US military gives Biden a deadline to decide on extending Afghanistan evacuations
Source: CNN
By Nicole Gaouette, Barbara Starr, Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN
Updated 7:44 PM ET, Mon August 23, 2021
(CNN)The US military is advising President Joe Biden that he must decide by Tuesday whether to extend the evacuation in Afghanistan beyond August 31, according to a defense official directly familiar with the discussions, though Biden has yet to make a decision.
Military advisers have told the White House that the decision must be made by Tuesday in order to have enough time to withdraw the 5,800 troops currently on the ground, as well as their equipment and weapons. If the President agrees, the military anticipates "a few more days" of trying to evacuate as many people as possible before the drawdown of US forces begins, possibly at the end of this week.
Still deciding
As of Monday, Biden was still deciding whether to extend the deadline for removing all US troops, CNN has learned. Several of the President's advisers have advised against an extension, citing the security situation on the ground. Officials have spent recent days monitoring potential terrorist threats, citing "persistent" and credible information that the chaotic situation outside the airfield has created a target for ISIS-K and other organizations.
The Pentagon's decision-making ultimatum for Biden follows the Taliban's declaration that the US must remove all forces by August 31 -- a deadline that US military officials say they are still currently planning to meet, with an accelerated pace of evacuation flights now taking thousands out of Afghanistan every day and the US military even entering Kabul, as necessary, to retrieve people. While senior US national security expressed optimism that there will be no need to extend beyond August 31, Biden has said that if need be, the mission to extract US citizens and some Afghans could continue into September. ............................
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/afghanistan-kabul-airport-military-deadline/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_content=2021-08-23T22%3A22%3A03&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNNp
= new reply since forum marked as read
...as long as it takes...
...offer the Taliban some cash to keep still and shut up...
...if the Taliban truly wants us out they should be working with us...
...I'm sure the U.S. military has the means to stay on top of this...
...if not, we'd better start being nicer to China...
The President gives the "orders" and an advisor is just an advisor giving "suggestions" or "recommendations" based on the best information they might have at the time. Otherwise they do as they are told.
