in the intervening 20 years. and the conditions in afghanistan, the underlying conditions in afghanistan that made so difficult and, at the end, impossible this notion of state building. so i think he s been clear and consistent for at least a decade on this count that these are the two substantive cornerstones to his argument. and what about the criticism that he s gotten for the way that the actual end of the war was conducted, the withdrawal and, you know, there are criticisms that he should ve started withdrawing the afghan allies, the siv recipients earlier. the president obviously feeling a bit defensive today, talked about how the american citizens in afghanistan had been mourned 19 times. i don t know if it s fair to say he was pointing fingers of blame, but he certainly was suggesting, hey, we didn t just pull out, we tried to tell people to leave.
efforts, which as many of you may or may not know who have covered hurricanes before, people leaving their homes and going to evacuation centers, that can increase in the days ahead. it isn t just always in the day after. and certainly there are ongoing efforts on the ground. he s open to that. i don t have anything to announce at this point in time. obviously the president of the united states going to a region takes a lot of resources. on afghanistan, is there any sense of if and how many americans might ve left today? is there even a way to track that from the u.s. government at this point? we remain in touch through a range of means of communication, email, text, whatsapp. that s something that we could certainly do from here but also having a presence in doha and diplomats in the region will enable that to happen locally or close by as well. i don t have an update for you on the numbers. but that s something the state department would have the best assessment of. we have a
here and make specific threats. i would rather deal with the taliban in a direct and decisive way privately. and we believe they fully understand the extent to which should they choose to go back on their commitments with respect to safe passage or their counterterrorism commitments or others, there will be a significant price to pay, and it is in their self-interest not to do that. jake, about 13 days ago i believe president biden told abc news that the u.s. military would stay in afghanistan past the august 31st date if american citizens who wanted to get out remained in country by the deadline. now, i understand between that pledge and august 31st there was a horrific terrorist attack that killed 13 american service members, wounded at least 20, and killed scores of innocent afghans. is that what changed his mind and caused him to go back on that pledge? i think there were two major factors in the president s decision to leave on the 31st.
going to be watching closely, as will the global community. i would note that yesterday the u.n. security council also signed a passed a resolution that made clear to what the expectation is in terms of safe travel and evacuation or departure of individuals who want to leave afghanistan. and nearly half of the countries in the world have also signed on to a statement making clear that is the expectation. that s the diplomatic side. and the other diplomatic components that our secretary of state will be focused on include establishing presence in doha, which is already underway, which is a place where we will be able to operate from diplomatically. so we can have access with consular officers and diplomats who can engage with american citizens or others, our afghan partners who want to depart. we re working to set that up now. the other piece is engagement with the taliban, which will continue through our ongoing channels that we have with the taliban on the diplomatic front. the othe
from the abc interview to the 31st and it s a judgment that he very much stands behind. i just have one last question for you. a local journalist north of kabul tells cnn that the taliban dragged an afghan folk singer from his home and killed him. we ve heard many stories like this in the last few weeks. there was an afghan comedian. we are told about abuses of afghan women and girls, other individuals who worked with the american people. what happens to these people? is the response of the biden administration basically just thoughts and prayers? jake, the president spoke to this in his speech today. he said that the united states is going to stand up in a variety of ways including with our economic tools, our diplomacy rallying the rest of the world to fight for human rights in afghanistan on behalf of women and girls, on behalf of the people of that country who deserve to live in peace and dignity and security. but, no, he s not prepared to