you heard in that e-mail that you just read, it is a nightmare, so look at what u.s. forces there are facing. the lifeline out of afghanistan is that kabul airport. now that bagram is shut down. that was the grand central for america during the 20 years war now closed. kabul is your only way out. there s taliban check points within eyesight of the americans there. and listen to this, behind the scenes, what military people tell me is they are worried about the taliban mortaring that airport, mortaring those runways, shooting at planes. then you re stuck. you re landlocked and so that s part of why that deadline next tuesday is so firm. and on top of that, you re worried about attacks from terrorist attacks from enemies of the taliban, and on top of that, as came up in the pentagon briefing yesterday, the last
necessary to get folks out. the end of this mission should come notñ$(páq on a calendar date, it shouldxd come when we accomplish the mission. meanwhile, nebraska senator ben sasse reacted in a statement writing in e1part, damn the deadline, the american people are not going to surrender our americans want us tosá stayw3 u we getu our allies. the biden administration needs to cut the stockholm syndrome. there s absolutely no reason to trust the taliban. they re violently blocking americans and our afghan partners from reaching the airport. despite the recent rise in evacuation, president biden s approval levels continue to suffer new lows. in usa today, 41% said they approve of his job performance, compared to 55% who disapproval.
better. each day of operations brings added risk to our troops. but thee1 completion of august 31st depends upon the taliban continuing to cooperate. and allow access to the airport for those who are transporting out and no disruption to our operation. in addition, i ve asked the penoqdon and the state department forñi contingency pl to adjuste1 the timetable shoul that become necessary. i m determined to make sure we complete our gi$m%=91ñ this mission. during a news conference in kabul yesterday, a taliban spokesperson said the u.s. must stick to the august 31st deadline and warns that the group won t lete1 afghans being taken out on evacuation flights after that. meanwhile, theñi u.s. isçó rapi %9 evacuees leaving the country. the white house says approximately 12,000 people were evacuated from kabul yesterday alone. and more than 70,000 have been
and this is the most powerful military on the planet. if they decide to stick around and maybe have to shoot back at some guys with ak-47s outside the airport, well then, so be it, if that s what it would take to complete the mission, now, you know, that is we re hearing that, that kind of criticism. but the white house response has been remained that, look, we don t need to stay beyond august 31st. we will be able to get all the americans who want to leave the country out by that date. so long as we don t have some kind of external event. you know, a sandstorm, some other weather event. or if the taliban stopped cooperating and makes it difficult, then that date could be extended. okay. anne gearan, from the washington post, thank you very much. still clearly a tense situation in kabul. there are things that could go wrong. the evacuation is going well.
and there s no secret the g7 members, other g7 members really wanted that deadline extended. boris johnson, the uk prime minister made it quite public he wanted that deadline extended. in the end, though, was the white house feeling there was more of a risk from the taliban, if they extended beyond the 31st that the taliban might turn on u.s. forces and people trying to get to the airport? well, that s what the president said yesterday. that the longer u.s. forces are in the country, the more at risk it comes to them. and that risk goes up considerably after the deadline he had set. you know, the criticism you re hearing from members of congress is very similar to the quiet criticism that we re hearing from allies which is on the 31st, it was an arbitrary date to begin with.