Top general describes heartbreak of Afghanistan exit: ‘We did not get everybody out’

“There’s a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out. But I think if we’d stayed another 10 days … we wouldn’t have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out,” McKenzie said. “It’s a tough situation,” he added, but he said the State Department would now be working on getting the people out who were left behind. “I believe that we’re going to be able to get those people out, and I think we’re also going to negotiate very hard and very aggressively to get our other Afghan partners out.”

‘HUNDREDS’ OF US CITIZENS LEFT BEHIND AS TROOPS LEAVE AFGHANISTAN

‘A MONUMENTAL ACCOMPLISHMENT’: McKenzie gave this breakdown of the 17-day airlift operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport conducted by the U.S. military and its allies:

• U.S. military aircraft evacuated more than 79,000 civilians, 6,000 Americans, and more than 73,500 third-country nationals and Afghan civilians. 
• Combined U.S. and coalition aircraft evacuated more than 123,000 civilians.
• The airlift averaged 7,500 civilian evacuations per day over 16 days of evacuations, with more than 19,000 on a single day.

“The numbers I provided represent a monumental accomplishment, but they do not do justice to the determination, the grit, the flexibility, and the professionalism of 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,” McKenzie said.

THERE WAS A PLAN: McKenzie disputed criticism that the evacuation was haphazard and chaotic due to inadequate planning, insisting that from the day in April when President Joe Biden announced his intention to go through with the withdrawal of all U.S. troops, the planning had been intense for what’s known as a NEO, a noncombatant evacuation operation.

“Plans such as this are built upon a number of facts and assumptions, and facts and assumptions change over time. While observing the security environment deteriorate, we continued to update our facts and assumptions,” McKenzie said. “We began to carry out our plan, based upon the initial assumption that the Afghan security forces would be a willing and able security partner in Kabul.”

There’s a well-worn maxim at the Pentagon that “no plan survives first contact with the enemy,” and in this case, the “enemy” turned out to be the Afghan military. “It’s important to understand that within 48 hours of the NEO execution order, the facts on the ground had changed significantly. We had gone from cooperating on security with a longtime partner and ally to initiating a pragmatic relationship of necessity with a longtime enemy.”

A MARRIAGE OF INCONVENIENCE: McKenzie had surprising praise for the Taliban, describing his meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Doha on Aug. 15.

“I delivered a message on behalf of the president that our mission in Kabul was now the evacuation of Americans and our partners, that we would not tolerate interference, and that we would forcefully defend our forces and the evacuees if necessary,” McKenzie said.

“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 offered to work with us on a deconfliction mechanism to prevent miscalculation while our forces operated in close quarters. Finally, they promised not to interfere with our withdrawal.”

McKenzie said the Taliban “were actually very helpful and useful” as the U.S. prepared to close down operations yesterday. “They established a firm perimeter outside of the airfield to prevent people from coming on the airfield during our departure.”

‘REAP WHAT YOU SOW’: US COMMANDER SAYS TALIBAN WILL HAVE ‘THEIR HANDS FULL WITH ISIS-K’

‘THEY’LL NEVER BE USED AGAIN’: What military equipment the U.S. could not take with it on the last flights out was rendered inoperable, including the C-RAM counter-rocket, artillery, mortar 20 mm Gatling gun which was used to shoot down an incoming rocket Sunday.

“We demilitarized those systems so that they’ll never be used again … We felt it was more important to protect our forces than to bring those systems back,” McKenzie said. Also “demilitarized” were some 70 MRAPs, heavily-armored Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, and 27 Humvees, which he said, “will never be driven again.”

And finally, there were 73 Afghan military aircraft that were still at the airport. “Those aircraft will never fly again,” McKenzie said. “They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone. Most of them were non-mission capable to begin with, but certainly, they’ll never be able to be flown again.”

US MILITARY DESTROYED SOME OF ITS OWN WEAPONS ON THE WAY OUT OF AFGHANISTAN

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HAPPENING TODAY: President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the nation on ending America’s war in Afghanistan at 1:30 p.m. after meeting with his national security team at the White House.

“The past 17 days have seen our troops execute the largest airlift in U.S. history, evacuating over 120,000 U.S. citizens, citizens of our allies, and Afghan allies of the United States. They have done it with unmatched courage, professionalism, and resolve. Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended,” Biden said in a statement.

“For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” Biden said. “Their view was that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops, and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead.”

200 TO 100 AMERICANS LEFT: In remarks yesterday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted the State Department “made extraordinary efforts to give Americans every opportunity to depart the country — in many cases talking, and sometimes walking, them into the airport.”

“We believe there are still a small number of Americans, under 200 and likely closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave,” Blinken said. “Part of the challenge with fixing a precise number is that there are long-time residents of Afghanistan who have American passports and who were trying to determine whether or not they wanted to leave. Many are dual-citizen Americans with deep roots and extended families in Afghanistan who have resided there for many years. For many, it’s a painful choice.”

BLINKEN OUTLINES PATH TO LEGITIMACY FOR TALIBAN

ALSO TODAY: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Minister of Defence Andrii Taranto to the Pentagon with an honor cordon ceremony at 2:00 p.m. Tomorrow, Zelensky meets with President Joe Biden at the White House.

‘NOW IS NOT THAT TIME’: As the Pentagon puts a period at the end of the last chapter of America’s longest war, it has been unable to close the book on Afghanistan because of myriad unanswered questions. Reporters at yesterday’s Pentagon briefing peppered spokesman John Kirby with a fusillade of pointed questions, most of which he couldn’t or wouldn’t answer because the final phase of the airlift was still underway.

“There will probably become a time when we can be more forthcoming. Now is not that time,” Kirby said in response to a question about who, exactly, was targeted in Friday’s drone strike in Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border.

ONE BIG QUESTION: Among the mysteries the Pentagon won’t talk about is why so many American troops were manning a gate at the airport Thursday, allowing an ISIS suicide bomber to inflict grievous casualties, killing 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians.

This was not an intelligence failure. The U.S. had remarkably good intelligence that an attack was imminent at the airport. A State Department security alert issued the night before citing “security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport,” warned U.S. citizens at any of the gates to “leave immediately.” So why were Marines at the Abbey Gate patting down Afghans?

“We’re going to get to the bottom of what happened last Thursday,” Kirby said. “Thirteen precious lives were lost. We’re going to take that seriously, and we’re not going to investigate it in public.”

Kirby fumed at a Politico story that cited classified notes from internal Pentagon conversations. The report said while U.S. commanders had decided to close Abbey Gate in the afternoon Thursday as a security precaution, it was left open to accommodate British evacuees who were being processed at the nearby Baron Hotel. The suicide bomber struck at around 6 p.m. Kabul time.

“I am absolutely not going to speak to a press story that was informed by the unlawful disclosure of classified information and sensitive deliberations here in the Pentagon,” Kirby said. “Just not going to do it.”

GOOD TARGET, OR TRAGIC MISFIRE? The U.S. military touted a Sunday drone strike against a car in a Kabul neighborhood as “eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamid Karzai International airport.”

But reports from the scene indicated that 10 civilians were killed, including seven children under 10 years old. In a statement, the U.S. Central Command acknowledged that a “large amount of explosive material inside may have caused additional casualties.”

“We are not in a position to dispute it right now,” Kirby said. “No military on the face of the Earth works harder to avoid civilian casualties than the United States military, and nobody wants to see innocent life taken. We take it very, very seriously,” he said. “If we have some, you know, verifiable information that we did, in fact, take innocent life here, then we’ll be transparent.”

“But you know what else we didn’t want to see happen? We didn’t want to see happen what we believe to be a very real, a very specific, and a very imminent threat to the Hamid Karzai International Airport and to our troops operating at that airport, as well as civilians around it and in it.”

US DRONE STRIKE IN KABUL RESULTS IN 10 CIVILIAN DEATHS: REPORT

THE BUDGET BATTLES BEGIN: The Pentagon budget takes center stage again on Capitol Hill this morning ahead of tomorrow’s House Armed Services Committee markup of the annual defense policy bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

At 10 a.m., the Brookings Institution hosts a virtual discussion with House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat. Yesterday, Smith released his “chairman’s mark,” a working version of the NDAA subject to revision and amendments.

Smith, who previously endorsed President Joe Biden’s $715 billion “flat” Pentagon budget, will be facing pressure from his Republican colleagues who have called the administration’s proposal “wholly inadequate,” as well as the progressive wing of his party who want to cut military spending now that the U.S. war in Afghanistan is over.

Already the top Republican on Smith’s committee, Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, has filed an amendment to increase the topline of the House version of the NDAA by nearly $25 billion, matching spending levels approved by the version of the NDAA passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee July 22.

“The bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission recommended that we take the step of increasing defense spending at least 3% above the rate of inflation to ensure that our nation is prepared to meet these threats — this amendment will do just that,” said Rogers in a statement. “President Biden’s proposed defense budget for FY22 was wholly inadequate — leaving our men in women in uniform in a vulnerable position and projected weakness to our adversaries.”

HOUSE LIBERALS CALL FOR REDUCED MILITARY SPENDING IN WAKE OF AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

CALL FOR AUSTIN, MILLEY TO RESIGN: A group of retired admirals and generals is calling for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to resign for dereliction of duty in not dissuading President Joe Biden from withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

In an open letter, the group Flag Officers 4 America argues Austin and Milley had a duty to oppose the Biden departure plan “without adequate plans and forces in place.”

“If they did not do everything within their authority to stop the hasty withdrawal, they should resign,” the letter says. “Conversely, if they did do everything within their ability to persuade the CINC/President to not hastily exit the country without ensuring the safety of our citizens and Afghans loyal to America, then they should have resigned in protest as a matter of conscience and public statement.”

The 82 signatories are mostly long-retired one-and two-star officers, but nine are former three-stars, including retired Vice Adm. John Poindexter, who was President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser in the 1980s, and one four-star, Adm. Jerome Johnson, who retired as vice chief of naval operations in 1990.

None of the officers publicly called for Milley or former Defense Secretary Mark Esper to resign when President Donald Trump ignored their advice first against withdrawing troops and then making the final withdrawal contingent on the Taliban meeting the conditions of the Feb. 2020 withdrawal agreement.

MAPPING THE 20-YEAR ARC OF TALIBAN RESURGENCE: The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Bill Roggio, whose authoritative maps have become the most cited documentation of the Taliban’s relentless 20-year campaign to regain control of Afghanistan, is out with a series of maps illustrating the denouement of the U.S. involvement in the two-decade conflict.

The dynamic graphic begins with where the Taliban was before the U.S. invasion in October of 2001 and ending with where we are today, as the last troops have departed.

PENTAGON RELEASES PICTURE OF LAST US SOLDIER TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN, ENDING 20-YEAR WAR

The Rundown

DOD: Statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III On the End of the American War in Afghanistan

Washington Examiner: ‘Military mission’ and evacuations over in Afghanistan

Washington Examiner: ‘Hundreds’ of US citizens left behind as troops leave Afghanistan

Washington Examiner: Pentagon releases picture of last US soldier to leave Afghanistan, ending 20-year war

Washington Examiner: US military destroyed some of its own weapons on the way out of Afghanistan

Washington Examiner: Trump: US should get ‘every penny’ of abandoned equipment or ‘bomb the hell’ out of it

Washington Examiner: Kabul terror attacks throw a curveball into congressional attempts to limit Biden’s war powers

Washington Examiner: House liberals call for reduced military spending in wake of Afghanistan withdrawal

Washington Examiner: Kabul TV anchor insists Afghans should not be afraid as armed Taliban militants stand behind him

Washington Examiner: American University of Afghanistan students attempting to flee could not reach airport: Report

AP: Taliban declare victory from Kabul airport, promise security

Long War Journal: Osama bin Laden’s security chief triumphantly returns to hometown in Afghanistan

Wall Street Journal: US Used a Special Hellfire Missile in Afghanistan Airstrike on Islamic State

The Hill: White House: Biden told commanders to ‘stop at nothing’ to go after ISIS

AP: Pakistan warns about Afghan economic collapse

Air Force Magazine: HASC Chair Wants New Cost Estimates Before Air Force Awards LRSO Procurement Deal

19fortyfive.com: The Navy’s Last Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier Is Ready for War

USNI News: SECNAV Del Toro Tells Industry To Hold Down Costs, Resist Requirements Creep

Washington Post: Capitol riot defendants’ lawyer apparently hospitalized with covid leaves clients without counsel, prosecutors say

Washington Examiner: Opinion: Biden thinks he has leverage over the Taliban. Be very worried

Washington Examiner: Opinion: US should require its civilian vessels to ignore China’s new maritime rule

AP: Analysis: War is over but not Biden’s Afghanistan challenges

Real Clear Defense: Analysis: Estimating the Costs of 20 Years in Afghanistan

The Dispatch: Analysis: What We Know — and Don’t Know — About ISIS-K

19fortyfive.com: Opinion: How Will Joe Biden Deal with the Taliban?

Forbes: Opinion: Recompete Of Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Will Test Whether The Army Can Keep Its Eye On The Ball

Calendar

TUESDAY | AUGUST 31

9 a.m. — National Defense Industrial Association virtual 2021 iFest conference, with Dustin Brown, deputy assistant director for management at the Office of Management and Budget; Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va; Air Force Maj. Gen. Andrea Tullos, deputy commander of the Air Education and Training Command; Army Brig. Gen. Charles Lombardo, deputy commander of the Combined Arms Center-Training; and Alan Shaffer, regent at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and former deputy Defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment. https://www.trainingsystems.org/events/2021/8/31/ifest

10 a.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual discussion: “Glimmer of Hope: How to Help the Women and Girls of Afghanistan,” with former Afghanistan Ambassador to the United States Roya Rahmani; Lisa Curtis, director of the Center for a New American Security’s Indo-Pacific Security Program; Heela Najibullah, author of “Reconciliation and Social Healing in Afghanistan”; and Nicole Robinson, research assistant at the Heritage Center for Foreign Policy. https://www.heritage.org/middle-east/event/glimmer-hope

10 a.m. — Brookings Institution virtual discussion: “How the National Defense Authorization Act Invests in America’s Defense,” with House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. https://www.brookings.edu/events/how-the-ndaa-invests

12 p.m. — Washington Post Live virtual book discussion on “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War,” with U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker; retired Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute; and author Craig Whitlock, Washington Post reporter. https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live

1 p.m. — Potomac Officers Club virtual discussion: “Building the Future Battle: The Keys to Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2,” with Preston Dunlap, chief architect at the Department of the Air Force and Space Force. https://potomacofficersclub.com/events/building-the-future-battle

2 p.m. Pentagon River Entrance — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Minister of Defence Andrii Taranto to the Pentagon with an honor cordon ceremony.

2 p.m. — National Defense Industrial Association virtual discussion with Farooq Mitha, director of the Defense Department’s Office of Small Business Programs. RSVP: [email protected]

3 p.m. — U.S. Naval Academy virtual discussion with Vice Adm. Sean Buck, Naval Academy superintendent. https://navymemorial.swoogo.com/sitrep9

3:15 p.m. — Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, commanding general, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, speaks at the virtual 2021 Fires Conference in Fort Sill, Okla. Livestream at https://sill-www.army.mil/fires-conference/

WEDNESDAY | SEPTEMBER 1

TBA — President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

8 a.m. — Henry L. Stimson Center virtual discussion “Changing the Discourse on Taiwan: Japan-Taiwan Ties in 2021,” with Madoka Fukuda, professor at Hosei University; and Hung-jen Wang, associate professor at National Cheng Kung University https://www.stimson.org/event/changing-the-discourse

9 a.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual event: “Biden’s Crisis in Afghanistan — What Happens After August 31st?” with retired Lt. Gen. Tom Spoehr, director of Heritage Center for National Defense and former deputy commander, U.S. Forces Iraq; and Luke Coffey, director of Heritage Allison Center for Foreign Policy. https://www.heritage.org/events

9 a.m. — National Defense Industrial Association virtual 2021 iFest conference, with Maj. Gen. Donn Hill; Fred Engle, acting deputy assistant Defense secretary for force education and training; Latvian Brig. Gen. Ilmars Lejins, assistant chief of staff for joint force development at NATO Allied Command Transformation; and Zoran Sajinovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina assistant defense minister; and Amy Parker, chief learning officer at the Veterans Affairs Department. https://www.trainingsystems.org/events/2021/8/31/ifest

10 a.m. — House Armed Services Committee markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings

11:30 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute Maritime Security Dialogue: “An Update on the Marine Corps,” with Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger; Seth Jones, senior vice president and director, CSIS International Security Program. https://www.csis.org/events/maritime-security-dialogue

2 p.m. — Washington Post Live virtual discussion: “The Future for Afghan Women,” with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; and former Afghan judge Najla Ayoubi, chief of global programs at Every Woman Treaty. https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live

THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 2

9:30 a.m. — Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies virtual discussion: “ The Taliban Takeover and Central Asian Security: New Reality on the Ground,” with Omid Marzban, senior multimedia editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Salimjon Aioubov, director of the RFE/RL Tajik Service; Stephen Blank, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute; Muhammad Tahir, media relations manager at RFE-RL; Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets; and Nargis Kassenova, senior fellow at the Davis Center https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events/taliban-takeover

11 a.m. — Middle East Institute virtual discussion: “Syria Today: How Assad ‘Won’ Beyond the Military,” with Rahaf Aldoughli, lecturer on Middle East and North African studies at Lancaster University; Guy Barton, visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ Middle East Center; Eric Lob, associate professor at Florida International University; and Emma Beals, nonresident scholar at MEI https://www.mei.edu/events/syria-today-how-assad-won-beyond-military

11 a.m. 1750 Independence Avenue S.W. — Friends of the National World War II Memorial and the National Park Service ceremony to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Allied Forces’ victory in the Pacific and the end of World War II. https://wwiimemorialfriends.networkforgood.com/events Livestream at https://www.facebook.com/WWIIMemorialFriends

12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual discussion: “ The Future of the Navy and Marine Corps,” with Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine; and Seth Cropsey, director of the Hudson Center for American Seapower. https://www.hudson.org/events/2005-virtual-event

4:30 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “The U.S.-ROK alliance, the North Korea situation and the Korean-American community,” with Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii https://www.csis.org/events/capital-cable-33-senator-brian-schatz

6 p.m. — Politics and Prose Bookstore book discussion on “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War,” with author Craig Whitlock, investigative reporter at the Washington Post; and James LaPorta, investigative reporter at the Associated Press.