Page 973 - Capability News Today

Encampments there, we dont keep people there, we have over-the-horizon capability to keep them from going after us. ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20 year war. >> what did you think as you heard the president yesterday? he was asked repeatedly about the deadline, but didnt waiver off his argument despite the horror of yesterday. >> willie, i was thinking, i think the same thing that many people in the pentagon, many people who have had their hands on afghanistan policy over the 20 ye...

Situation than what we saw in the last 24 hours? >> no, i dont think that we should ever think that the taliban can secure the country. that is not going to happen and i think they, at this particular moment, i think the president was right when he says its in their interest for the u.s. to be able safely evacuate. theyre trying to demonstrate. they have just come to power. theyre trying to show their best face to the world, to the international community. they want access to financing. they wan...

Ve vice versa. so it is much more murkier. >> that is fascinating. i guess when it comes to the attack tactically it achieves exactly what isis likes to do, american casualties primarily, but also chaos on the ground. what else might isis-k be looking to do and what does this attack suggest about its reach and capability in afghanistan? >> if we look at some of the attacks that they have carried out over the last year, you mentioned the attack on the maternity ward, they murdered women who were ...

Pursuit of liberty and freedom, just like the president said. we have to make sure that we are doing everything possible to put the troops and resources in place to protect them better, to extend that perimeter, put air cover in place, have the intelligence capability to detect these attacks in advance and do everything possible, that this is imperfect stuff. were asking these folks to do different things under very difficult circumstances. that doesnt mean that we stop the mission but we cannot...

Launch not just attacks from the air but also surveillance from the air. so now all of those air operations have to come from outside of the country. any boots on the ground kind of mission, ct mission, sale missions, et cetera, have to come from outside the country. and intel dpgathering is compromised. we heard bill burns testify to exactly that. so to deliver on the presidents promise, we will have a test of this over the horizon capabilities, in other words, doing it from afar. it is definit...

Officials over here made a couple things clear. one, while the president hinted they had some idea of who was behind the attack, beyond the obvious nature of the terror group, thats a process playing out in terms of identifying and locating. they believe they have the capability to conduct a strike if the information is there to do so, right now the expectation is this may be something that has to happen after the withdrawal. it all underscores that in a matter of days the administration is deal...

And our values in the struggle against terrorism, of the fallen this day are part of a great, noble company of american heroes. to those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone wishes america harm, know this. we will not forgive. we will not forget. we will hunt you down and make you pgy- will hunt you down and make you pay. i will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command. we will not be deterred by terrorists. we will not let them stop our mission. we will con...

And theyre evacuating certain numbers where they are in the capability and requirement. there is r some sberchss in the outward flow. they are just under a few weeks ago. zero up to 110,000. but would see some of those numbers start to come down. >> going back to the phones, sam? >> hey, john, as part of the exist is it the u.s. what is the obligation? the airport is functioning, sam, and were going to need it to

To make those muscle movements to pull out our troops and some of our equipment. as appropriate with any retrograde. what we want to do is preserve as much capability forra long as we can, both in terms of the security foot print, but also in terms of the ability as the general alluded in his opening statement, to moving out evacuees. lives are still the priority. and the lives of our troops and of course the lives of the evacuees and trying to get as many out as possible. so there will be a bal...

Capability they had. thats why you saw us leave bagram in the middle of the night. extracting yourself from war can be very dangerous, it can be deadly. thats why they pursued it so rapidly, arguably at the cost of afghans capability of fighting the taliban. but thats the ultimate tragedy of what happened here because the historic loss, the biggest loss of u.s. forces since 2011, it happened despite the fact their main mission was to try to prevent that from happening. so it became full circle i...