withdraw u.s. forces. and this is where the math gets tough to understand. in pulling out, we pulled out the last 2,500 u.s. troops. as of tonight, there are 3,500 u.s. troops in kabul. the president has authorized a total of 6,000 troops to deploy to assist with evacuations, even though the pentagon refuses to use that word. with that, let s bring in our leadoff guests on this busy monday night, peter baker, veteran journalist and author, andrea mitchell, our own nbc news senior washington correspondent, longtime chief foreign affairs correspondent and the host of andrea mitchell reports, and barry mccaffrey, a decorated soldier. good evening and welcome to you all. andrea, i would like to begin with you.
was never supposed to have been nation building. i am president of the united states of america. in the buck stops with me. i am deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but i do not regret my decision to end america s war fight enough ghana stand. it is now tuesday morning in, kabul airport has reopened for military flights to evacuate american citizens, and afghan civilians. a photo shows over 600 people, mostly afghans, packed inside a c-17 transport, late sunday. all of them desperate to get out of a nation now under taliban control. this weekend the whole world witnessed the panic in kabul, as people try to escape the insurgents closing in on the city. the end of the afghan, afghanistan we knew and fought for. came quickly in the end. nbc news veteran chief
they re the ones getting out, not the women. general mccaffrey, i imagine your first year in west point, in vietnam, the message was plan for every contingency and that s what i m curious about tonight. how did this happen? how and where did the planning fall through? why, for example, did we choose to leave heavily fortified air base early in the night that had a defended perimeter, why did we limit ourselves to a single runway, urban commercial airport so close to the city center of kabul? you went right to the heart of that one. the thinking behind this withdrawal was rapid, inadequate. i don t think anyone really
should not be fighting in a war, and dying in a war the afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves. i inherited a deal that president trump negotiated with the taliban. the choice i had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that, agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the taliban, after 20 years. i ve learned the hard way. that there was never a good time to withdraw, u.s. forces. this is where the math gets tough to understand. in pulling, out we pull out the last 2500 u.s. troops, as of tonight, there are about 3500 u.s. troops in kabul. the president has authorized a total of about 6000, troops to deploy to assist with evacuations, even though the pentagon refuses to use that word. with that let s breed in our lead off guest, here peter baker, veteran journalist, author of chief
bit later on in this broadcast. tonight, though, on another front, far from home, the president is under intense criticism after the sudden collapse of the afghan government and military and the chaos that erupted over the weekend as the taliban took over the capital of kabul. this came in the wake of the president s decision to pull u.s. troops out of the country after two decades and $2 trillion spent. today, biden spoke to the nation and defended his decision. our mission in afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building. i m president of the united states of america. and the buck stops with me. i m deeply saddened by the facts we now face. but i do not regret my decision to end america s war-fighting in afghanistan. it is now tuesday morning in kabul. airport has reopened for military flights to evacuate american citizens and afghan