caroline: i'm caroline hyde. romaine: midnight has fallen on afghanistan, august 30 here in the u.s., august 31 over there. of course that is the deadline with regard to withdrawing all the troops out of afghanistan after 20 years. we are hearing word from the associated press that according to the taliban guard, the last u.s. planes have left. we are waiting to get

confirmation on that and waiting to hear from the pentagon any minute. we have heard from a lot of folks earlier today on bloomberg. let's hear what they had to say. >> one of the reasons that biden was so keen to get out of afghanistan was to focus more attention on domestic problems. and the messy, costly withdrawal from afghanistan only increased the political risk and failing to deliver on that front. and the difficulties of getting it done. >> we are also leaving behind a lot of very expensive equipment. some of it we shouldn't worry that much about, trucks and things like that, but there is some sophisticated equipment that could get into the wrong hands. >> soldiers do not leave fellow soldiers on the battlefield. it is that simple. these afghan interpreters are the same way. they were with us on the battlefield, no different from any other soldiers in that

squad, that platoon, that company. we have a moral obligation to do everything we can to get as many of them out as possible because we know what their fate will be under the taliban. when i hear these people say just one more month, just one more day, just one more dollar, what they're actually saying, is one more marine. just one more marine. at this point, i'm sorry, but you had your 20 years, your 2500 u.s. service members, enter 2.3 children dollars to build something up. instead, what you build up collapsed in just two weeks. romaine: a lot of different opinions about the withdrawal of u.s. troops out of afghanistan after 20 years. let's bring in peter martin for the latest. we are waiting to hear from the pentagon about the status of this withdrawal. do we have any sense here that once the withdrawal is completed , what's it -- what true

presence will be left? hold that thought, we are getting that pentagon briefing right now. let's take a listen. >> general, can you hear and see me ok? >> i can hear and see you just fine. >> thank you for being here today, and i will turn it over to you. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from afghanistan and c the last-17 lifted off on august 30, this afternoon, at 3:29 p.m. eastern time. the last manned aircraft is now clearing the air above afghanistan. we will soon release a photo of the last plane departing afghanistan with the u.s. ambassador to afghanistan aboard. while the military evacuation is

complete, the diplomatic effort to evacuate those who want to leave continues. you will hear more about that from the state department shortly. tonight's withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of evacuation but also the end of the nearly 20 year mission that began in afghanistan shortly after september 11, 2001. it is a mission that brought osama bin laden to adjust and along with many of his al qaeda co-conspirators. the cost was 2400 61 u.s. service members and civilians killed, and more than 20,000 were injured. sadly that includes 13 u.s. sue -- service members who were killed by isis-k bombs last week. no words for me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifice and accomplishments of those who served. nor the emotions they are

feeling at this moment. but i will say that i'm proud that both my son and i were part of it. before i open it up for questions, i want to provide some important context on the evacuation mission that we just completed. in what was the largest noncombatant evacuation of the u.s. military's history. since august 14, over an 18 day period, u.s. military aircraft have evacuated more than 70 were 9000 -- one than 79,000 civilians, including 6000 americans and more than 73,500 third country nationals and afghan space. the last category includes special immigrant visas, at risk afghans and their families. in total, u.s. and coalition aircraft combined to value -- evacuate within 120 3000 civilians which were all enabled by those securing the airport.

on average we've evacuated more than 7500 civilians per day over the 18 days of the mission, which include 16 full days of evacuations. more than 19,000 on a single day. these numbers do not include the roughly 5000 service members and their equipment that were sent to afghanistan sue -- to secure the airfield and were withdrawn at the conclusion of our mission. the numbers represent a monumental accomplishment that they do not do justice to the determination, grit, inflexibility and professionalism from the men and women of the u.s. military and our coalition partners who were able to rapidly combine efforts and evacuate so many under such difficult conditions. as such, i think it is important that i provide you with what i hope will be some valuable contacts. when the president directed the complete withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan in april, the team at u.s. central command began to update and

refine our existing plan for potential noncombatant evacuation operation in afghanistan. we had a framework of plans that included numerous branches, depending on the nature of the security threat. over time we continue to refine our plans, which included the inner agency, international community and other combatant commands. plans such as this were built on a number of facts and assumptions, which change over time. while observing the security environment deteriorate, we continue to update our facts and assumptions. as the security situation rapidly evolved in afghanistan, we took a number of actions to position ourselves based on direction from the secretary of defense. we position forces in the region and put them on increased alert. we began preparatory work on facilities in kotter with soup -- in qatar.

on august 14 we began to carry out our plan. based on the initial assumption that the afghan security forces would be a willing and able security partner in kabul, defending the capital for matter of weeks, or at least for a few days. then 24 hours, of course, the afghan military collapsed, opening kabul up to the taliban. on august 15, in a meeting with taliban senior leadership indo hall, i delivered a message that our mission in kabul was now evacuation of americans and her partners, that we would not tolerate interference and that we would forcefully defend our forces and evacuees if necessary. the taliban's response in that meeting was in line with what they've said publicly. while they stated their intent to enter and occupy kabul, they also offer to work with us on a de-confliction mechanism to prevent miscalculation while our forces operated in close quarters. finally, they promise not to interfere with our withdrawal.

it is important to understand that within 48 hours of the execution order, the facts on the ground had changed significantly. we had gone from cooperating on security with a long time partner and ally to initiating a pragmatic relationship of necessity. to that environment, we were able to bring in deployed and employed forces and they did extraordinary work with the leading limits of our reinforcement package to safely close the mc in one evening -- the embassy and one evening, to establish security at the airport and to bring in the rest of our reinforcements into the airport. they accomplished this difficult list of tasks within 48 hours of supporting the transfer of the embassy to the airport. i have visited kabul on tuesday, august 17, to see the work being done to establish acuity

firsthand and to observe the evacuation. our men and women on the ground at the airport quickly embraced the dangerous and methodical work of defending the airport while conducting hand screening of more than 120,000 evacuees with six different entry points into the airport. we also conducted three separate helicopter extractions of three distinct groups of civilians, including at least 185 american citizens. additionally, u.s. special operations forces reach out to help bring in more than 1064 americans and 2017 afghans at risk and 120 seven third country nationals.

we have evacuated more than 6000 u.s. civilians, which we believe represents the vast majority of those who wanted to leave at this time. it would be difficult to overestimate the number of unusual challenges, including competing demands that are forces on the ground have successfully overcome. the threat to our forces, particularly from isis-k, was very real, and tragically resulted in the loss of 13 service members and dozens of afghans. said this before, but i would like to say it again. we greatly appreciate the contributions of coalition partners who stood with us on the ground at the airport. i'm going to single out one nation as an example, the norwegians, who maintained their hospital at the airport and were absolutely critical to the immediate care of our wounded after the abbey gate attack. even after the attack, they agreed to extend the presence of their hospital to provide more coverage for us.

our diplomats have also been with us in kabul from the beginning and they're working processing over 120,000 people, stands right beside military partners. we are a team on the ground. as i close my remarks, i would like to offer my personal appreciation to the more than 800,000 service members and 25,000 civilians who have served in afghanistan and particularly should the families of those whose loved ones have been lost. your service as well as that of your comrades and family members will never be forgotten. my heart is broken over the losses we sustained three days ago. we will remember them. the last 18 days have been challenging. americans can be proud of the armed forces who met these challenges head-on. i am now ready to take your questions. >> since we are limited on time, please limit your follow-up so

more people can get questions asked. >> general, thanks for doing this. can you give us a sense of whether or not there are any american citizens or other civilians who were taken out on any of those last couple of c-17's that flew out this afternoon? and can you give us a picture of what you saw with equipment and other things getting either destroyed or removed at the airport before they left? >> we know of no american citizens came out on the last five jets to leave. we maintain the ability to ring them in immediately before departure but that activity ended probably about 12 hours before our exit, although we continue -- we would've been prepared to bring them on until the very last minute. none of them made it to the airport and were able to be

accommodated. we brought some of it out and demilitarized some of it. i will give an example of something we demilitarized. you are aware of the rocket attack that occurred yesterday when five rockets were fired at the airfield. we were effective in engaging the two rockets that did fall on the airfield we believe it kept them from doing more significant damage. we elected to keep those in operation up until the very last minute. it is a complex procedure to break down those systems so we demilitarized though system so that they will never be used again. we felt it was more important to protect our forces and to bring those systems back. we have also demilitarized equipment that we did not bring out at the airport that included a number of -- up to 70 mwraps that were demilitarized and will

never be used again. 27 humvees that will never be driven again, and additionally, on the ramp are total of 73 aircraft. those aircraft will never fly again. they will never be operated by anyone. they will never be able to be flown again. thank you. >> was there any attempt to interfere with the final flights out, either by the taliban or by isis or any other group? and at the end, did americans just vacate the premises, or did they turn it over to the taliban? >> we know that isis-k has worked very hard and continues to strike. we feel the strike yesterday was

very disruptive to their attack plan and threw them off stride. that was one of the significant reasons they were not able to organize themselves when we conducted the final withdrawal. i would say the taliban have been very pragmatic, very businesslike as we have approached this withdrawal. we did not turn it over to the taliban. we talked to the taliban coordinator about the time we were going to leave to let them know we were leaving. but there was no discussion of turning anything over at all. >> if i could just have you reflect personally after 20 years of war, you served there, you have now watched the last troops leave, how did it feel leaving afghanistan to the very group that you overthrew 20 years ago, the taliban? >> as i said in my remarks, i've

been there a couple of times, my son has been there a couple of times. i was very conflicted, actually. but i was pretty much focused on the task at hand. i will have days ahead to actually think about that. there was just so much going on and we were so completely focused on getting our troops out, and getting our citizens out and multiple afghans to the best of our ability, and i did not have a lot of time for reflection. i will do that in the future but right now i'm pre-much consumed with the task at hand. >> your message to americans and afghan allies that were left behind? >> the military phase of this operation has ended. the diplomatic sequel to that will now begin. i believe our department of state is going to work very hard to allow any american citizens who were left, and we think the citizens that were not brought

out number in the very low hundreds. i believe we will be able to get those people out and i think we will also negotiate very hard and aggressively to get our other afghan partners out. the military phase is over, but our desire to bring these people out remains as intense as it was before. the weapons have shifted from the military realm to the diplomatic realm, and the department of state will now take over. >> can you tell us how many people were on that final c-17 flight? you mentioned general donahue talked with essentially his taliban counterpart. can you give us a sense of what role the taliban plays from a security perspective to allow americans to depart kabul? >> those operations are still concluding but i can tell you this about what the taliban has done.

that established a firm perimeter outside of the airfield to prevent people from coming on the airfield during our departure. we worked on that with them for a number of days. they did not have knowledge of the time of our departure. we chose to keep that information very restricted. but they were actually very helpful and useful to us as we close down operations. >> general, can you give us a deeper level of what it look like in terms of the number of people you had on the ground to start with, particularly senior leaders and how it all played out? >> on the last airplane out was general chris donahue, and my ground force commander there. he was accompanied by -- the

defense team came out on the last aircraft out. what has happened over the last 12-18 hours, first of all, we were intent on maintaining the ability to bring out americans and other afghans as long as we could. we kept that capability until just a few hours ago and we were able to bring out some people earlier in the day. we had to cut it off sometime before the operation, but we were intent on that capability. we were also intent on maintaining our force protection. the threats from isis are very real and very concerning. so we did a number of things. we had overwhelming u.s. airpower overhead, should there have been any challenge to our departure. there was absolutely no question we would not be challenged by the taliban. if we were challenged, it was going to be by isis. some of the things we've done

yesterday, particularly the strike, have disrupted their ability to have an attack plan. but they remain a very lethal force. probably there are 2000 hard-core isis fighters in afghanistan now, and of course many those come from prisons ever opened a few days ago. so that numbers probably as high as it has been in quite a while. that will be a challenge for the taliban in days to come. >> there are about 500 afghan soldiers protecting the perimeter. did you evacuate them and their families? now that you've departed, do you believe it can take on civilian aircraft ready soon or will it require some type of repair or expertise? >> to our -- the best of our knowledge, the situation is pretty good.

we need the airport to be operating. for civilian traffic. we are going to do everything we can to help with that. let me give you an example. one of the things we did not demilitarized are those pieces of equipment that are necessary for airport operation such as fire trucks, freudian loaders, we left that equipment. that is available around the airport to get it back operating as soon as possible that which needs to be operating as soon as possible. >> the deadline has repeatedly been said to be august 31. do you think there may be some people who've had second thoughts that they had at least one more day, and can you claim the tactical decision as to why you completed this mission on the 30th as opposed to the 31st? >> is actually the 31st in

afghanistan, as we look at what day of the month it is. so we actually went out on the 31st, not the 30th, when you look at afghan time. there is a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. we did not get everyone out, but if we had stayed another 10 days, we would not have gotten everyone out that we wanted to get out. it's a tough situation. but i want to emphasize again, simply because we have left does not mean the opportunities for both americans and afghanistan that want to leave and afghans who want to leave, they will not be denied that opportunity. our department of state will work very hard on that. >> just some clarification, where there any evacuees left at the airport when the last military flight? ? left >> there were no evacuees left at the airport when the last u.s. flight left. >> you talked about the taliban's pragmatic ways of

operating with the u.s. military. do you see a role for the u.s. military to have open conversations with the taliban and even potential coordination going forward? in particular with this growing and accentuated threat from isis? >> my dealing with the taliban and my commanders on the ground with the taliban revolved around our determination that you keep this operation in the very flat statement we made to them that if you challenge us, we will hurt you. i think they recognize that, and for their own purposes, this is something they wanted to have happen, too. i can't foresee the way future coordination between us would go. i would leave that for some future date. i would simply say that they wanted us out, we wanted to get out with our people and with our friends and partners. so for that short period of time, our view of the world was the same. finally, i do believe the tallow fan -- taliban will have their

hands full with isis-k when they let all those people out of prison. >> can you assure the american public that every single u.s. service member is now out of afghanistan? >> every single u.s. servicemember is now out of afghanistan. i can say that with 100% certainty. >> just to clarify, you mentioned 100 23,000 out of afghanistan. earlier this morning we heard 122,000. can we assume that was 1000 afghans that came out in some of these final flights? >> we brought about 1000 afghans. overview -- over 1500 out in the last hours. the computation will probably change in the days ahead but i don't think it will change much. but yes, we brought a number of afghans out. >> how would you characterize

this evacuation mission? on the one hand,123,000 people got out. on the other hand, you lost 13 marines, more than 100 afghans died and there are still potentially tens of thousand sivs that wanted to get out that did not get outcome as you said. so how would you characterize this mission? >> first of all, the 11 marines, the soldier and sailor, we will never forget them. we have all lost people before, and it is never easy. you would like to bring out everybody who would want to come out, and the situation would not allow it. i think we did a very good job of getting everybody that we could get out, given the challenges of the tactical situation on the ground. the fact that not all americans wanted to leave. caroline: the interview begins with general mckenzie.

he said of course that they did not get everybody out that they wanted to get out, but they did believe that every single servicemember is out of afghanistan. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

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