Page 1011 - Capability News Today

Johnson faced an angry parliament today who blasted him for following the u.s. on a, quote, wing and a prayer. >> what does it say about us as a country? what does it say about nato if we are entirely dependent on a unilateral decision taken by the united states? >> reporter: now, jake, when it comes to the situation on the ground right now, lawmakers are pushing the white house to change that self-imposed deadline of august 31st saying it is not possible to get everyone they want to get out, ou...

Gone on in the last 72, 96 hours related to afghanistan. but thats not what this is really fundamentally about right now. thats not what this is about. and i keep raising the question of were focusing on this issue, asking the questions that need to be asked, great, all of thats fine. but were in the middle of losing our democracy at home, right? and the democrats -- how many months and weeks did it take until finally a committee has been put together. we saw one day of hearings and weve not see...

Country. how can the u.s., the pentagon, live up to that task of evacuating all americans because we continue to see the violence just outside the airport and how would you get them from around the country unless you go get them? >> well, two things, barbara. one is state department as you know as ive said is working with the taliban to facilitate safe passage of american citizens, u.s. passport holders, to the airport. and that is the primary means and under the current conditions, that is the ...

Austin and millie would want to stay there and accomplish this mission and get our people out regardless of how long it took or regardless of the amount of resources that are required to accomplish that mission. those are the two things that we still have to get some clarity on. >> martha: do you know -- i mentioned this earlier when i was asking general petraeus about and youre touching on it now and resources, numbers of people. they said we had to close bagram because we didnt have enough peo...

Bigger than what you have at kabul, which is a postage stamp compared to those in capacity and capability. but, look, if we can put over 600 afghans on a single c-17 -- by the way, that can easily lift that. it can put two m-1 tanks on there. the question is not the weight. a lot of people are fixated on the image, rightly, understandably, the tragic case of afghans trying to hang onto a c-17 as its taking off. id like to focus on the photo of 650 afghans inside a c-17 where a pilot and air crew...

Im a little struck hearing from the defense secretary that he might not force this issue, this is from the defense secretary about 45 minutes ago. >> youre still saying youre focused on the air field. these people cant get in to the air field. >> were going to do everything we can to continue to try to de-conflict and create passage ways for them to get to the air field. i dont have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into kabul. where do you take that? how far can you exten...

From either the host nation government, support of the host nation military. you dont quite know where the people are that you aare extracting and the focus several times was placed on the american citizens versus the siv. but that is the primary mission as sad as that sounds. and the question that some of the reporters were asking about the disconnects between what they are seeing by some reporters on the ground like our great clarissa ward also was being said in the conference, there were some...

For as long as we possibly can. we will continue to tdeconflict issues with the taliban and we will stay focused on securing the airfield. we cannot afford to either not defend that airfield or not have an airfield that is secure where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield at will and put yoour forces at risk. >> but that doesnt answer the question. these people cant get into the airfield. >> well do everything we can to continue to try to deconflict and create ...

To dial down the number of people at their disposal. twice we heard we dont have enough people essentially. we heard that we didnt have enough people to keep bagram air force base and the embassy safe. so we had to make a choice. the choice at that point was to go with the embassy. so they clearly said based on the prescriptive from the white house, they didnt have enough to do both. then we heard from general austin when it comes to going outside the airport, we could do that. we have the capab...

I mean it seems like theres a whole bunch of people, "a," who cant even get to the airport. secondly, who are still just in this process which is a bureaucratic process understandably, and thered have to be checks and there have to be background checks and references and stuff, but it doesnt seem like this is the time when that can actually really take place. >> yeah, anderson. you know, the taliban respect power. and the united states has it. now, granted, they control the government now, but w...