all and finally bring to an end 20 years of american military action against thank you. may god bless you. our troops are diplomats and although serving the harm's way and now take questions a p, zeke miller. never dennis can be also promised not to help to bring out those who helped america and it's war effort. we've seen these heart wrenching images at the cobble airport. people trying to get there say nothing of the people who can't get to that airport . you made the commitment again, american troops out to get an american citizens out. will you make the same commitment to those who assisted in the american war effort overlap 20 years? number one, and then number 2, what is your message to the americans partners around the world to criticize not the referral, but the conduct of that withdrawal and made it be then question, america's credibility on the world stage. i've seen no question of our credibility

from our allies around the world. i've spoken with our nato allies who spoken with nato allies, the secretary state or national security via has been in contact with his counterparts throughout the world. and our allies, as has the general are for me, i keep calling them in general, but my secretary defense the fact of the matter is i have not seen that matter of fact the exact opposite. i've got the exact opposite. these were acting with dispatch. we're acting, committing to what we said we would do. look, let's put this thing in perspective here. what interest do we have in afghanistan? at this point, with a kinder guy, we went to afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al qaeda in afghanistan, as well as, as well as getting you know, some a lot. and we did imagine, just imagine if that attack,

if been loudon had decided without kind to launch an attack from yemen. would we ever gone to i can stand with there every, any reason we be that can stand control by the taliban. what is a national interest states in that circumstance? we went and did the mission. you know, my position for a long, long time. it's time to end this war. the estimates of the cost of this war over the last 20 years range from a minimum, one trillion dollars to a big tank at one of the universities saying to trillion, that's somewhere between 150000000 dollars a day and $300000000.00 a day. the threat from terrorism has potassium size is a greater danger from isis and, and al qaeda and all these affiliates and other countries by far than there is from the canister. we're going to retain over the rise and capability. and if they were

to come back to be able to take them out surgically move. so this is, this is where we should be. this is about america leading the world and all our allies have agreed with that. and by the way, before i made this decision, i was of the g 7, as well as i met with our nato partners. and i told them all, every one of them knew and agreed with the decision i made to and, and, and jointly, and our involvement in afghanistan. the 1st part of your question was i can't remember now, would you commit to the same committed any, would you make the same commitment to bring out act there to assist in the war effort? yes, yes. we're making the same commitment. there's no more important than bringing american citizens out. i acknowledge that, but they're equally important. no, most is all those who those s i d, 's, we call them who in fact helped us. there were translators, there when the battle with us, they were part of the operation as well as we're also trying to get out as many

n g o non government organizations, women's organizations, etc. are doing all we can in the meantime. secretary blinking, and i am going to be working with our allies to see to it that we can bring international pressure tyler bond to be. they're looking to gain some legitimacy. they're going to have to figure out how they're going to maintain that country. and there's going to be hard conditions, we're a strong condition, we're going to apply and all depend on whether they get help based on whether or not how and well they treat women and girls, how they treat their citizens. so this is just beginning and that score day past 31st to make that happen, to bring all the americans out to bring those outside these out. i think we can get it done by then, but we're going to make that judgement as we go. now, just and sink a bloomberg for president. you just said

that you would keep a laser focused on counterterrorism efforts. now you don't see a great of a threat of terrorism from afghanistan as other parts of the world. but if you and your administration so badly, mis assessed how quickly the taliban would sweep throughout the garrison. and we no longer have an embassy there from which to run intelligence operations. how can you at all, be confident of your assessment of the risk of terrorism and the ability of the us to conduct over the horizon missions to keep it in check. can you tell americans that they're safe and or main safe from terror attacks and afghan us down? i think you're comparing apples and oranges. one question was whether or not the afghan forces we trained up which day and fight in their own civil war they had going on. no one shouldn't say no one consensus was that it was highly unlikely that 11 days they collapse and fall. the leader of afghanistan would flee

the country. that's a very different question of whether or not there is the ability to observe whether not large groups of terrorists begin to accumulate in a particular area. and afghan is stand a plot against the united states for america. that's why we retain an over the horizon capability. go in and do something about that if that occurs if that occurs . but in the meantime, we know what's happened around the world. we know what's happening in terms of what's going on in other countries where there is a significant rise of terrorist organizations in the middle east in east africa and other places. and so the bottom line is we have to do, we're dealing with those terrorist threats from other parts of the world and fail stage without permanent military. and without permanent military presence there, we have to do the same in afghanistan, sir, on that initial assessment we,

we learned the last 24 hours that there was a descent cable from the state department. sure. saying that the told on wouldn't come faster through afghanistan. can you say why after that cable was issued, the us didn't do more to get america, all kinds of cables, all kinds of advice. if you notice range from this group saying that they didn't said for when would for when it did fall. but saying that it would fall to other saying, it wouldn't happen for a long time. they've be able to sustain themselves through the end of the year, i made the decision, the buck stops with me. i took the consensus opinion, the consensus opinion was that in fact, it would not occur if it occurred until later in the year. so there's my decision. now my, i got my next is stephanie ramos abc. thank

you, mr. president. 2 questions for you. the military has secured the airport as we mentioned, but will you sign off on sending us troops into cobble to evacuate? americans who haven't been able to get to the airport safely? we have no indication that they haven't been able to get income or through the airport. we've made an agreement with the, with the tale bond thus far, they've allowed them to go through and they're interested in that to go through. so we know of no circumstance where american citizens are carrying an american passport or trying to get through to the airport. but we will do whatever needs to be done to see to it. they get more mist resident last month. my colleague, martha raddatz, interviewed abdul an interpreter who was on the front lines with us forces in afghanistan. overnight. we received a photo of taliban militants coming to the door of his home, literally hunting him down. thankfully he was able to escape, but he is obviously still in mortal danger. what would be your message to abdul his

wife and his 3 young daughters we want you to be able to get to the airport contact us. we'll see whenever we can do to get you there. we've got to get you out . we are committed to deal with you, your wife and your child to get all 3 of you out of afghanistan. that's the commitment. thank you sir. meredith lee of p. b. s. news our you mentioned just now using every resource available for evacuations. why haven't you ordered the military to expand the security perimeter around the cobble airport? do you have any plans to do so giving that will likely require more us troops. and are you considering rescue operations to recover americans and african allies stuck behind taliban checkpoint? last the answer is yes. last question. we're considering every, every opportunity and every means by which we could get folks to the airport has

number one, number 2. the reason why we have not gone out and started and set up a perimeter way outside the airport in campbell is that is likely to draw an awful lot of an intended consequences in terms of people who in fact are not part of the tale. but we've been in constant contact with tale mon leadership on the ground in, in campbell, as well as with telling me on leadership at di. and we've been coordinating what we're doing. that's why we were able, for example, how we got all of our embassy personnel out how we got everyone, how the embassy safely. that was a distance, as how we helped get the french out and out of their embassy. so, the question remains. there will be judgments made on the ground by the military commanders at the moment. and i cannot 2nd guess each of those judgments to be may

. but the idea of, again, i mean let me, let me get back to the fundamental point i made the asset. when the decision was made by me that it was made some time ago when i ran for president se, and i wanted to get us out of one of the things that is reality is people now say to me and to others. and so many of you say it on air that why did we have to move? because no americans are being attacked. why did we withdraw those why, why we agree to withdraw 2500 troops? no americans. as i said before, reason they weren't breathed attacked was part of an agreement that trump had made

a year earlier. we will leave by may 1st he said, as long as there's no attack on americans in that europe period. number one, number 2 tale bond was taking large suassa the countryside north and south. none of the major areas, none of the major points of the capitals of each of these provinces. but they were all over the all over the country. and the idea that if i had said on may the 2nd or 3rd, we are not leaving, we are staying. does anybody truly believe that i would not have had to put in significantly more american forces, send your sons your daughters, like my son was sent to iraq to maybe die and for one, for one. so the only rational thing to do in my view was to set up and pre position american forces for the purpose of evacuation and the aircraft to pre

position those ahead of time. so that we would be able to begin the process of evacuation of american citizens. s i v and others who help us. the last point i'll make is this look if we had decided 15 years ago to leave that canister and would have been really difficult. if we decided 5 years ago, we started, we continue the war for another decade and tried to if there's no way in which you'd be able to leave afghanistan without there being some of what you're seeing now. but what we've done so far is mabel, again, a large number of americans out all our personnel at the embassy and so on. and

thank god so far, knock on wood, we're at a different position. scott, scott and t r. thank you, mr. president. i just want to follow up on something you said a moment ago, you said that there's no, no circumstances where american citizens cannot get to the airport. that doesn't really square with the images. we're seeing around the airport with the reporting on the ground from our colleagues who are describing chaos and violence. are you saying unequivocally that any american wants to get to the airport is getting there and getting past the security barrier and to the plains where they want to go? like the question was, how can they get through to the airport outside the airport? and the answer is the best of our knowledge, the tale bon check for and they are letting through people showing american passports. now that's a different question when they get in the rush and crowd of all the folks just outside the wall near the airport. that's why we had do a guess yet. it was

a yesterday day before we went over the wall and brought in how many 169 americans. so it is a process to try and figure out how we, how we deal with the mad rush of non americans, those who didn't help those who are not on the friday. let just any ask any afghan to be able to get out of the country. and so my guess is that no matter what, under what circumstances we, anyone, there's not a whole lot of afghani. there's a whole lot of app kenny's to just assume come to america, whether there are any involved with the united states in the past at all, rather than stay under tolerable rule or any, any rule. so what i was saying is that we have an agreement that they will lead pass through the checkpoints that they the tale bon control event americans

through be given this, given the negotiation for the taliban. the scenes that were saying, can you just fully explain why the plan wasn't to go ahead with these evacuation to both americans and allies before the drop down began before backroom was closed, looking back several months because whether it was now or several months from now, there seems to be a broad consensus that the taliban would make these gains and these would be needed at some point. oh yeah, at some point. but the point was that although we were in contact with the tale bond and doha, that some point wasn't expected to be the total demise of the african national force, which is $300.00 persons. let's assume the afghan national force had continued to fight and, and they were surrounding couple very different story. very different story. but the can overwhelming consensus was that they were, this was not,

could they were not going to collapse the afghan forces. they were not going to leave or not going to just abandon and then put down their arms and take off. so that's what happened. thank you very much, the yourself, the english that joe biden slang by the vice president cabinet harris, the secretary of state entity blinkin, and lloyd austin, the defense secretary explaining the current situation in afghanistan, the evacuation process, the problems and the solutions to what the american president things could happen in the next few days, and they tried to get american citizens as well as the allies out of the country. listening in of course is my camera correspondent who's also at the white house, a very different sort of press conference compared to the one just a few days ago. the president taking questions as times yes indeed. as you mentioned the last time when he made a speech, he didn't take questions this time. he did the number of questions,

but president biden continuing to defend his decision to withdraw that decision. he said was taken a long time ago mentioning as well, but that decision was taken following consultation with fellow members of the g 7. so that is a very interesting point, but president biden, as well, reiterating his commitment to all american citizens that they will be evacuated from afghanistan from couple airport. he also reiterated his commitment to those guns who have been working with us forces as translators, as drivers that the u. s. will do everything to get them out just as it would, its own us citizens. he also brought in that to include workers from n jose as well as particular women and girls who made come under threat from the taliban for their actions. so a broad and series of statements from president biden. he also mentioned an

interesting point in there, so that at one stage in the course of the morning, over a 100 americans were got into the airport with the use of military assets. now we didn't expand about that and was not asked about that. but that's an interesting indication that there has been some activity perhaps beyond the taliban cordon around the airport to get those americans safely through to the airport. now, he said as well that the evacuation process now on the way it was paused for a short period of time. wild bases were prepared within the united states and elsewhere, to stop taking in those being evacuated, in particular, those african nationals. however, he said the evacuation process is now in full swing again, some $5000.00 have be moved in the past 24 hours, a figure that he appears to indicate will really repeated over the next period of time. and finally, as so another mention as well,

he was off again about his statement that he would extend the deadline and keep us forces in afghanistan until every american citizen was out. he was asked whether that applies as well to the u. s. is afghan partners? he appeared to indicate that it did, but what he said, he fully expects the whole process to be over by then. so that becomes a moot point. the president, indicating he believes that the process of evacuation will be completed by the deadline for complete withdrawal of us forces from a county sun, which is the end of this month about another really poignant moment was the fact when one of the american reporters that also asked how and what consideration was being given to those enough, gonna stand who would not american citizens, but it helped america or it's nato allies and getting to the airport, we hear al jazeera throughout the day,

able to be speaking to contributors in afghanistan and beyond all reiterating the same story that the taliban are on the hunt for those that may have helped the americans, all the nato allies. and this is a concern that i think we think is going to develop in the days ahead. yes. well, that was very interesting moment in that news conference when one of the reporters referred to a specific individual who's been working with the media organization, his wife and his child, and asked the president directly, what commitment would he make to this individual? and president biden was very clear saying that his commitment to that individual and his wife and his daughter is total in terms of getting them out now to a very important question because it's a reminder that beyond the talk about the vaccination, about the logistics of this operation in the end, we are talking about individuals, individuals who are facing great suffering while they are attempting to get to the

airport. individuals who are facing great suffering, knowing perhaps that they will not be able to get out of the area because they do not have the necessary papers or cannot be registered for a single immigration visa. and that was a very important reminder of the human cost. that's ongoing here. beyond as i said, the mess of logistical arrangements that one is seeing a president biden being pushed on that particular point. repeating his assumption or his assertion that everybody who needs to get out will be able to get out. but that turning line that he was talking about that is questionable. and the other issue that was not addressed so is the rest of a gun. he's done with us citizens in other parts of the country who left alone getting to the airport have not been able to get to cabal itself because of all the taliban checkpoints that now exist throughout the country as a whole. that issue not being addressed at the stage, and president biden,

admitting to that they are still attempting to get information on how many us citizens. one is talking about that they do not know exactly how many us citizens are still in afghanistan as a whole. but equally following that it would appear, they would not know how many afghans who worked with us forces on in the country as a whole, not just in the vicinity of couple. but these are very important questions which are likely to be explored further in the days. ahead and of course on the political front, mike, we saw the secretary general of nato host, the meeting virtual meeting of foreign ministers in brussels today, where he also talked here on al jazeera, about the extension of the 31st august deadline. but it seems that pop the judgment of politicians globally as being questioned if we look at the british prime, as the british prime minister, being wit flashed in the houses of parliament over his governments behavior, his foreign secretary's behaviour over. what's happened to these last 7 days?

i wonder what the public reaction is in the united states over the way the government is handling this, the general conversation away from the politicians. mike? well, the general conversation is difficult to define, but the opinion polls of indicated that the vast majority of americans support the withdrawal of us forces from a gun is done. but in recent days, the concern about the manner of that withdrawal has become a matter of intense public debate. and this is reflected in the fact that congress is going to return from its break in the coming week. and there are a number of questions and demands being made to the biden administration, to brief various aspects of congress, the gang of a, that's the senior congressional leaders. but also, for example, the speak up the house says off by an administration to provide a telephone briefing to all the members of the house. now this is reflective off

the public concern about the situation and congress getting involved returning from its break to specifically address this issue is going to place political pressure on president biden. but he is absolutely adamant. and he repeated this again that nobody could have predicted the speed with which taliban over the country. he contends that the us had pre positioned all sorts of facilities to deal with the evacuation. but he says and repeat it again. he was taken aback, but he repeated to it's his decision. it was his decision to continue with this withdrawal. busy it was his decision to actually stop the withdrawal at this particular point. and the speed of the taliban advancing. well, that's something he says that nobody could clearly foresee. so president biden on one level continues to defend the action of his administration and certainly praising very strongly the actions of the forces that his administration has

deployed. saying that this is one of the biggest and most complex evacuation exercise that the world has ever seen. and saying to that, the u. s. is the only country in the world with the ability to be able to project power to this extent, to be able to conduct such an evacuation emission, all of the society. they are going to be very, very hosp questions arising in congress next week, which is, as i said, a reflection of a broad public opinion. it would seem that although they may not be that much opposition to us soldiers withdrawing from a 20 year old war, there has been deep public concern about the manner of the withdrawal. my kind of in washington d. c. thanks very much. well, staying on subject chaotic. scenes are continuing to play out at cobbler porters thousands of people trying to flee. i've got some money. i can still face major obstacles, including tunnels and road blocks and problems of paperwork. as you just heard, the charlotte bella sounds the latest for us from the afghan capital circling in

front of carbo international airport. the gates are closed. the taliban with a common did us weapons and vehicles run security. no one can get through. even filming on the street is not allowed. the taliban has disbursed crowds of people. they know. wait for the don. airport road. this is my father certificate. it's there. we made it to la. his father worked as a god for to us contractors. your father is hi, i didn't i he comes here every day to plead his father's case for evacuation. and i don't want to go out on the gate. i am scared. but what can i do? the taliban run after us. they chase and they beat us. i saw women under people's feet in a stamp and i saw a dead body taken from the airport and put in a car and we have no other option. well, not on the, the telephone is in charge of securing the airport and protecting us forces and

evacuation from being overrun. they a forceful and their crowd control, relying on gunfire and beatings to disperse. the thousands who gather us forces can be seen around the perimeter. just meters from tele bomb patrols. people plead their case for evacuation raising paperwork to the tower, but they are asked to move on as scans complain, americans have fired towards them. also not. they're not the ones that were even scared to bring their documents with us every day they were here because we want them to do something for us because we've done them favors. and now we're left here without a future day or every day. the numbers of africans looking for an exit swells. hundreds gather outside the british, french and canadian embassies, hopes brutes. but rumors spread faster. most wisdom besieged have closed, but they don't know that. $20000.00 applicants have applied for us special immigrant visas,

including their families. they estimated $70000.00 to l for evacuation. there were thousands more foreign nationals and africans who worked with other nations, also waiting for flight out. more than 800000 people have been evacuated since the time of on the on sunday. and still the us is expanding its eligibility criteria and doubling the number of evacuation flights from this weekend. yet many people tell us they are too scared to come to the airport because it would mean passing telephone checkpoints. for those that do attempted, they brace for crowds and gunfire, and the disappointment that they will likely be left behind charlotte bellis. osha, 0 cobble later withheld. an emergency meeting on the christ isn't. if it's still in its efforts to get people out, it says lessons must be learned about the speed with which the taliban took over the country. secretary general again, sultan burg told on there that some nathan allies expressed the need to stay beyond

the 31st august deadline to get people out. we have been able to evacuate the thousands of people over the last days and the situation at the airport is so much better now. and i, and also on, in the beginning of the week about, we really recognized that the huge, tall sca that remains to be done. and that was the main issue discussed at the meeting today. the reality is, i've actually, we are many allies for offer to host to receive afghans. people coming out from i've gone on, we have many planes enough calling this on the cobbler airport or in the region. the main challenge was to get people to the airport on into the airport. so we have communicated clearly to all of us that they should provides a safe passage for everyone who wants to leave the country. and especially enable them to go to the airport.