as we remember their heroic accomplishments. no words from me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifices and accomplishments of those who serve nor the emotions they re feeling at this moment. but i will say that i m proud that both my son and i have been a part of it. proud that both my son and i have been a part of it. that s a reminder of how concentrated u.s. military service is in our country. families often sending multiple generations into the service, even simultaneously, while the vast majority of americans don t serve in the military. also a reminder that of the young soldiers and airmen and marines who died just last week in afghanistan, some were literally babies on 9/11. they weren t even walking or talking at the time of the precipitating event for the war in which they died. they were toddlers at the time the starting gun was fired to start this war that ultimately ended their lives. the last u.s. planes left the
afghanistan? think about it. the british tried three times and failed. it takes brass to call that a british problem, especially since they did iterate, they did learn from their previous mistakes, they did get better at fighting these wars. they had war one, then a do-over, war two, and then a do-over. it was something that ostensibly made the war worth it, that ostensibly pointed them to some sort of victory. but in the end, three tries, three losses. and russia knew that history when they themselves invaded in 1979. and maybe russia thought it was just something wrong with the british that made them fail in all their wars. maybe they thought we, the soviet union, we ll do it better. who doesn t think they could do a better job than the last guy who failed? but the problem wasn t necessarily the character of the invasion, the way the invaders
the government, he abdicated, and afghanistan went their own way and british left again. it was 35 years between the first war and the second one. it was another 35 or 40 years before they invaded a third time. britain invaded and fought another war there. that one ended with britain signing a treaty recognizing their independence. britain invaded three different times to try to keep afghanistan in their orbit. three invasions, three wars. the answer was no every time. fast-forward 102 years. it was just earlier this month, august 19, that afghans celebrated what they to this day call independence day. afghan independence day every year celebrates that peace treaty that gave them their independence as a nation in 1919, independence from great
this is the loof that blew off of oxner hospital. all the state s hospitals are full as well as the hospitals of all of the neighboring states because of covid. and now on top of everything, these hospitals are bracing for the possible arrival of people who are being rescued from floodwaters, or people who get sick or injured in the coming days while they try to cope without having electricity for what may be an extended period of time and what may be extreme heat conditions. so the challenges here are myriad. we are watching that developing story tonight. that and the news out of afghanistan is enough to power a normal news cycle until the end of this year, at least, right? but on top of that, we ve also tonight got eyes on a washington story, a washington story historic in its own right. according to a story from cnn,
together to facilitate safe travel out of afghanistan, including by reopening kabul civilian airport as soon as possible. secretary of state antony blinken announcing a multilateral initiative to continue to try to get afghan allies and u.s. citizens, dual citizens, out of afghanistan, in part by planning to reopen the country s main airport in kabul. how is that going to work, and unless and until that happens, what are the other ways out? joining us now is nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent, the host of andrea mitchell reports on nbc, andrea mitchell. andrea, it s great to see you. it s been too long, my friend. thank you. it s great to see you, rachel. we heard a lot from secretary blinken about america s commitment and thanking our partners and talking about what has just happened. what s the nitty-gritty in terms of the plan going forward to get additional people out who the u.s. has committed to get out if and when they want to leave?