Theres chaos, reports say, at Kabul Airport at this moment as people try to flee and the world waits for the next step. Hello, everyone, ask and welcome to Fox News live, im eric shawn. Hi, arthel. Arkansas hello, everyone, im arthel neville. The situation is getting worse by the hour. President Ashraf Ghaani has fled the country, and the American Flag has been lowered from the u. S. Embassy. The biden administration continues to defend the withdrawal of u. S. Troops. Were going to get the latest reaction from the if White House in just a minute. But first, well go to Trey Yingst Live In Jerusalem with more on the situation of on ground in afghanistan. On the ground in afghanistan. Trey. Reporter arthel, good afternoon. Weve got a number of updates for you. According to afp, a Defense Official says a couple hundred American Embassy staffers have been evacuated safely from afghanistan. One piece of good news. On the flipside, a lot of bad news. We know taliban has taken control of most
Prepared for strong, a strong military response. i have enormous if faith in the secretary of defense, general lloyd austin iii. i ve worked with him in the past. i ve visited with him when he was that head of central command. i do believe it s the important that a we have a sec-def who has commanded the middle east in the past. i ve seen him work in equal parts of diplomat, military officer, military separate just. i think taliban will take him seriously. eric: i certainly hope so, and i m glad you have that confidence. we ll see how it rolls out spsm what s so ironic about the situation is that the new potential president of afghanistan is the cofounder of the taliban mullah baradar, and the u.s. knows him very well. there he is. he s the guy who negotiated and sat down with american diplomats in doha for the trump
There is one runway, and according to nato, that runway is being reserved right now only for american military aircraft. that means no commercial planes are taking off or landing, and you have thousands of afghan civilians who fear they could be kill or imprisoned by the taliban for working with the afghan government or american forces, and they are trying the flee, desperately trying to flee. these images coming out of the airport in kabul really heart-wrenching. but it gives you a sense of what these american troops on the ground will be facing in the coming days as they try to fulfill that promise to give visas for a all of the afghans who helped american forces over the past 20 years and also keep themselves safe amid reports of the airport being targeted. arkansas hell? arthel: that s what i want arthel? if i want to talk to you about 6,000 american too manies headed there to troops headed there to help with the process. how difficult or easy will it be for them to get out onc
Going to judge this based on that tail your of what happens with these civilians failure. just like in vietnam when we left behind people that had helped the u.s. government. they re also going to judge us on whether or not afghanistan becomes a base for terrorism again against the united states. and all those are wide open questions. china is trying to influence the taliban now. they are concerned about extremism in the western part of the country. how are we going to keep pack tan from becoming more influenced pakistan, spilling out of afghanistan into pakistan a nuclear-powered country. these are, these are major kind of broader strategicking concerns. and then there s the american position in the world. how do you formulate alliances with people, how do you say take a risk, join us in this effort if they feel at the end of the day you might leave abruptly and leave behind those who, in fact, had helped the united states?
Administration. we know him. is he tempered? if is it possible to have a reformed taliban? is he i don t want to say a little more liberal than his predecessors, what do to you expect from knew la baradar mullah baradar? human rights violations, crackdowns, executions or something more tempered? you know, the idea of a reformed taliban, i think, is a bridge too far. but, and i do, and i am disappointed that the biden administration announced in the spring that it was planning to leave afghanistan by september 11 and then by the end of august, then in june left bagram air base with the afghan military not prepared to fully defend itself. and and if it appears that it had no con tin general city plan for contingency plan for what