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When asked about the Blackhawk helicopters and other equipment that the Taliban took, Sullivan filled up the sound byte with a bunch of proper nouns, formal titles, common buzzwords, phrases, and bureaucratese, and then tried to actually defended the decision:

When asked about the Blackhawk helicopters and other equipment that the Taliban took, Sullivan filled up the sound byte with a bunch of proper nouns, formal titles, common buzzwords, phrases, and bureaucratese, and then tried to actually defended the decision:

'''Q.''' Can you shed light on the decision to leave behind Blackhawks and other equipment, how that fits in with the contingency plan in the U.S. to leave behind Blackhawks and other equipment? Why give the Taliban access to state-of-the-art equipment that they could either use to bolster their own defenses, or sell off to other countries?

:'''Q.''' Can you shed light on the decision to leave behind Blackhawks and other equipment, how that fits in with the contingency plan in the U.S. to leave behind Blackhawks and other equipment? Why give the Taliban access to state-of-the-art equipment that they could either use to bolster their own defenses, or sell off to other countries?

'''Sullivan.''' This is, ah, I think, a very good example of the difficult choices a president faces and a secretary of defense and secretary of state and national security adviser face in the context of the end of a 20-year war.  Those Blackhawks were not given to the Taliban they were given to the Afghan National Security forces to be able to defend themselves at the specific request to President Ghani who came to

:'''Sullivan.''' This is, ah, I think, a very good example of the difficult choices a president faces and a secretary of defense and secretary of state and national security adviser face in the context of the end of a 20-year war.  Those Blackhawks were not given to the Taliban they were given to the Afghan National Security forces to be able to defend themselves at the specific request to President Ghani who came to

the Oval Office and asked for additional air capability among other things. So the president had a choice he could not give it to them with the risk that it would fall into the Taliban's hands eventually or he could give it to them with the hope that they could deploy it in

the Oval Office and asked for additional air capability among other things. So the president had a choice he could not give it to them with the risk that it would fall into the Taliban's hands eventually or he could give it to them with the hope that they could deploy it in

service of defending their country. Both of those options had risks he had to choose and he made a choice and from the point of view of that,

service of defending their country. Both of those options had risks he had to choose and he made a choice and from the point of view of that,