says close to 6,000 americans got out. they very much acknowledge here at the pentagon there could be as much as 200 americans still waiting to get out, and that will be left, they say to a diplomatic mission. let s hope they make it. barbara, thank you very, very much. excellent reporting. clarissa ward is joining us once again along with dana dash, retired navy general marks and cnn analyst peter b. the rise and fall of osama bin la laden. dana, the president hit back on his critics over this massive evacuation and withdrawal. what do you make of his clearly defiant tone? defiant bordering on defensive. and that clearly underscores how he s feeling about the intense criticism that he has been
system being challenged to the brink, so this is a problem that s not going away, wolf. certainly isn t. we want you to standby. right now we have new information about a secret deal the u.s. struck with the taliban to help get americans out of afghanistan. our pentagon correspondent barbara star broke the story for us. barbara, what can you tell us? we have all known for days that the u.s. was communicating with the taliban on the ground and had what they were referring to as a pragmatic relationship with communicating about operations, communicating to make sure there was no misunderstanding. but we have learned tonight that all of it went much deeper, that, in fact, the u.s. negotiated a secret agreement with the taliban to help evacuate americans out of kabul. now, look, a lot of americans did report they were not able to get past taliban check points. there is no question about that. but this separate arrangement involved americans being told to go to certain muster points, if
let s go to our pentagon correspondent barbara star. wolf, what u.s. officials are doing is watching the map very carefully. let s go to the map. there are three major capitals right now where the taliban are making an all-out push. in the west near the iranian border, herat. and two capitals. these are areas where the taliban are advancing. as a result, the u.s. conducting up to five air strikes a day trying to push the taliban back. but so far we are told that is a city that is very vulnerable to a tall ban takeover. even in kandahar, the taliban have been on the southern outskirts of the city. what does this mean? if the taliban are able to take one of these major population centers, it may unravel the
he s lambasting his rivals and critics. he didn t do that today. so i was dwratful for that. that said, i think the afghan could be forgiven for maybe being a little bit uncomfortable when he said about pulling our troops out and the readiness to talk to the taliban. it s important they be a part of this and they are included in whatever talks going forward. barbara is right, it will take a long time. we re not there yet. if the taliban smells weakness, it s going to make the talk the harder. as for the economy, the troops don t really that s not their purview. i think that was probably inappropriate for him to bring up. he had to brag. it s the way he is. but at least he didn t get, as i saw, all that political. there are layers to this, barbara. we talk about the context of this trip. you have the great reporting today about some concerns the military officials have about the commander in chief s recent decision making. tell us about those concerns well, let s just, again, start
the taliban agreeing to it and the taliban agreeing to keep that promise. still very tough going in afghanistan. tough road ahead before he can bring additional troops home. admiral kirby, listening to the bigger message. the president is there for the troops. had some turkey. he talked about, you know, also talked about how he, you know, cares so much about the military. talked about the, you know, fancy planes and helicopters that he was helping provide d.o.d. at the same time and boosting about the economy back home. what did you take away from his message? i was glad to see him go there. for the reasons barbara stated. hats off to him for going. frankly, i was actually pleased at his talk wasn t more political. typically what we ve seen him do the phone calls or go in front of troops, it s more like a political rally. more energetic.