‘Was it Worth it?’ MSNBC’s Willie Geist Confronts Seth Moulton on the Devastating Toll of the Afghanistan War in Emotional Interview

MSNBC’s Willie Geist confronted Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) on Friday and asked the Marine Corps veteran if the war in Afghanistan was worthwhile.

One day after an explosion killed U.S. service members and others outside the airport in the Afghan capital of Kabul, during a segment on Morning Joe, Geist asked Moulton – who served in Iraq and, this week, traveled to Kabul: “There’s been this big question that some people have asked, was it worth it? And I’ve heard from veteran friends who’ve wondered the same thing from time to time, were the last two decades worth it as you watch the way we’re leaving that country and watching more Americans die yesterday, 13 of them, and 18 injured. As you pause to think about it, as you pause to think about what you’ve seen on the ground just in the last few days, what are your thoughts about the last two decades?”

Moulton responded that he wasn’t going to “try to argue that it was worth it.”

“Willie, I’m not going to sit here and try to argue that it was worth it,” he said. “The hardest question that I ever got as a young, 20-something marine officer in Iraq was ‘hey, sir, why are we here? It’s a haunting question. And the only good answer I could come up with was ‘so no one has to be here in our place.’”

Moulton got emotional and almost choked up while finishing his response.

“And that’s not an adequate answer. It’s true. And I think that applies to those Marines who are out there today. You know, we can debate for a long time how they got into that place,” he said. “But when I say I’ve never been prouder to be an American, it’s because these young men and women are out there willing to do it for all the rest of us, and for these Afghan kids. You know, when you see a U.S. Marine grab a little girl by the hand that reminds you of your own daughter, that’s what America is all about. They represent the absolute best of America.”

The attack on U.S. service members in Kabul, which is believed to be done by ISIS-K, was the deadliest the U.S. military has experienced in Afghanistan since Aug. 6, 2011 and resulted in the first casualties of U.S. troops there since Feb. 8, 2020. In total, the explosions killed at least 170 people and injured approximately 200 others, reported CBS News.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

UPDATE 11:48 am ET FRIDAY: The Pentagon corrected the record on Friday and said that there was one explosion, not two.