different.” Though he did add the understatement of the year that “it didn’t go perfectly.”
Earlier in the discussion, co-host Nate Burleson asked: “Top military officials, they said they recommended leaving a small force in Afghanistan, which is a contradiction to what President Biden wanted to do. Should they have done things differently?” McChrystal mentioned that he would have also advised leaving a contingent of troops: “Well, it’s a tough decision....Had I made the decision, had I been asked to recommend, I probably would have left a residual American force.”
However, he qualified: “But I was emotionally wrapped up in the mission, I spent a long time there, and I’m free to admit I’m biased.” Co-host Tony Dokoupil seized on that admission: “That’s an important acknowledgment and an interesting one...”
If only King could have admitted her obviously “biased” perspective on the topic.
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Here is a full transcript of the October 5 exchange:
8:02 AM ET
(...)
NATE BURLESON: Let’s start with Afghanistan though. Top military officials, they said they recommended leaving a small force in Afghanistan, which is a contradiction to what President Biden wanted to do. Should they have done things differently?
RET. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: Well, it’s a tough decision. You remember the Doha agreement negotiated by President Trump’s administration, it said we would pull every American soldier out. So President Biden was left to the decision either to abrogate that agreement or to confirm it. He actually delayed it but then made the decision to go through with the withdrawal. I think the assessment was the Taliban, who had held off attacking Americans during that 18 month period wouldn’t have stopped doing that. So it was a tough call. Had I made the decision, had I been asked to recommend, I probably would have left a residual American force. But I was emotionally wrapped up in the mission, I spent a long time there, and I’m free to admit I’m biased.
TONY DOKOUPIL: That’s an important acknowledgment and an interesting one and actually brings us to the book. But I do want one more question on Afghanistan. Keeping a force there, the argument would be that prevents Al Qaeda from making a resurgence. Are you concerned or are we capable of keeping Al Qaeda out of power or out of a powerful situation in the country without being there?
MCCHRYSTAL: It’s difficult, but the reality is global terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or ISIS can go a lot of places. So Afghanistan is not unique in that standpoint. They could operate from Pakistan or somewhere else. So I don’t think it hugely increases the threat to the United States homeland. My reason for leaving a force would be partly that. But the other reason is, I think we have a relationship with the Afghan people. I think they had a chance – now they’ve struggled and they’ve made a lot of mistakes – but I actually think that they have an opportunity to build a nation. And even going forward, I don’t think that opportunity’s dead. So I’m much more about the long-term strategic partnership.
GAYLE KING: You know the area very well, General. And as you watched this unfold, did you think that there was anyway that it could have gone – that it could have worked? That the plan could have worked the way it was executed? Did you see that?
MCCHRYSTAL: The withdrawal?
KING: Yes.
MCCHRYSTAL: Well, I think it certainly could have.
KING: It could have?
MCCHRYSTAL: It was a decision to try to get American forces out with as little risk as possible, so to use speed. The fact that the defense forces of the Afghan military collapsed so quickly, it could have been predicted but it wasn’t assured. It might have happened, it didn’t. It was a pretty effective information warfare campaign that the Taliban had been mounting for a long time. And so I don’t think it was shocking that that happened. But you know, that’s – operations like that are that way. A certain amount of it’s fate.
KING: And there’s a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking, a lot of “What we should have done, we could have done, why didn’t we do.” And I don’t know if that’s necessarily fair.
MCCHRYSTAL: Well, I think, you know, you put people on the field, coaching the team or playing, it feels very different. And so I would say, you know, it didn’t go perfectly.
(...)
