Another 1,000 troops on the way bringing the total to 7,000 troops to aid in the Nailbiting Escape that President Biden himself dismissed just a month ago. Is the Taliban Takeover Of Afghanistan now inevitable . No. It is not. Why . Because you have the afghan troops that have 300,000 well equipped as well equipped as any army in the world, and an Air Force against Something like 75,000 taliban. It is not inevitable. Mr. President , Some vietnamese veterans see the echos of their withdrawal in afghanistan and do you see any parallels between this withdrawal and what happened in vietnam with Some people feeling none whatSoever. Zero. You see entire brigades breaking through the gates of the embassy and six if i am not mistaken, and the taliban is not the north vietnamese army, and they are not remotely comparable in terms of capability, and there is no circumstance to see people lift lifted off of the roof of afghanistan and it is not at all comparable. And we have not heard from Presid
Afghanistan in what might be best described as the surreal end to america s 20-year end there with desperate afghans surrounding the airport there in kabul and blocking military evacuation flights. scenes show hundreds of people climbing the tarmac trying to climb the airplanes trying to escape and at one point running alongside an air force plane down the runway and some grabbing on to the jet just before takeoff. on the commercial side of the same airport, we have seen the afghans climbing on to commercial jets grounded and reports of at least seven people dead. nbc news have said that two gunmen were taken down by u.s. forces. the state of affairs is so chaotic with the taliban swarming into kabul that the top u.s. general in the region met with the taliban leader warning them not to interfere with the exit operation and this is with
Contingency plans in place, and they knew it was a possibility, and the criticism has been if that is the case, why are american embassy workers still trapped in kabul at the airport. if that is the case, why is the airport overrun with afghans clinging to the airplane as it is taking off? if that is the case, why there are thousands of afghans trying to apply for the special visas who have indeed worked to assist the u.s. efforts who now have no path out of the country, because the commercial side of the airport is controlled by the taliban? that is the criticism that the talking points don t respond to. and now, we will be obviously listening to see whether the president tackles that criticism, and so far, what we have heard from him, and the statement put out saturday was him defending the decision to pull out troops. saying that whether this is one year or five more years with the u.s. presence in afghanistan, it was not going to solve the
That? no, absolutely, right. so this is one of the things that they were damned if they did, and damned if they didn t. so this is one of the things that the officials have been telling reporters for days or weeks, and shannon is right that all of the things that we need to hear from the white house is why the last few days have been so bad. right. and what the president is going to be probably going to give us insight into over the next hour or so is what they think could have happened if we stayed, and exactly what you just said, but not just like the afghan people, but the military men and women who fought over there for the last 20 years. right. i talked to my dad when i was in high school and he was deployed to afghanistan, and he and his friends are wondering the same thing, what is the time spent over there for if we left like this, and they have to watch as planes are taking american ps out have afghans holding on to the plane as they leave.
Vietnamese army, and they are not remotely comparable in terms of capability, and there is no circumstance to see people lift lifted off of the roof of afghanistan and it is not at all comparable. and we have not heard from president biden in days, and the only image of him is this one released by the white house with him at camp david on a secure conference call. chief correspondent richard engel is on the ground at kabul monitoring the up to the minute updates, and what can you tell us? geoff, many are telling us from kabul and i m not far from the international airport of the scenes of saigon when people were clutching to the aircraft, and both civilian aircraft because afghans stormed into the airport and rushed into the