{"id":70787,"date":"2021-08-18T23:31:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T23:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/08\/18\/biden-troops-will-stay-in-afghanistan-to-evacuate-americans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:56:15","slug":"biden-troops-will-stay-in-afghanistan-to-evacuate-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/08\/18\/biden-troops-will-stay-in-afghanistan-to-evacuate-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden: Troops will stay in Afghanistan to evacuate Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2021\/08\/14\/biden-orders-1000-more-troops-to-aid-afghanistan-departure-as-taliban-surge-toward-kabul\/\" target=\"_blank\">President Joe Biden <\/a>said Wednesday that he is committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2021\/08\/16\/game-over-westerners-rush-to-leave-kabul-rescue-afghans\/\" target=\"_blank\">until every American is evacuated<\/a>, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also pushed back against criticism that the U.S. should have done more to plan for the evacuation and withdrawal, which has been marked by scenes of violence and chaos as thousands attempted to flee while the Taliban advanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an interview with ABC News\u2019 George Stephanopoulos, Biden said the U.S. will do \u201ceverything in our power\u201d to evacuate Americans and U.S. allies from Afghanistan before the deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pressed repeatedly on how the administration would help Americans left in the nation after Aug. 31, Biden said, \u201cIf there\u2019s American citizens left, we\u2019re gonna stay till we get them all out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took full control of the nation last weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2021\/08\/16\/the-race-is-on-to-evacuate-22000-afghans-by-aug-31-withdrawal-deadline\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/03_crowds-of-people-on-tarmac_kabul-airport_16aug2021_wv3.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The race is on to evacuate 22,000 Afghans by Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Officials couldn&#039;t say whether the withdrawal deadline might be extended to evacuate more refugees.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. military does not have the forces and firepower in Afghanistan to expand its current mission from securing the Kabul airport to collecting Americans and at-risk Afghans elsewhere in the capital and escorting them for evacuation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The question of whether those seeking to leave the country before Biden\u2019s deadline should be rescued and brought to the airport has arisen amid reports that Taliban checkpoints have stopped some designated evacuees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul,\u201d Austin said. \u201cAnd where do you take that? How far do you extend into Kabul, and how long does it take to flow those forces in to be able to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Austin, a retired four-star Army general who commanded forces in Afghanistan, spoke at his first Pentagon news conference since the Taliban swept to power in Kabul on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said the State Department was sending more consular affairs officers to speed up the processing of evacuees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re not close to where we want to be\u201d in terms of the pace of the airlift, Austin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said he was mainly focused on the airport, which faced \u201ca number of threats\u201d that must be monitored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe cannot afford to either not defend that airfield or not have an airfield that\u2019s secure, where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield,\u201d he said, adding that talks with the Taliban were continuing to ensure safe passage for those evacuating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Austin said there were about 4,500 U.S. troops at the airport, maintaining security to enable the State Department-run evacuation operation that has been marked by degrees of chaos and confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Biden, however, told ABC that there wasn\u2019t anything his administration could have done to avoid such chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe idea that somehow, there\u2019s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don\u2019t know how that happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senior U.S. military officers were talking to Taliban commanders in Kabul about checkpoints and curfews that have limited the number of Americans and Afghans able to enter the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said that over 24 hours about 2,000 people, including 325 American citizens, had left aboard 18 flights by U.S. Air Force C-17 transport planes. The number of departing Air Force flights was likely to be similar in the coming 24 hours, Kirby said, although he said he could not estimate how many people they would carry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said the administration was considering its options for dealing with a separate but related problem \u2014 the abandonment by Afghan security forces of an array of military equipment, weapons and aircraft that have fallen into the hands of the Taliban or other militant groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t, obviously, want to see our equipment in the hands of those who would act against our interests or the interests of the Afghan people and increase violence and insecurity inside Afghanistan,\u201d Kirby said. \u201cThere are numerous policy choices that can be made, up to and including destruction.\u201d He said those decisions had not yet been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kirby said several hundred more U.S. troops were expected to arrive at the airport by Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2021\/08\/18\/these-were-first-marines-to-deploy-to-kabul-as-taliban-advanced-in-afghanistan\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6787716.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">These were first Marines to deploy to Kabul as Taliban advanced in Afghanistan<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Roughly 1,000 Marines with the battalion landing team deployed from the 24th MEU to Kabul, Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An Air Force unit arrived overnight that specializes in rapidly setting up and maintaining airfield operations, Kirby said. And he said Marines trained in evacuation support have continued to arrive and will assist in getting civilians onto flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jake Sullivan, Biden\u2019s national security adviser. on Tuesday acknowledged reports that some civilians were encountering resistance \u2014 \u201cbeing turned away or pushed back or even beaten\u201d \u2014 as they tried to reach the Kabul airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The State Department said it was sending John Bass, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, to manage the evacuation operation in Kabul. Army Maj. Gen. Christopher Donohue, a special operations officer and current commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, has arrived to take command of airport security operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command and overall commander of U.S. troops in Kabul, made an unannounced visit to the Afghan capital Tuesday. In a written statement, he said he found that military air traffic controllers and ground handlers were \u201crapidly scaling up\u201d airlift operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McKenzie on Sunday negotiated the safe passage agreement with Taliban leaders in talks held in Doha, Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday the airlift was temporarily suspended when Afghans desperate to escape the country breeched security and rushed onto the tarmac. Seven people died in several incidents. The Air Force said Tuesday that its Office of Special Investigations was investigating an incident Monday in which a C-17 transport plane taking off was swarmed by desperate Afghan civilians, some of whom died. The Air Force said human remains were found in the plane\u2019s wheel well when it landed in Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Darlene Superville, Matthew Lee, Eric Tucker, Alexandra Jaffe and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took full control of the nation last weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":105178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,89,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2484,3053,1194],"class_list":["post-70787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"UOGASBWKXFFIPPKJJPYMYIMLVM","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/afghanistan\/2021\/08\/18\/biden-troops-will-stay-in-afghanistan-to-evacuate-americans\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Biden: Troops will stay in Afghanistan to evacuate Americans - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took full control of the nation last weekend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden: Troops will stay in Afghanistan to evacuate Americans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took full control of the nation last weekend.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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