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Arrived at the need for 3,000 additional troops. >> i'm not going to get into the deliberations over exactly how these particular units were chosen. this was based on consultation by the secretary with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. general mackenzie. based on the mission set and again, a narrowly defined mission to safeguard the movement of civilian personnel and to help process at an accelerated space special immigrant visas. so based on the mission, we sourced the mission. based on consultations with top military leaders, the secretary decided this is the appropriate amount righ...

Many tails and what the sortees will look like. we have more in the airlift element of this mission. >> what about support? are you going to increase the number of drones or fighter jets to protect the troops? >> yesterday we have and today we have the authority and the capable tips in the region to conduct air strikes if needed. that's not going to change as a result of these new mission sets. >> does this mean the u.s. military withdrawal won't be complete by august 31? >> what i said is we're aiming to facilitate the reduction of these civilian personnel by august 31. so it's all lining up ...

You arrived at the need for 3,000 additional troops? >> i'm not going to get into the deliberations over exactly how these particular units were chosen. this was based on consultation by the secretary with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff based on the mission set. again, it's a narrowly defined mission to safeguard the movement of civilian personnel and help process at an accelerated pace special immigrant visas. we sourced a mission and based on consultations with top military leaders, the secretary decided this was the appropriate amount right now and to again have additional forces...

I just don't have the details here today. we absolutely anticipate being more involved in the air lift element of this mission. >> what about close air support? are you going to increase drones or fighter jets overhead to protect troops? >> yesterday we have and today we have the authority and capabilities in the region to conduct air strikes if needed. that's not going to change as a result of these new mission sets. >> does this mean the u.s. military withdrawal is not going to be complete by august 31st? >> again, what i said was we're aiming to facilitate the reduction of these civilian pe...

This temporary removal of the remaining personnel works. what if that is not enough to protect that area from the taliban? if they're sending in 3,000 people to get out 2,500, is 600 enough? >> i'm confident our military understand the missions that protect the homeland from an attack emanating out of afghanistan. the precise number of people on the ground is something that we focused on. the threat is not from the taliban. it's from the fact that the taliban will play footsies with terrorists like al-quaida. fewer than 20 al-quaida remaining in afghanistan. that's the target to protect americ...