criticism about that. today, joe biden defended his decision. here he is. i asked for their best military judgment. what would be the most efficient way to accomplish the mission. they concluded, the military, that bagram was not much value added, that it was much wiser to focus on kabul. so i followed that recommendation. so, former defense secretary and director of the chief, do you agree that there s not much value added from bagram and this was the right thing to do? well, i take the president [ no audio ] all right. i m sorry, it sounds like we have lost his audio. i appreciate his time very much.
sustain more casualties. in the mean time this was predictable. we have cables in april from the state department ordering the embassy staff to get out of kabul because of a deteriorating situation. widespread combat situations sthru out the country. another cable in may, get out. strongly suggesting all americans leave afghanistan because armed conflict is everywhere. july 15th, another embassy cable goes out. level 4 four terror alert. during this three month period, joe biden is saying we got this. saying the taliban is not going to take over. it s highly unlikely. we have a great afghan army. yet his people on the ground are telling americans to get out as soon as you can. we re losing it. you can t square that. that is something they have to look at in the house, strongly,
service members very seriously injured right now. in critical condition. and you have, you know, many, many afghans, children killed. and yet we ve seen this. there was a school for girls that they attacked in kabul in may. and they killed many of them, at least 68 people were killed this that attack. they wounded more than 165 and most of them were girls. how ruthless is this group, seth? this group is very ruthless. one of the things that isis-k has done over the years, they really started in september of 2014 and began to ramp up in 2015, aierin. but what we have seen is high profile attacks, in kabul in particular. other afghan cities, as well as pakistan. but they ve killed 50, 80 in one case. they had an attack in july of 2018 at the kabul airport. this is not even their first attack at kabul. but they are fully capable of suicide attacks with individual
it. i have spoken to the parties in the taliban, and they say that they are dealing with the matter at hand. we don t know in what capacity, what strategy is being employed in terms of men on the ground, if they are talking to the u.s. counterparts. obviously, it s a developing situation. we will probably most likely receive details about how they dealt with the situation this evening tomorrow. but i can t imagine that the taliban would let isis-k take more control, because they are archrivals, as you know. it s important to emphasize that. i appreciate your time and thank you very much. all of us do. still worthing there so fearlessly from kabul. i want to go to leon panetta, who was the defense secretary and also served as cia director under president obama. secretary panetta, of course, you know, i remember traveling
wraufplt ware of that, did that happen? sir, did you personally reject a recommend to hold or recapture the airforce base. here is what i have done, answer the last question, first. on the tactical questions on how to conduct an evacuation or war, i gather up all of the major military personnel that are in afghanistan, the commanders as well as the pentagon. i ask for their best military judgment. what would be the most efficient way to accomplish the mission. they concluded, the military, that the air base was not much added value. it was much wiser to focus on kabul. so, i followed that recommendation. with regard to, there are