The pentagon is moving 3,000 marines to afghanistan and another 4,000 troops to evacuate the embassy and u. S. Citizens In Kabul. Here is the urgency to leave afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options. If you cannot afford to purchase an airline ticket, contact the u. S. Embassy for information regarding a loan. Given the Security Conditions and reduced staffing, the Embassies Ability to assist u. S. Citizens in afghanistan is extremely limited. Even withIn Kabul. There are haunting echoes of the evacuation of saigon in 1975 being voiced by supporters and detractors of the current president and harsh critique of the treatment of our friends and allies in afghanistan. David ignatius boats, for President Biden who had hoped for a orderly withdrawal if fr afghanistan, the chaos carries the image he wanted to avoid. And if the saigon parallels century disturbing enough, the New Yorker offered this, when i spoke on this with experts who have decades of afghan experie
Note walking away from that. you use the word moral obligation, a colleague at the state department feels like we ve abandoned our moral obligation made to afghan women and girls. how do you feel? i ve been in afghanistan. i did a short stint there as well and i think a lot of people here at the defense department feel strongly about the service that we all rendered in afghanistan. there was a purpose to go. and that purpose was to make sure that afghanistan couldn t be a safe haven for attacks upon the homeland. and if you look back 20 years, we re heading into the 20th anniversary of 9/11. and there hasn t been one, not of that level and emanating from afghanistan and the president had to make a tough decision as all commander-in-chiefs have to do. and one of them so to make sure that we can t let it be a safe haven again and how do you do that without perpetuating another 20 years of war. after 20 years of war there is only so much progress that you
President is standing by the decision because he didn t want to send anyone else s son or daughter in to die in afghanistan. we don t go to war to protect women and children. i thought it was an interesting and brutal reality perhaps, but i also wonder if you think it cuts against this president s essential strength, which is empathy and the perception that he cares about everyone? i mean we re now about to witness really likely horrific things happening to some of our closest allies, people who went in and stood alongside american soldiers, american intelligence officials, american state department officials for 20 years. do you think that endangers this president politically? well, i think it is also clear that president biden is where he is today, which is where he has been for the last decade. so in that sense it is not a surprise that this is a strategy that he would embark on in the earliest months of his
Sons and daughters to go to afghanistan and die to try to preserve the regime that is there and so it is i very, very hard decision. you re sitting in the situation room and presented with really unpleasant choices and i think he s made the best choice and he stood by it. i don t think anyone is dedebating the decision to leave. i think what mark was alluding to was the words. let me read it again. the taliban is not the south of the north vietnamese army. they re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. there is no circumstance for you to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the united states from afghanistan. it is not at all comparable. david ignatius disagrees with that. susan glasser reports and mark stands by the comparison to rwanda. i m not debating whether or not we go. frankly both candidates for president of the united states
Forces as well as their political leadership. no outcome has to be inevitable here. that was john kirby a couple of hours ago sticking to the president s message there on afghanistan as the president articulated this week. so this is now in the hands of the afghan leaders. kirby is speaking today as the u.s. has announced that 3,000 troops will head to kabul to begin evacuations of the u.s. embassy in the capitol. s it beginning as the taliban continue to take capitals across the country. and the department of defense secretary john kirby. thank you for spending some time with us. thank you. tell us what is happening on ground right now. what do you know that we don t? well, i mean, clearly and i ve been watching, nicolle, you have been covering the advances that the taliban continue to make here. the situation in afghanistan continues to deteriorate from a security perspective which is one of the reasons why mindful of that and in prudent planning