president has to make, and it doesn t mean because we don t have forces in the country that we are not going to fight on behalf of women and girls and human rights and human dignity. we are. we do. and many other countries where we do not have active military participation. and afghanistan too. we will attempt to use every measure of tool and influence we have along with our international allies and partners to alleviate the burden that those women and girls will face in the days ahead. we are absolutely, resolutely committed to that. the taliban has legitimate governing power of afghanistan right now? jake: right now there is a chaotic situation in kabul where we do not even have the establishment of a governing authority, so it would be really premature to address that question. ultimately, it s going to be after the taliban to show the rest of the world who they are and how they intend to proceed. the track record has not been good, but it s premature to address the question at
see a new terrorist organization would be born, like i says? jake: just on the last point, it s fairly well documented that the taliban and isis fight one another, struggle against one another, so i do not foresee a symbiotic relationship there. we will have to see how it plays. we are working day by day to get as many people out. so i m not going to speculate on the timetable question that you just laid out, and then finally, on what we expect from the taliban going forward, that is something that will have to be watched and observed over time. whether in fact they are prepared to meet their obligations to the basic human rights and dignity of people, to the safe passage of people to the airport, to the fair and
suppressing the terrorist threat to the u.s. homeland in those countries without sustaining a permanent military presence or fighting in a war, and that is what we intend to do with respect to afghanistan as well, so this is not a question about whether we are clear-eyed about this, it is about whether the terrorist challenge in 2021 is fundamentally different from 2001. we believe it is fundamentally different, and we need to be postured effectively to deal with the terrorism challenges today as opposed to 20 years ago. can you shed light on the decision to leave equipment? the contingency plan that you had, blackhawks and other equipment. why give the taliban access to state-of-the-art equipment that they can use to bolster their own defenses? jake: this is, i think, a very good example of the difficult choices about the
leader without making sacrifices? jake: i want to start where your question ended. because the united states made an extraordinary sacrifice in afghanistan. 2,448 americans lost their lives in afghanistan. tens of thousands of americans were injured in the war in afghanistan over 20 years. trying to help the country stand up and be able to defend itself. the united states spends more than a trillion dollars of its resources in afghanistan. the amount of sacrifice and solidarity and commitment to afghanistan to try to give it a chance was immense. and it was not just the united states. many other countries joined us and have their own sacrifice excuse me. let me just finish answering the question. so, the idea that there was a lack of sacrifice on the part of the american people is belied by
decisions that were in the best national security interests of the american people. he talked about that at length yesterday. and from that perspective, he believes that the decision that he made in this context was the right decision. thank you. the president has not been shy about these policies, many of them. the taliban, they have violated already what they agreed to with president trump. jake: you are referring to the agreement that president trump made with the taliban in february 2020, which set a deadline. be out by may 1st 2021. walking away from that was not just kind of a cost free proposition for the united states. may 2nd, the taliban offensive was going to start. the taliban s onslaught was going to happen, and the question facing the president was what increasing numbers of american troops would we drop it down and try and give all of