Pete Hegseth

It just wasn't, it was a house of cards meant to fall.

Afghanistan was a house of, I saw it in 2011, 2012.

My job, I was the senior counterinsurgency instructor at the training center.

So it wasn't a combat mission for me.

I was a trainer.

And I trained the units coming in, conventional, international units, all that, on the latest tactics and strategy of the Taliban.

So what's the Taliban and Al-Qaeda doing across all the provinces?

Are they gaining ground?

Are they losing ground?

What's their approach?

And it was clear by then, the shadow government structure, the shadow court structure, how they infiltrated the ANA and the ANP.

So they knew who their people were, would activate them as necessary.

There was a lot of blue on green at that point going on.

So you had to worry about

If the guys are training, we're going to turn their guns on you.

It's all psychological warfare.

The whole thing was meant to show to the population, hey, we may not be in charge right now.

It's the corrupt American puppets that are.

But once the Americans leave, like, we have the real power.

We have the real power base here.