Page 203 - Dod News Today

By hour, monitoring the threat environment very carefully. as i said, the communication with the taliban continues. >> politico. first of all, can you tell us the total estimated cost of the evacuation? and then also, can you explain the discrepancy between the date and dod numbers on the number of people evacuated? state is saying 25,000 since the operation began but major general taylor earlier said 37,000. what is that discrepancy? >> with the numbers question, i cant speak. i dont know where...

As i said, the communication with the taliban continues. rob? >> first of all, can you tell us the total estimated cost of the evacuation? and then also can you explain the discrepancy between the state and dod numbers on the number of people evacuated, state is saying 25,000 since the operation began. but major general taylor earlier today, i believe he said 37,000. so what is that discrepancy? >> i cant speak -- i dont know where the other number came from. but i think were all in in the inner...

When they get to the airport? that sort of thing? >> yes. i think the lack of coordination between dod and the department of defense and department of state, were seeing a lot of confusion from all the folks that were talking to on the ground. these are both american citizens stranded outside the airport, and these are afghan allies who have served for 20 years to help us and fight the taliban, and pa because of that confusion, you have thousands like me who are stepping up to guide these folks,...

Extreme, the taliban are in charge, and thats a city of 4 1/2 million people, we are not going to retake kabul, we could if we flew in another division reinforced, thats not going to happen, our purpose is to get out of there, without fighting, extract all of the americans, the ngos, nato civilian, and possibly some of the afghan sibs, or sensitive intelligence people. i wish the president had not said he would guarantee that all of those afghans would get out. those are tens of thousands of peo...

Said he would guarantee that all those afghans would get out. thats tens of thousands of people. its not going to happen. you are going to have to fit into an adjoining space. we have to be careful about what we say in public, both in the white house and d.o.d. and state department. >> so jon lemire, with the general gives us the perspective of not just the military about where the military intersects with the middle political. and realism on this day. tell us about your beat, that appeared to b...

Theres some awareness that the u.s. is planning these and perhaps pursuing these, but that official says theyre not giving them all the information, but it does require a level of coordination against a common enemy, that being isis k. >> im joined by mazie hirono of hawaii, member of the senate armed services committee. insertion great to have you on. we appreciate it so much. have lawmakers been receiving -- good to be with you. let me just ask you off the top, have lawmakers been receiving re...

And as a four star general just texted me he said and admitted that he was wrong. >> we were watching the press conference and waving you ask the questions. there are numbers flying around and when we hear 2500 americans are able to get out. any sense how many more americans are left? >> the estimates vary. john kirby said between 5,000 and 10,000. over to the white house, jen psaki says at least 11,000. were hearing from capitol hill lawmakers they have been briefed by state department and dod,...

Things that can be done in the short term to fix what is obviously a broken system, at least to save some more lives in coming days? >> sure. its worth noting that the system did not work for zach so even though the fact that zach is evacuated, it wasnt due to the system, it was due to the bravery and heroism of some air force folks and some reins who -- marines who rallied around him. theyre trying their best, d.o.d. is trying their best with the very sissiphian task and i think common sense th...

Afghan partners who put their lives on the line to support our mission in afghanistan. are you confident -- >> absolutely. >> are you confident the u.s. is going to do that? we have not heard that no matter how -- joe biden has not made that assurance. its starting to sound like theyre preparing to leave people behind. >> part of the reason i put out the tweet is because i was not confident. again, we started these conversations in january or february. i remember having the hearings and asking t...

Which is white flag with the arabic lettering on it there you can see the national flag. ainsley: risking their lives to fly the flag. steve: thats why they are running for their lives right there. speaking of running for their lives, the state department and dod, the white house, everybody is being cagey about how many people the united states citizens and others do we have to get out? they dont want us to know its a gigantic number. and they cant possibly do it by the end of this month. we hav...