Biden tells G7 he aims to withdraw troops by Aug. 31, citing ‘very high’ risk of attack. President Biden on Tuesday told world leaders gathered virtually for a meeting of the Group of 7 nations that he is aiming — for now — to get American troops out of Afghanistan by his Aug. 31 deadline, but said there was still a possibility of extending that mission, a senior administration official said. Military officials will start withdrawing the 6,000 forces in Kabul as early as this week or this weekend, according to an American military official, who said U.S. forces would continue to fly evacuation missions up til the last few days of the withdrawal. Then they will need to give priority to the remaining troops and equipment, and to any American citizens wanting to leave. Officials said the military needs to start moving out within the next several days in order to meet the Aug. 31 deadline, given the logistics of moving troops and equipment. Officials said military officials could slow the departure if Biden extends the deadline. In closed-door remarks with the world leaders, Mr. Biden told his foreign counterparts that every day that American troops stay in the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the risk escalates. He called the danger of a terrorist attack “very high,” according to a senior administration official. The president reiterated his desire to complete the mission by the deadline, but he said withdrawal will hinge on completing the goal of airlifting all Americans and Afghan allies out of the country to safety. For now, the president told the G-7 leaders, the mission is on track to be completed by the last day of the month. But he warned that if the Taliban did not cooperate — on Tuesday they vowed to reject any extension of Mr. Biden’s troop withdrawal deadline — that could change. The world leaders have said they would urge the United States to delay its final exit from Afghanistan to ensure that all citizens of other countries could be evacuated safely. The president and his team have said for days that Mr. Biden is considering whether the 6,000 troops securing the Kabul airport should stay past the Aug. 31 deadline to facilitate more evacuations. Officials have said they are hopeful that won’t be necessary, but activists, lawmakers and representatives of other governments have expressed skepticism that all of the people seeking to flee the Taliban government will be able to do so by the end of the month. The Taliban warned Monday that there would be “consequences” if Mr. Biden chose to leave forces in their country beyond that date. And American military and intelligence officials have warned of a heightened danger of attacks from ISIS-K, an offshoot of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, and other terror networks. The pace of evacuations has accelerated dramatically despite the chaos and desperation, mostly among Afghans, outside the airport. American officials reported Tuesday morning that 21,600 people were evacuated on Monday, and that 58,700 people had been flown out of the city since it fell on Aug. 14. But Mr. Biden is in a bind. If he orders an extension of the mission, he may be putting troops and diplomats in more danger. But conservatives have already accused him of being willing to “strand” Americans in Afghanistan by leaving before all of them have been evacuated. That drew a sharp response on Monday from Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary. “I think it’s irresponsible to say Americans are stranded,” Ms. Psaki said in response to a question from Peter Doocy of Fox News. “They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home. We are in touch with them via phone, via text, via email, via any way that we can possibly reach Americans to get them home if they want to return home.”
Good God! We're going to withdraw troops without bringing everyone home? This is not the America that I was born into.
As I said yesterday, "Biden will make his decision but it will take Miss Cleo to figure out what it was." Biden's spokespeople are clearly emphasizing that it is Aug 31, but Biden will waffle it into "that is the goal." So whatever the frig that means. His own people are interpreting or spinning it differently. Now the military is also emphasizing that if we are working on leaving Aug 31, they need to start pulling out or working on their own withdrawal by Friday MEANING THIS FRIDAY. So if you do the math or think it through, the remaining days to work on withdrawal of americans and afghans are not really all available for working on the withdrawal of americans and afghans. What a mess. What a frigging mess. It would not surprise me to see Afghans turn on Americans either at the end. Their terror and anger is certainly understandable.
But DOCTOR Jill is offended today. That's the news. That's the ONLY news. We haven't heard from Harry and Meghan, but the day is still young...
This is a monumental effort and our troops are getting it done in spite of their pathetic leadership, not because of it. The buffoons that are in command, both militarily and politically should be run out of town in disgrace. They are deserving of nothing but our contempt. A SALUTE to the men and women on the ground doing their jobs in spectacular fashion and FUCK the command.
Here's the big risk. 12:01am and a plane gets blown out of the sky. You know those Talis have a shitload and hand held rocket launchers and a plane taking off is easy pickings. Joe is in a really big bind if that happens. If he just watches he'll be skewered and done forever. If he takes the gloves off and unleashes hell it's going to be the biggest battle we've seen since TET and I'm not sure the American people can stomach watching hundreds, perhaps thousands of American military being killed while they take the fight to the Talis. Another TET is exactly what we'll see. Win the battle, lose the war.