shots. back then it was something like 95 million americans who were unvaccinated. that s now dow to 67 million. so still a very, very long way to go, but they re pointing to the progress made, and that s why in chicago today, the president s meeting with not only public officials, state and local officials, he s meeting with the ceo of united airlines. they re going to help make the case. this is going to help bring the economy back. on afghanistan, i know you ve recently spoken with two military veterans about the situation there. what did they have to say about the state of affairs. you know, they re following very closely what s been happening since the u.s. withdrawal was completed at the end of august. this is two congressmen who have been very outspoken about the u.s. withdrawal and have somewhat competing views on what should have happened.
i told you, i have no comment on this. okay. well, let s turn to another difficult subject, which is afghanistan, the timetable for the withdrawal because france and other nato allies were critical of the chaotic way that the u.s. left afghanistan without giving american allies more times to withdraw, the sequencing and ignoring the advice from nato in june when we were in brussels together. how does france think the u.s. should have handled it? on afghanistan, of course, we have the question about consultations, but now we must two things on this, first we must also look forward. we have fundamental issues which are first first circulation for afghan people possibly to travel, the rights, human rights, and how we can defend
protect women in any other country. very tough statement from afghanistan s ambassador. of course that s the outgoing government, the ghani government. joining me now, michael crowley, new york times diplomatic correspondent, david ignatius, and anne gearan the washington post white house correspondent. michael, first to you, the taliban is targeting isis militants after that weekend blast, and now isis has claimed responsibility. is this heating up and now the taliban are going to have to take isis-k head on? yeah, absolutely. i mean, you know, one result of the collapse of the afghan security forces is the taliban have lost their ally in this joint battle against isis. that was the one form of sort of de facto cooperation in afghanistan between the taliban and the afghan government. isis is a common enemy for both of them. i have seen some compelling
cia afghan allies and their families out of the country. that s not to say the state department hasn t been trying. the state department s behavior in the last two weeks of the withdrawal was pretty amazing and courageous. but the cia s performance was extraordinary. they feel good about keeping faith. this question of how you keep faith with the afghan women is i think one of the hardest ones that the u.s. is going to face. and amidst everything else, the last thing that the white house needed was an argument with france. michael, you point out in the article that when secretary blinken came to paris earlier this year, he got a warm reception. a lot has to do with the fact that regrew up here. he went to high school in france. his mother still lives here. so what are the chances he s going to get this same warm hug from the french when he arrived today after this submarine deal? well, he ll get a hug.
happen. and david ignatius, the cia has played a very important role. of course, in afghanistan. now that we don t have, quote, boots on the ground, what about the final days and the way the cia has you ve been writing about try to take care of their allies? from early on, created a force of afghans who were known as the counterterrorist and per suit teams which operated in remote areas in the east and south of afghanistan, chasing the remnants of al qaeda, and deep bonds developed through those relationships. and the cia was very proud that it managed during these chaotic months following president biden s decision in april to get out of afghanistan, to get all more than 20,000 of the