back with the fox news alert a
journalist has been killed covering a
clash between
afghan special forces and the taliban
danish siddiqui
an award-winning photographer was caught
in taliban
crossfire while embedded with afghan
troops for reuters near the pakistani
border
this comes as president biden directs
evacuation flights
this month for afghan interpreters who
have aided american forces over the last
20 years let's bring in fox news senior
strategic
analyst and retired four-star general
jack keane general good morning to you
good morning the death of this
journalist he was
very well regarded the images from the
front line were jaw-dropping
and he his death just proves that it is
still a dire situation over there
oh yeah there's no doubt about that
steve it's a deteriorating situation but
you know let's
let's acknowledge who this person is and
the dedication that they have had
to their profession i mean it is
remarkable what
photographers and journalists do by in
setting themselves
in a combat situation even just moving
around
a combat zone steve is highly dangerous
and the other part of it is you
certainly don't want
the radical islamists to get their hands
on you because that's another danger
that they have in of itself and he was
right in the middle of a firefight
uh really extraordinary and we we honor
his dedication to his profession for
sure
absolutely but it is a deteriorating
situation and
right before our eyes we're we're
witnessing
the momentum that the taliban have and
how they're beginning to roll up various
districts throughout afghanistan and the
principal reason
for their momentum that they have steve
is that we've taken away the air power
that they've had which is u.s air power
they're the ground force we're the air
force providing that dedicated air power
and we had a very
robust intelligence capability that gave
them a sense of where the taliban were
what their activities and they were able
to respond to that
and certainly we had a huge presence
there to include what has been publicly
disclosed
a huge cia presence on the ground all of
that
plug has been pulled and pulled very
quickly and that is why you see this
surprising
for people to witness it momentum that's
taken place by the taliban
surely and i think it was on wednesday
of this week
you have former president george w bush
uh
who has remained relatively quiet during
his retirement he came out and he said
you know the way they're
they're wrapping things up in
afghanistan is a big mistake
yeah well it's first of all surprising
president bush made that statement so he
obviously had very strong feelings
because
he stayed silent for so many years and
when his successor was very critical of
him
and for his presidency i'm talking about
president obama but listen uh
this is this is going to unfold right
before our eyes and
listen reasonable people can disagree
should we stay in afghanistan
should we leave i got that and you know
where i am i think we should stay with a
modest force
but we've stood side by side with the
afghans for 20 years
in the multi-generational war against
radical islam
this administration has now decided it's
no longer a multi-generational war we're
going to pull the plug
and what will happen here is going to be
sad
and ugly as we see the taliban gain
momentum and start
taking down provincial cities and the
slaughter that's going to take place
in this country i'll i'll tell you
whether you care about afghanistan or
not
it would be wrenching for americans to
witness that
and to know that this is an ally that
this
is happening to our adversaries are
going to look at that russia china and
iran
and they'll understand exactly what has
taken place we pulled
away from an ally and our allies will
look at that
and question america's commitment and
steadfastness as well
that's what we see in the future and it
it's really going to be tragic
general i've got to ask you as uh we've
only got about a minute left but
uh given the fact that you have
dedicated much of your life to fighting
communism
uh and protecting the united states of
america what do you make of what we are
seeing
on the streets of cuba and havana
where the people are rising up and
they're saying hey communism this is not
working out for me
well it's understandable their
frustration that they've had all these
years the
the repression you know has gone on
obviously since the 1960s and then
everything got really worse for them
when the soviet union collapsed
and they no longer got the funding that
they were getting from the soviet union
and now with venezuela having problems
they're not getting the funding there as
well
listen this is another thing where
reasonable people can disagree
um i believe we should keep the pressure
on the communist regime down there and
do everything we can
to help the people but i don't believe
we should go back to the appeasement
policies of the obama administration i
think that's a
is a strategic mistake in my view and
and certainly
it people can be on both sides of this
argument very easily
but everybody is for the people and for
freedom in cuba
that is the common denominator that we
all have
when we look at cuba and the suffering
that's taking place there it'll be
interesting to see if there are
more protests this weekend although the
government has really been
clamping down on people general thank
you very much for joining us live today
yeah good talking steve have a great
weekend folks you as well sir