through the gates, onto the tarmac and into the aircraft. this is not just about america getting out by the deadline. it s about a lot of others as well. and those are no small things you just laid out, getting people to kabul, getting people to the airport, getting people through the gate and on the tarmac. all of those things are pinch points and things that people are not capable of doing in some regard. ambassador, i have to tell you the nato ambassador who preceded you is making an interesting point today more broadly about the conflict and the crisis, calling it a fallacy to think that the choice was between withdrawal from afghanistan or keeping a small u.s. presence w without any american casualties. i want to read what the ambassador wrote about this. he said if biden had reneged on the trump deal, the taliban
could continue in the foreseeable future in av afghanistan. it was not we re going to have a mad scramble at the last minute. there was also disappointment about the way it was done. the air base was hit down and service people were removed without the afghan authorities being aware of it. of course everybody complained the afghan national army didn t stand up to the taliban, but they didn t have many of the weapons left. it s fair to say that a number of them in the afghan government were disappointed that the united states did a deal with their enemies behind their back and they were not party to that agreement. then they were decided to fight back when the united states decided it was going to go in short order. all that has created quite a lot of disappointment. you ve seen british military and political figures expressing disappointment which is very unusual. the relationship has always been difficult and transactional over
afghanistan is suffering from severe drought. there s a longer, food crisis in afghanistan. they re suffering their third wave of covid and they re broke. all of that confronts a brand new government in transition as the taliban begins to try to find its feet and move from an insurgency to a government. this is an extraordinarily complex situation. absolutely. ambassador, blinken s got a tough job today but this does come from president biden, of course. what do you think of the president s decision and announcement yesterday in rejecting the pressure from britain and other allies to change his mind on that deadline? i understand why he took that decision, because it s frankly not entirely up to the united states president as much as we would like it to be. the reality is if you don t stick to the timetable agreed with the taliban for withdrawal of foreign troops, then people
in their interests to be a save haven for terrorists. he also may be talking about the contingency plan of extending. it may be that director burns is examining those possibilities. there are still thousands and thousands of people who still need to leave afghanistan, many of whose lives would be in danger and who we all would love to see evacuated from the country and not left behind. i can t give you a precise answer what would be the contingency circumstances but i very much hope there are some private conversations going on, which means if there are lots of people who haven t been able to get out for whatever reason that an extension of a few days might be possible. i learned some new
trigger these contingency plans to have u.s. forces stay in afghanistan longer. from the viewpoint of allies, it almost feels like boris johnson called that g7 meeting to say the ground has already shifted, contingency plans already need to be triggers. i m curious your thoughts on that. boris johnson called that meeting probably because he was in the chair of the g7 and this major international crisis was unfolding and they re trying to do something that was helpful. you re right that he hoped there would be the chance of extending that deadline. as i was saying earlier, this is not a unilateral decision. i don t know what my good friend bill burns has been doing in kabul talking to taliban leadership. it may be about terrorism and trying to assure that it s not