i think that what we ve seen so far since 391st is some americans have gotten out through diplomatic means, and they have reached safety through either over land routes or through aircraft. i don t know all the details, but i can t imagine that that didn t happen without taliban facilitation. well, we can get back to afghan nationals helping them leave the country as well, the siv holders and others who supported us, but secretary austin, the administration has said they will utilize every tool available to hold the taliban accountable if they fail to meet their commitments to provide safe passage for anyone who wants to leave the country. certainly we know there are economic levers, but can you elaborate on what the military tools are and could there be a shared interest in targeting
presence on the ground in afghanistan. so i d like to ask you, sir, does the u.s. military recent experience facilitating the evacuation from kabul give you the confidence that the taliban will be honest broker necessary working with diplomats to help afghan nationals leave the country? i think that while we ve seen so far and since the 31st, some americans have gotten out to diplomatic means and reached safety through either overland routes or through aircraft. i don t know all details, i can t imagine that didn t happen without taliban facilitation. siv holders and others who supported us. secretary austin, administration said they will utilize every tool available to hold taliban accountable, if they fail to meet their committments to provide safe passage for anyone
0 also a key part of the plan was to maintain an embassy in kabul and maintaining that embassy would allow us to continue to engage the government, to continue to provide resources to support the afghan security forces so it was the plan was to leave a diplomatic presence there, and in conjunction with that plan we also were going to leave a small military force there to help secure the embassy, so that was the plan, senator. but you didn t address the issue that you made if it was your plan, you acknowledge it was your plan and your plan said you would do all these things before we got our civilians out. i mean, when in the history of this country have we ever had the u.s. military say and have a plan that we will take our military out first before we take our civilians? i can t imagine that. when you say civilians, are you are you talking. american citizens. american citizens, yeah. the american citizens would come out once a non-combatant evacuation is declared, and
0 retrograde our equipment and that was accomplished. general miller executed the plan in accordance with the plan. a key part of the plan was to maintain an embassy in kabul and maintaining that embassy would allow the government to continue to provide resources to support the afghan security sources. so it was, the plan was to leave a diplomatic presence there and in conjunction with that plan, we were going to leave a small military force there to help secure the embassy. that was the plan, senator. but you didn t address the issue, you made, it was your plan, you acknowledged it was your plan and your plan said you would do all these things before we got our civilians out. when in the history of this country have we had the military say, have a plan we will take military out first before we take our civilians? i can t imagine that. when you say civilians, american citizens? american citizens, yeah. american citizens would come out once noncombatant evacuation is declared. u