us on this getting answers. interactive show today getting answers. . tonight, top u.s. military leaders on the hill, appearing to contradict president biden, saying they did recommend a small u.s. force stay in afghanistan. the chairman of the joint chiefs general mark milley, general frank mckenzie and defense secretary lloyd austin grilled on the chaotic withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan and the swift collapse to the taliban. general milley calling the 20-year war, quote, a strategic failu failure. and general milley questioned about calls with his counterpart in china during the final months of the trump presidency. how he explain ed it. also tonight, news on vaccines for children 5 to 11. what we learned from pfizer today. and boosters for adults.
residual force in afghanistan, it would come under attack from the taliban. thousands more troops would have to be sent in and far from ending the war, the war would be prolonged. the press secretary saying he s the commander in chief, president biden, he made the decision to end the war and they still believe that was the right decision strategically and even given all this turmoil, politically. david? terry moran at the white house, thank you. now to the other major news this tuesday night and to news on the pandemic. pfizer revealing they have submitted to the fda the first data on that are vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old. so, the question, how soon could there be vaccines for children. and the new study just in from the cdc on side effects. and dr. fauci tonight on that question from so many, waiting for boosters from moderna and johnson & johnson, how soon could we learn the data on mixing and matching for those waiting? here s eva pilgrim. ready? she s going to count
clear-eyed about, to give him candid advice. what is also clear, though, and i d also note again, what secretary austin said today, that was not going to be a sustainable over the long-term troop presence. we were always going to look at escalating the numbers, potential lir going back to war with the taliban and risking casualties. that was not a decision the president was going to make. so, let s bring in terry tonight. the white house trying to focus on what we heard from the defense secretary today, if we left 2,500 troops on the ground there, it would not have been a long-term solution. but what the white house did not answer, which was the biggest part of your question, was, which top military leaders were split on this decision to leave a small u.s. force? reporter: exactly, david. and that s what george stephanopoulos was pressing president biden on. who is telling you otherwise? press secretary jen psaki there saying there were other militay advisers who said differently a