i don t foresee a military role at this time. but of course that is going to bay decision by the commander-in-chief. i ll tell that you we ll remain committed to getting them home as fast and as efficiently as possible. though the military mission has ended, the united states commitment to them has not. does this work? joining me now, general wesley clark, former nato allied commander and robin wright from the woodrow wilson center, spent a lot of time in that part of the world. knows it very well. general clark, i want to begin with you. because i want a reality check in what the plan is going forward and that is depending on cooperation from the taliban, depending on perceived leverage over the taliban, and in the form of humanitarian aid and financial aid to continue to get not just americans remaining in that country out. but also afghans, many thousands of afghans who worked for the u.s. and therefore face a threat. is that practical, does this work?
american credibility, to pull the country together and keep the economy going, keep the dollar strong, create jobs and we re back on top. robin wright, this is the first of other critical decisions that biden has to make in the region. he ll have a decision later this year on what to do with the u.s. military presence in iraq. there is a continuing, though small military presence in syria fighting remnants of isis there following the failed withdrawal from iraq in 2011. do you see the afghanistan withdrawal decision as the first of several from this administration? obviously as the united states pivots to asia particularly china, i think you ll see a much diminished footprint in the middle east. it looks far more unstable with failing or failed states than when the u.s. went in in 2001 in afghanistan and 2003 in iraq. this is a region in profound
and we ll delve into it. john harwood joins me from the white house. what is misleading about that is that we know some of the senior military officials opposed the withdrawal of all u.s. forces from afghanistan. perhaps at the final moments sticking to the deadline, a different decision. but it is not unanimous to withdrawal saul forces, particularly unconditionally. reporter: no, it definitely wasn t. and remember, joe biden has been arguing with generals about afghanistan for more than a decade. he argued against the surge that president obama ordered when he was vice president. he lost that argument. but now that he s the president, in position to dictate the outcome, he was not he thought that president obama had been pushed around by the generals. he decided he was not going to do that. he s willing to take the heat for that decision. and he s been taking a ton of heat for it. what i think that statement referred to was the decision not
grouping here of people who are very sick. i want to draw your attention to a particularly serious looking woman with a young boy. he has some kind of bandages with blood on them on his lap. and these people are basically appealing to pakistan for immediate medical attention. some people have been allowed through to go to hospitals. but basically what pakistan is saying now is we have norman 1 million afghan refugees and we simply can t cope with any more. clarissa ward, cnn, at the border crossing. where did all of the people go. hours from now president biden will speak to the nation about the end of the america s longest war and his decision not to extend the u.s. presence in afghanistan. even with some americans still on the ground. he claims that the decision to stick to today s withdrawal deadline at least was unanimous among his military commanders. there are some wiggle room there
staff that the best way to protect our forces and the best way to help those americans was to transition this mission. reporter: and of course, jim, what we ll hear from the president this afternoon is an attempt to put the agony of the last couple of week news perspective and explain the decision and acknowledge the big work ahead diplomatically to try to influence the taliban and the governance of the country and to get out the americans and afghan allies who remain who were not able to get out by yesterday. many of them can t right now. john harwood at the white house, thank you. with an estimated, fewer than 200 americans remaining in afghanistan now, the biden administration is vowing to keep working until every last person who wants to be out, every last american, is evacuated. despite no u.s. military left in the country. here is the pentagon press secretary john kirby on cnn this morning.