Breaking: Taliban Declares Victory - “the War is Over”

This is Logan Sekulow breaking news.

The Taliban declares victory, stating the war is over. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments.

Or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow joining you.

We are talking about the news out of Afghanistan. We're going to be doing that for the remainder of the show. But I did want to start by talking about something quite personal that's going on with our family. I'm going to pitch to my dad who is currently not in studio, but is connected to us via remote. And I'll let him take it from here, but we will be talking about that coming in the next segment. Rick Grenell will be joining us.

We'll be discussing what's going on in Afghanistan and the response. But dad, I'll pitch it to you from here. Well, this is really hard, but as you know, a lot of you have been praying for my brother who contracted COVID about two weeks ago, a little bit more.

And a lot of you, I mean, we've gotten thousands of people praying that were praying and sending me notes and sending our team notes. And I'm sad to report that my brother Scott passed away late last week from COVID. But I want to take this moment to share with you, and this is very hard for me. This COVID pandemic is real and it's affected the Sekulow family as it has affected hundreds of thousands of other families in the United States and millions of families around the world.

And my brother, my kid brother, he was younger than me by 10 years. He succumbed to the disease after the doctors did everything they could do. But he made a decision not to be vaccinated and everybody makes their own decisions, but decisions unfortunately have real consequences. I chose to be vaccinated. This is not a hoax.

This isn't pretend. The government did mandate me to be vaccinated. I decided and my family decided that that's what's the best for us because it does affect other people. And unfortunately, the persons affected by this are really my niece, Scott's 19-year-old daughter and his wife, Judy. And it's like I said, it's a totally tragic, horrible situation.

It's hard to even talk about. But so many of you have been praying for him that I want to let you know what happened. And again, I want you to take precautions.

Talk to your doctor. Take this seriously. This is not pretend.

This is real. And this disease took my brother's life. Again, was it avoidable? The vaccine was available. He chose not to take it.

There was a difference between probably a head cold and his loss of life. Logan. So I'll take it from here. Look, we wanted to make sure we kept you updated with what happened there. A lot of you have called in and people are calling late last week and texting through our texting service and reaching out about this. We are going to move on the show, discuss the topic of the day. As you've all seen, there is chaos in Afghanistan and though personally we are grieving and we are dealing with a personal loss that is grave.

We want to make sure we provide you the latest up to date information. What's happening in Afghanistan? You may have watched the show late last week. Thursday we were discussing it and it was a shocking moment to see how quickly things changed. So the next segment where we joined by a senior advisor, the ACLJ and obviously former director of national intelligence, Rick Grenell. And this is what the spokesperson for the Taliban said. This is what set off this show, which is today is a great day for the Afghan people and the Mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years. Thanks to God, the war is over in the country and that is coming again directly from the Taliban. You've seen the photos have taken over practically the country at this point. Just horrifying imagery, people trying to flee and we'll be discussing that in detail in the next segment as well as the remainder of the show.

If you have your thoughts, we would love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air.

I know a lot of you, many of you listened probably even served in Afghanistan. I'd love to hear from you as well. 1-800-684-3110 or put your comments in on Facebook. Make sure to share. Do all the things you do to support this show. Make sure people see it.

We'll be right back with more on second. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support. For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Secula. We are joined by Rick Grinnell, Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy at the ACLJ, and also my dad, who is joining us remotely as well, discussing the chaos that's happening. If you've watched the news the past weekend or this morning in Afghanistan, you're probably seeing what our horrific imagery coming from the airports as people are trying to flee the country. And we wanted to go to Rick to discuss this. Rick, I know you got a lot to say about the current process.

We discussed this on Thursday. I think even the Trump administration was for a pullout of Afghanistan, but clearly we picked the wrong route, it seems, on the way that we're handling this. Yeah, look, let's be very clear that President Trump wanted a conditions-based withdrawal. And some of those conditions were not met. And President Trump would have adjusted the policy if, in real time, you're monitoring the conditions that you put in place. What President Biden has done is change that policy and he got rid of all of the conditions-based withdrawal policies. And so what we have seen from the Biden team is no conditions put on the Taliban or the government of Afghanistan in order to get the U.S. troops out. And I think therein lies the disastrous failure. I'll give you one example of the conditions that President Trump put on, which was that we would leave no military hardware, equipment, guns behind.

We would destroy them. That obviously was a change in policy that the Biden team implemented and they decided to withdraw and leave all of the equipment behind. Yeah, clearly a much different – go to Dad – much different strategy involved. And we're having people who are responding and are getting calls and comments from people who have family currently in Kabul and Afghanistan and everywhere. And the messages that you're getting, Dad, simply are just heartbreaking because this is a 20-year war that we've been at.

Practically most of my life we've been part of this since obviously 9-11, 20th anniversary coming up just around the corner. But, Dad, this is heartbreaking time for a lot of people who are watching what's going on in what seemed like a relatively stable place not that long ago. Well, the tragedy, of course, is look who's been impacted and that is the Afghan soldiers that fought along our teams, the translators.

The women and girls are going to be treated horribly. And, Rick, one of the things that I am so distressed over in this situation is the fact that while I think the consensus was this kind of, like you said, conditioned withdrawal out of Afghanistan, that the Biden administration just went on full tilt without any real thought. And it's hard to believe the generals allowed this. Of course, the commander-in-chief says that they have to do it, and I'm not privy to what was going on in there. But this was a total miscalculation which could have serious consequences, which is having serious consequences. And let's be also clear that the Biden administration, and specifically Joe Biden, directly blamed the intelligence community for this failure.

They said that they were warned that it would take months. And I can tell you through talking to career intelligence officials that that's not true, that they warned that this was a very serious situation that would immediately go into chaos. And so it's hard to predict, or it's incredibly naive to expect our intelligence officials to predict exactly when the Taliban would rise. But what I'm hearing from career officials is that they were very clear that chaos would ensue and that the Biden team didn't have any conditions put on them.

And lastly, let's just say what we all know to be true. We've spent the last several months with our military leaders more concerned about critical race theory and white power. And we've seen the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talking about this issue in very troubling terms. And it's clear now that they should have been planning more for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and that's not what they were doing.

They took their eye off the ball, and now we see that they have evidence. Rick, go ahead. Sorry, go ahead.

No, go ahead, Roland. No, speaking of keeping your eye off the ball, I know you've commented on this. An image came around of President Biden meeting with his national security team via Zoom and social media team clearly not caring about the confidentiality of a lot of the members, as you saw. I don't know if we should even say necessarily what was in the imagery, but things that clearly should not have been public. Outed intel officials who are undercover, and they put them up on a screen, and they took the picture at Camp David, and they put it out.

Now, look, that's just sloppy work. That recklessness from the staff and whoever else approves it, Susan Rice is clearly involved here. And so to be able to have some adults who can look at the information and say, no, you can't release this photo because it shows intel officials who are undercover, that was never done.

And this just emphasizes the fact that this is J.P. Howard. You know, one of the things, Rick, I was thinking here is we don't look at these things in a vacuum. We look at them globally, and that's why we're thrilled that you're part of our team as we make assessments on this. But I'm thinking about people like the translators that helped our troops so significantly. We've had former staff that have worked and served in Afghanistan. We have current staff that have served in Afghanistan. And I'm looking at the situation and trying to figure out, you've got these Afghan citizens that were really assisting the United States, and then you had this withdrawal with obviously no planning.

The scenes that are being depicted in the media are just horrific. And it really makes you wonder if, in fact, the next go round of some kind of situation like this, how bad can these things play out, and what is the thought process? You're the director of national intelligence, is being put in this to avoid this again. I mean, they have to be doing a post-assessment here of what has gone wrong. Well, first of all, the new director, not so new anymore, but the current director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, has got a lot of questions to answer because her boss, Joe Biden, just threw the entire career intelligence community under the bus.

He blamed them for not warning him. And so I think the question should be asked, what does Avril Haines think? Did her team, did the intelligence team warn President Biden about what could happen, or were they wrong? Because either way, we need to have some sort of transparency. We've called on Avril Haines to be transparent about her report on the Saudis. We've called on her to be transparent on the outing of Tucker Carlson's name. And I think this is now a pattern that she's so silent and she's so unable to answer tough questions that we don't actually know what the truth is.

And this just doesn't help the credibility that we've seen over the last couple of years that the intelligence community is facing with the American people. Go ahead, Logan. All you. All right, so I was going to say this. You tweeted out yesterday that the disasters of Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan all had Susan Rice, Wendy Sherman, and Joe Biden leading the way. And when will the D.C. type learn?

And I was thinking about this. These same people were in the Obama administration. We got the same horrible results.

They've now all been promoted. I mean, we've said that before in this broadcast. And now they're running these agencies or they're the head of the, now they're in the White House when they were in the State Department before, wherever it might be.

And I think to myself that they aren't learning, Rick. That's the real tragedy of this, is that it's history repeating itself again. Susan Rice now has on her record the disaster in Benghazi, where she took to the airwaves and lied about what was going on.

And we all saw that on Sunday shows. And now the pulling out of Afghanistan and the disastrous unfolding of the Kabul airport and when we see Afghans jumping on a plane that is moving and trying to get off the runway and AP I just saw was reporting at least seven people died in that incident. I mean, this is really scary stuff when you think that the United States credibility. Jay, I want to go back to your point about what does this do for our credibility around the world. And I think that not only are our enemies looking at this and what kind of message does this send to Iran right now, which is clearly trying to take over Iraq. Maybe they're going to look at this and say, well, now's our time. So the U.S. military needs to be ready and we need to be learning the lessons of what just happened. But also, what does this say to our allies, Taiwan, for instance, who are really concerned about U.S. resolve and Joe Biden's weakness? Well, President Biden will speak today at three forty five.

Even though yesterday they reported it may be a day or two or a couple of days. Clearly, the pressure is on. We will take a look at what he has to say.

I think it will be an interesting time for a lot of people to watch. Look, there's an entire generation. Something I'm working on right now is to give people a full out of even what happened 20 years ago.

Nine eleven leading into the Taliban, leading into an entire war. Is there an entire generation of people who work here who were two years old when when all of this started happening? So I think you got to remember, we got to keep people educated.

What's going on? A lot of those people are people who are voting currently are currently there. They need to know what they're voting for.

They also need to know what the history is. So we're going to work on some interesting pieces coming up very soon for those that you can spread and share. And that'll be probably at ACLJ.org. Thank you, Rick, for joining us.

We'll be back with more on secular. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected, is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. First, I want to say a lot of you are watching right now on social media, on Facebook or on YouTube or Twitter. The declaration of victory, I want to clarify what that means because a lot of people are saying, What does that mean? As you saw, our headline is, The Taliban Declares Victory.

This is what they said. This is from this Taliban spokesman. Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the Mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years. Thanks to God, the war is over in the country.

It declares a very definitive victory. I'm going to first take a phone call. Then we're going to continue the discussion. Rick Grenell is still joining us. My dad as well, Jay Sekulow. Let's go to Steven who is calling in North Carolina. Steven, you're on the air.

Yes, sir. I was just commenting on, I'm an Afghan and Iraqi veteran. When we pulled out of the countries, I mean, it's kind of sad that all the brothers and sisters that died over there, you know, that we put the same tyrants back in office when we pulled out. Like we went over there to defeat the Taliban and now Taliban is back in office. They're back in control. And that was the whole reason of us going over there was to defeat the Taliban.

And then as soon as we pull out, everything goes to chaos. Steven, I'm definitely sharing your sentiment and a lot of people feel the same way. I do want to say something that Wes Smith said. Obviously, thank you for your dedication and your service.

Wes Smith, Colonel, who will be joining us later in the show, you do have to look at some of the wins and say, because I know people are thinking that, which is the original mission was to go take out al-Qaeda, to take out Osama bin Laden. Those things were accomplished. So your sacrifice was not in vain totally. But, Dad, there is that feeling from I'm sure a lot of people who had either lost loved ones or were like Steven in North Carolina who went and fought for our country and feel like we just gave up. Sure, and I want to echo what you said, and I'm going to go to Rick on this right away, and that is our soldiers, men and women that served our country in Afghanistan did not do this in vain.

Remember initially the idea was keep the battle over there so it didn't come over here because they were, as we unfortunately experienced, they were trying to bring the battle here. So, Rick, we don't lay this on the feet of the men and women in armed services that have given their blood, sweat, and tears and lives in some cases, many cases, to protect us. Rick, this was not a failure of the frontline soldier. This was a failure of the administration's disengagement. Look, I will also, let's just be very clear that our men and women who went over to Afghanistan and Iraq, their service was not in vain. They defeated the Taliban, they defeated Al Qaeda, and really made sure that we didn't have a caliphate in that region.

So, they should be incredibly proud of their service. I think we lost Rick. Let's try reconnecting with Rick and see if we can get a better connection to continue that conversation.

Sorry about that. Dad, there are a lot of calls coming in. Let's go ahead and take one more, and I think this is one that Rick can speak to when we reconnect with him as well. This is from Carolyn, who is in Georgia on Line 2. And if you want to be on the air, 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Carolyn.

I think we have Rick back. Let's go to Carolyn. Carolyn, sorry.

Hi, Jay and Logan. First, I wanted to send my condolences. Thank you. I'm so sorry.

Thank you. Do you think China will try to take advantage of the situation currently going down in Afghanistan? I think that's a perfect question for Rick Grenell. Rick, what do you think?

Yeah, I think definitely China is going to take advantage, and they already have started to take advantage of the situation. And to finish what I was saying before is that the men and women of the U.S. military did incredible service. The politicotypes, the ones who decided to put all of our faith in the government of Afghanistan, and the government of Afghanistan failed us, are the ones to blame.

So I would say that the U.S. military did an incredible job, and it's the government of Afghanistan that wasn't able, after 20 years, to stand up. Yeah, but I think we're just having difficulties with Rick. We're sorry, Rick.

Let me finish that up if I can, Logan, for Rick. I know what you're saying. No, listen, again, we've got to double down on this. Our men and women in the military did a phenomenal job, and Osama bin Laden was taken out, and Al Qaeda was disassembled.

Now, could they regrow again? Look, the Taliban are tough. We've known that. The Russians tried to take him out.

They weren't able to do it. But we have delayed, for two decades, the ability of the Taliban-led terrorists to impact the United States directly. So I think we have to acknowledge the success that our men and women have had in that regard. You know, the sad part of this is I think there's reports—I don't know if this is true, Logan—that 6,000 troops are now being deployed to Afghanistan. There's a lot of— The whole thing, yeah. There is definitely a lot of reports that thousands of troops are being deployed.

I know of some very specifically that are being deployed or have been deployed, currently people who are involved in, you know, friends and family that we have here at the ACLJ. So that's happening. I did want to take you back. This just shows you how quickly things have changed. This is a conversation, obviously, from President Biden and a reporter just last month, so just a little over a month ago. And here's the question and comment. You'll take a listen.

Let's go to Byte17. Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? No, it is not.

Why? Because you have the Afghan troops that have 300,000 well-equipped, as well-equipped as any army in the world, and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable. So it was not inevitable a month ago, and we can try back, Rick, and see if this connection is working.

Not inevitable a month ago, and then there was a 90 days that they thought it could be inevitable, and then it became, you know, six days, and everything fell apart. What we've learned is that being equipped does not mean being able to fight, and again, we go back to the government of Afghanistan, just was not able to, after massive amounts of training, they weren't able to get the job done. It is sad. I know a lot of people are calling in, again, who lost loved ones or have family there right now fighting, you know, many of our friends and family do, and obviously pray for them in this chaotic world. There's not only pray for the Americans that are over there, but look at the people. All, every woman, I mean, they were saying in the news that you saw the mass exodus, people trying to get on these airplanes, and there was not a single woman to be found in that entire thing.

They are in hiding because of what they know the Taliban means for them. It's something we can easily lose sight of, and it's something that, you know, it's very easy to go, to lose sight of your own narrative, and to be, I always say that, you know, people don't want to be, you know, stuck into claiming if their guy had a success or a failure. This is time to be honest and say, look at what's happening, how do we address it, not just politically, how do we address it from a global point of view, because it's a disaster. There are certain, sure, you can point blame as much as you want, but we also are going to have to figure out what the future holds. And, Dan, I think as we head out to the break, is maybe the biggest unknown is what the future may hold for that region of the world. It's a dangerous time for the region of the world, it's a dangerous time for the administration because they got to get this right, they got it wrong this time, and they can't blame every other administration. This word, like you said, Logan, has been going on for 20 years, so it is time to re-look at, you got to seriously look at the mistakes that were made here and acknowledge them. We'll see what the President says this afternoon, but what a tragedy, and I just, I fear for those people on the ground, including our own.

Oh, absolutely our own. Hey, if you want to call in, we do have a second half hour of the show coming up, and I'd love to hear from you. We've had some great calls, I know there's some people on hold already, we're going to get to you.

1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. We'll be joined by Colonel Wes Smith, our senior military analyst, in the next segment throughout the next half hour of Sekulow. Again, if you want to support the work of the ACLJ, it is part of the Matching Challenge right now, that's at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back.

Protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Keepin' you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow, we're going to do another half hour of Sekulow and discuss all of what we just had, we just had Rick Rinnell on, my dad remotely, now we have Than Bennett joining us, we have Wes Smith joining us as well later in the show, to discuss all that's happening in Afghanistan.

We have about four minutes in this segment. Than, I wanted to get your view of how this is being treated in Washington, you're there right now, what people's thoughts are in general, because there is relative silence from a decent amount of people. We were looking this morning, you think of the most people who are most socially active, like in AOC, those kind of people who are always on the front lines of humanitarian crisis, and look, I'm all for that, silent. No response, not part of the narrative.

I just wanted to get your thoughts. Yeah, there is silence, Logan, and I think there's reason for that. Look, if you zoom out, you may rewind a few months, there were competing views on whether or not to leave a small force behind. I think there were competing views in both parties, by the way. But there was a pretty clear bipartisan majority for a withdrawal, but here's the problem, Logan, there was a bipartisan majority for an orderly withdrawal, and obviously what we're seeing is anything but. So when you see a situation where the security that is keeping the peace goes first, and that leaves behind allies, think about pilots, think about translators, and it also leaves the vulnerable behind without protection. There is no accommodation made, whether it be American visas or transferred for the vulnerable to other countries. Logan, that really leaves you without anybody to defend your flank if you're the administration.

Nobody wants to defend a disorderly withdrawal, even if you think it's time for the war to end. That's why I think you're seeing silence. And by the way, Logan, I just can't pass up on the opportunity. You're seeing people fall from airplanes as they take off. You're seeing images of fathers with their face in their hands because their 15-year-old daughter, Logan, think about this, a father's 15-year-old daughter is taken from him by armed men and he doesn't know where she is.

The truth is, he does know figuratively where she is, but he doesn't know where she is literally. Logan, that is a situation that no American, no matter your political affiliation, should stand for. America's got to be better than this. Yeah, I absolutely agree.

It is heartbreaking to watch. As Will and I have discussed, it's a war that's been going on practically our entire life. And there's been a discussion we had on Thursday when it wasn't quite where it is now. And Wes Smith, I believe, is joining us. He's connected.

Is that correct? Wes, so much has changed since Thursday and I guess it's just a part of war that's unfortunate. Sometimes things can shift rather quickly and this has become a disaster.

Yeah, it really has. And it's very sad. I mean, the pictures and the stories coming out of there, the chaos, it's really tragic. But basically, the chaos that's going on now and all of the dramatic tragedy that's going on at this moment is part of the total mismanagement by the Biden administration, and I'll be honest, by the leadership at the Pentagon. Some of the administration are trying to blame the intelligence community. This was not an intelligence failure. It was a failure by thinking that the Taliban and our negotiations with them were a true negotiating partner and then not using U.S. capabilities to check the chaos there.

How did it end up this way? There are so many reasons. It's a product of a corrupt and inept Afghan government financed and propped up by billions of U.S. dollars combined with, Logan, an Afghan military. Even though we trained them and equipped them, they did not exhibit courage on the battlefield. They did not have the will to fight and to defend their own country, and that is a fact and a given. And then you have the fatalistic Afghan people at large who accepted the Taliban either as a given or they had sympathies with the Taliban. So it was chaos to begin with.

It is worse chaos now. The bottom line, we should have declared victory and left when Osama bin Laden was killed because by then Al-Qaeda was decimated. Thank you, Wes. We're just going to have you on for the rest of the half hour. Will just posted there was a tweet from Mike Pompeo. We're going to have him on tomorrow or later in this week to discuss about it. But he put our goals in Afghanistan.

We're going to make sure there was not ungoverned space where terror could be launched and to make sure our service members came home safe. And obviously we're seeing just an absolute mess there right now. The phone lines are pretty much full.

There are a couple open right now. 1-800-684-3110. We've been taking those and we're getting a lot of calls today. I'd love to hear if you are a vet, if you've served in Afghanistan, your take from this 1-800-684-3110.

We'll be right back with the next few segments of Sekulow. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLU would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Secula. We're going to take some phone calls that people have been holding for a long time. Mary Ellen's calling in Illinois. Let's just lead off with this. And then we're also going to hear from President Biden about things you thought you wouldn't see. We'll take it from there.

We'll tease that. Mary Ellen, you're on the air. Okay, yes. Please accept my sympathy for the loss of your loved ones. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Yes. Okay, a couple points. And I agree with everything that's been said. And I think that it's a failure at multiple levels under Biden. But my first thinking is, in terms of being a – I mean, I never was in the military.

I'm 76 years old. And I should think that the first thing that they think about or they should be focusing on is know your enemy. And the second point, I think it's a failure of – from the – at, you know, deep state, high levels, whatever, of intel and or military assessment that has invaded our government.

Yeah. Well, and that's something we talked about last week, that there was an intelligence assessment that said 90 days before the Taliban takes over. And that was just last week, that Kabul would fall in 90 days, that they would be surrounding the city in 30. So that came out last week. We talked about it on Thursday. And then it was maybe 90 hours later, if that.

If that. Like it was so fast that there was no resistance to the Taliban taking over, which just shows the catastrophe of it all, is that all the time spent training, building up, as Joe Biden referenced in the bite earlier, that, you know, they were so equipped, so well equipped, but when there wasn't the will to fight back or the training to fight back, or the government didn't really command the people in a sense that they supported them, to command the support of the people, that you have what happened. Yeah.

And Wes, we've discussed this, and I want to get your thoughts and Wes's comment. But I do think we also need to address the sort of horrifying images that are coming out of. We're seeing, as Thanh brought up, airplanes take off for United States, getting people evacuated. And there are people clinging on for dear life and some falling from airplanes just trying to get out of their own country. These are not the United States, the people in the embassy or any contract workers.

These are the people in their own country. Knowing what this means. And I want you to hear from President Biden again just about a month ago. About the situation and kind of how things were going to roll out, what we were going to see.

And let's take a listen, Bite 19, and then think about the imagery that you've seen just in the last day. Do you see any parallels between this withdrawal and what happened in Vietnam with some people feeling... None whatsoever. Zero. What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy.

Six, if I'm not mistaken. The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They're not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There's going to be no circumstances where you're going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. So you're not going to see that. Then let's take a look at the imagery, which has, of course, as fate would have it, just a month later. And from reports of people on the ground, that's exactly what's happening, which is, as you can see back in this image, we could go back to that image if we could. You have helicopters, Marines were sent in to evacuate people from the U.S. Embassy and from where contractors are to get people out.

So that's what we're seeing directly. So the exact opposite, Wes, of what was kind of presented to us as what a lot of us thought was not necessarily a bad thing, which was to at least the majority of the people to get our troops, the majority of the troops out. But what a mess. Yeah, it is a mess. You know, the graphic images coming out of Kabul today, and by the way, not only have we lost the capital city in Afghanistan, our ambassador folded the American flag and has left the country.

The embassy no longer is operating. Not only is all that going on, and Bagram Air Base, we invested a lot of money there, we've lost that. But the scenes coming out of this are worse, much worse than the scenes of the United States leaving Vietnam and the embassy in Saigon. And the 24-7 news cycle and social media communicate these dramatic scenes, you know, 24-7 as well. Basically, Logan, this is Saigon on steroids with thousands rushing the airport, clinging to U.S. aircraft, some being killed, attempting to flee men, women and children in a desperate panic.

You know, and the chaos, I think, could have been at least mitigated if not avoided. This reflects really poor planning by the Biden administration and some unrealistic expectations on the President's part. Maybe he got some bad information, but I think he just doesn't understand the situation on the ground. It's obvious he does not understand the military and how the military works.

Go ahead. I was saying, with all of that to be said, we had a vet who had served in Afghanistan call in, and we have work here, everyone pretty much knows somebody. We want to make sure they know their service was not in vain. Will and I have grown up in an era where this war has lasted the majority of our lives. Our parents would tell us stories about what happened in Vietnam and leaving Vietnam, and obviously you see movies all about it for the last 50 years about that. We don't want this to be that way. You don't want our soldiers treated that same way that maybe they were back then.

Oh, absolutely, yeah. For those of us who served in the military, it's today sort of a mixed bag of feelings. Most, I think, like me, believe it is time to leave, but there's frustration over how politicians changed our mission over the years that led us to all of this, as well as grief and sadness over those we lost. Over 800,000 U.S. soldiers deployed to Afghanistan over the last 20 years. Over 2,400 died, tens of thousands wounded, Gold Star families who have been irreparably changed and damaged. I mean, this has been a costly war, and so there are mixed feelings about it. Some say this is a humiliation for the United States.

Well, the humiliation is not about the United States military who accomplished their mission, Logan, years ago. Yeah, I was talking to my son. We were at Arlington Cemetery just over the weekend and was touring him around, and we were out front and saw the big monument, and it has the list of all the wars in the years, and Iraq and Afghanistan still have nothing at the end.

It's 2001, too. And I told him, I said, hey, this is something that in not only your lifetime, now you're saying that this will be filled in soon, that this will say 2021, that that war is over in Afghanistan. Sadly, it was hard to also explain, because he was like, well, did we win?

I was like, well, that's not as easy of an answer as one would hope. Well, and Wes brought up the fact that it's an embarrassment for the administration in a foreign policy disaster, but it's not just that, because it's an embarrassment with dire consequences. The fact that the Taliban was able to rush back through as swiftly as they did will have such a destabilizing effect that we'll see ripples of throughout the region. And if there was a controlled drawdown and through a different way transition from us being the major stabilizing force there, I think that that would have very different consequences.

Whether or not the Taliban eventually would be able to retake the country is one thing, but with how swiftly they just swept through the country and retook it and those images of them in the Presidential palace, I think it will definitely send ripples, and that embarrassment is a stain on the administration and the ability for the United States to lead in many ways in the coming years. I talked to my wife just yesterday. She said, you brought this up seven months ago, eight months ago, when you said, just wait. Just wait, because guess what we're going to be talking about in six, seven, eight months? Israel, ISIS, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, these are things that we have not even really, it hasn't even been on people's reference points.

A lot of kids have never even heard of these things, because it's been relatively quiet. And now regimes change, things happen, chaos ensues, and we're right back to where we were. And it's really horrifying and a shame, and I hate it, and I wish that there was an easy way to address this. But I think we have to be honest with ourselves and look at the big picture here. As Wes said, is it the time to go?

Yeah, likely. For the majority, it's probably the time to go. Did we handle it correctly?

Clearly not. And look, everyone's taking notice. You could say this is some conservative news bias. You have CNN saying, where is the President? You have CNN saying Biden's botched Afghan exit as a disaster at home. New York Times rushed evacuation in Kabul.

Highlights disconnected Washington. There are people saying that, but I want to set this up, and if we can hear this bite right before we go to break. This is what CNN just said, a CNN reporter in Afghanistan, bite number 33 right now. They're just chanting death to America, but they seem friendly at the same time. It's utterly bizarre. They're chanting death to America, but they seem friendly at the same time. It's utterly bizarre. It is an utterly bizarre situation. And maybe CNN, you need to figure out who your reporters are in this area. Because that's a ridiculous statement.

One of the more offensive statements that I've heard from CNN. But I'd love to hear from you. Because you're the viewer. You're the listener.

You control the narrative. I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air. We'll take some calls coming up in the next segment. So if you're on hold right now, we'll get to you. And then if you call in, you make it through, we'll get to you as well. While we're doing this, I wanted to say last minute, hey, thank you for all the support.

And the support of our family during some of these times, during this time of crisis within our own family. And I appreciate all the comments I'm getting. I can't respond to each and every one of them. I wish I could. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secula. We will just show you during the break. We've seen horrifying imagery in videos of people running and trying to jump onto airplanes and to get themselves out of Afghanistan because of what's happening. But now there's videos, and I think I brought it up, I've not seen it yet, but I saw it during the break, of bodies falling from airplanes that were trying to cling on. And it immediately, honestly, evokes the videos from 9-11. It's sort of the first of people trying to get out from their lives or just giving up. And it is a depressing, disappointing, horrifying look at things.

And I wish I had better analysis. And it's something that, not that we don't have an incredible team, we've kind of played main personally. One of the big parts of this whole piece, a big piece of the puzzle, is going to be explaining to the current generation, people that are in their early 20s, the situation that we all went through September 11th and what led to now. Because we were 15 when that happened.

We're now in our mid-30s. And obviously we can kind of judge everything as a pre-9-11 or post-9-11 world, whether that's the inconveniences that became of air travel or whether that is very specific wars that have taken place. And now this, the withdrawal in Afghanistan, is something that should have been, or we had at least hoped to be, a more joyous occasion when this war came to an end. Instead, it ends in an abrupt chaos and disaster.

And I can't help but put that together. 20 years, I mean, how poetic. Almost to the day, we're a couple weeks away, that it is hard to not look at it as a war in vain. As much as we have talked about this and had people have called in, we're going to take some more calls, who have said they felt that way as well, including those who served. We don't want to lose sight that there was some good that came of it.

There was accomplishments that happened. Al Qaeda, at least as of now, was taken out. We had the, Osama bin Laden was taken out. The world may be safer in some sense, but it's hard to feel that way. We're living in such chaos right now. And then when you see what's going on right now in Afghanistan and what's happening around our world, it feels different than any time we've ever lived in.

And for, I think, everyone, everyone who's part of this, whether that's from the pandemic or whether that is what's happening. It seems like every week there's something new to discuss that is reprehensible, that is horrifying. And I hate that for society. I hate that for my kids.

I hate that for everyone who has tried to do the best they could and sometimes things just go wrong. And that's what we're seeing right now. And one of the pieces of this that I want to make sure we get to is a full history where people see. So that's a process I've been working through this week is to come up with something that is somewhat comprehensive for kids that are 25. I mean, or 30. I mean, we were 15. So take it back five years. If you were five years, you were 10 years old. The impact of this of 9-11 was not the same as an adult for most people. Obviously, there are people who are directly affected, but we were in Florida.

I mean, it was it was a different time. But to make sure we give you a full layout of what happened, what's happening now, and what could possibly be coming in our future. And we're going to work on that here at the ACLJ. One thing I want to say also as we get to the end of the show, when Wes brought up, you know, this isn't a failure of the soldiers. This isn't a failure of our military. It's a failure of the administration.

But there's a sense of despair watching some of this imagery as the the disaster is going on. And USA Today had a headline that said, Were all our sacrifices wasted? War veterans react to stunning Afghanistan collapse. And you and I have peers of ours that served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan. And I know a lot of people do have family members outside of the studio. But you check in on a veteran today because the mental health issue in the military is is at front and center where people have gone to war, seen horrible things, been in war, in a very violent war. And we know that that's a thing here. And when you see the imagery and the despair we feel and you read a headline like that, check in on family members or friends on a day like today.

Absolutely do that as well. And make sure that they're hearing from sources that have their back and are supportive because it's very easy. Look, the CNN thing we just told you, CNN reporters saying they're chanting death to America. But it seems friendly at the same time. It's absurd.

It's disgusting. We've called it for years, said it was, but there's no more proof. That's maybe the biggest proof I've ever heard. We're going to take some phone calls to wrap up the show. Al's been holding for a long time in Colorado. Al, thanks for holding you on the air.

Yes, thank you. I guess I see it as the free world is less safe today than we were just a week ago. Because if Joe Biden said 30 days ago that the Afghan military was one of the best well-equipped militaries in the world, now the Taliban has all that equipment to draw from to, again, launch attacks against us. And they've emboldened very youthful terrorists to join in the fight. So, no, I don't see us as more secure.

I see us as less secure. Yeah, Al, and you brought up the point saying kind of what happens to that weaponry. And Rick Rinnell brought up, and something maybe Wes could chime in on really quick before we take the next call, Rick said part of the Trump plan of withdrawal was the destruction of all of that, the additional weaponry and the additional things we had brought over there. But that is not part of the current plan of withdrawal, because right now they're just getting out. Again, it looks like Vietnam. It looks like those imagery. They're just getting out of the country as quick as possible.

And so who knows, Wes, what happens with that. But, yeah, it doesn't give you a lot of peace knowing that at least this administration thought this was one of the more well-equipped militaries in the world. Yeah, what a naive statement to make. If he had talked to any company-grade officer or a rank-and-file guy in a squad in the United States Army, the Marine Corps, they would have told him about the Afghan military's lack of will to fight. They were perfectly willing to let us die for them, and some of them were brave. But as a force, they were well-equipped.

They did not have the will to fight. There were a lot of mistakes made over the last 20 years, but it is not a mistake of our military. They did their job.

They did it well. We will get past the tragedy and the tragic scenes of today, and hopefully historians will look back and say, you know, we responded when America was attacked. We decimated al-Qaeda training camps. We killed Osama bin Laden.

We sent a message to the world that you cannot attack America with impunity and get by with it. But today is a tragic, chaotic day, but I'm proud of our U.S. military, and they did not die in vain, those who died. Absolutely, Wes. Thank you so much. I want to thank everyone who's joined the show today, not only you who are watching and listening, but those who have contributed, whether that's the thing I've been in Washington, D.C., Will Haines in the studio, Rick Grenell, senior advisor and former director of national intelligence, and obviously my dad. And again, I want to thank everyone as we wrap up this show, not only for your thoughts and comments on this specific topic, but on the personal family crisis that we've been going through the last few weeks. And obviously, as you heard the first segment, just a tragedy that happened within the Sekulow family, as my dad's youngest brother, Scott, my uncle, who did my wedding in my bar mitzvah, who was very close to, tragically passed away at COVID, so stay safe, pray for our family, pray for everyone who's suffering, pray for our troops, and thank you.

I can't thank you enough for everyone who has sent me texts or comments. And again, I just wanted to end the show that way, and for those who are commenting, again, thank you for all of your support of not only the ACLJ, but for us as a family. And we'll be back tomorrow with another episode of Sekulow, joined by great guest Mike Pompeo will be on. We'll have a slew of more information to cover, I'm sure. But again, I just wanted to share that love and thanks, and we'll be back tomorrow with more on Sekulow.

Bye. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Get a gift today online at ACLJ.org.