but within 48 hos, our tops restored order. ey aur commanders exceeded al expectatns. they evacuated more than 124,000. t was a logiscal success but atrategic failure. we absolutelyissed the rapid 11-day collap of the afghan mitary a the collapse of the government. we helped build a state, mr. chairman, but we could not forge a nation. general milley added that had u.s. forces not left by the august 31st deadline, war with thtaliban would have been inevitable. milley also took time during his opening remarks to address reports about his actions during the final months of the trump presidency which were, of course, detailed in this new book, peril by bob woodward and bob cost at a. the house call with speaker nancy pelosi two days after the january 6th capitol riot, he defended his calls to a chinese
questions facing the white house hand milley believes this has damaged u.s. credibility on the world stable as another note habel point in that entire hearing. republicans were also trying to make the point that during the withdrawal that the president should have kept troops there past the august 31st deadline and on that the generals said unanimously no, they believed it was best to get out because once you got to that point, if you stayed past that dead lipo, you have war with the americans and then the remaining americans in their view would be even more at risk because you have open warfare. they rode to president biden s rescue because that s been one of the core talking points to the white house to justify the pace and the withdrawal saying, look, if we stayed we d be targets again. interesting at one point when general milley was answering senator hawley explaining the difference between the 2,500 troops that had been in country and said those were advisers and trainers, no
0 also a key part of the plan was to maintain an embassy in kabul and maintaining that embassy would allow us to continue to engage the government, to continue to provide resources to support the afghan security forces so it was the plan was to leave a diplomatic presence there, and in conjunction with that plan we also were going to leave a small military force there to help secure the embassy, so that was the plan, senator. but you didn t address the issue that you made if it was your plan, you acknowledge it was your plan and your plan said you would do all these things before we got our civilians out. i mean, when in the history of this country have we ever had the u.s. military say and have a plan that we will take our military out first before we take our civilians? i can t imagine that. when you say civilians, are you are you talking. american citizens. american citizens, yeah. the american citizens would come out once a non-combatant evacuation is declared, and
division, stepping onto a c-17 in kabul, the final u.s. soldier to step off afghan soil. an iconic photograph, marking the unceremonious end to a war that cost some 2461 american lives, many thousands more injured. in just a few hours, president biden will address the nation he is expected to explain his decision not to extend the mission past the august 31st deadline, even with the administration granting that americans remain on the ground there. he ll also address what comes next. we have a team of reporters following all the angles of this story. let s begin in the region. cnn s nick payton walsh, joins me now from qatar where the u.s. diplomatic mission for afghanistan will now be based. of course, where many thousands of those evacuees went from kabul. so, what has the first day under taliban control looked like in afghanistan? reporter: some to understand,
citizens, citizens of our allies and afghan allies of the united states. they have done it with unmatched courage, professionalism and resolve. now our 20 year military presence in afghanistan has ended. so mike we re going to hear from the president today. he ll explain in his own words, his own voice, why he did decide to go ahead with the august 31st deadline. but what about those remaining americans? that question lingers over the white house. there are americans, there are afghan wartime allies and special immigrant visa holders who couldn t get on any of the planes before the last one left yesterday. reporter: it was just a few weeks ago the president made a commitment to those americans still in afghanistan that anybody who wanted to get out would be able to get out. but the mission now, as of 3:30 eastern time yesterday, midnight in kabul, is now a diplomatic