{"id":602121,"date":"2021-07-25T11:36:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T15:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=602121"},"modified":"2021-07-25T11:36:50","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T15:36:50","slug":"secy-of-defense-afghan-leadership-committed-to-slow-taliban-momentum-regaining-lost-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/secy-of-defense-afghan-leadership-committed-to-slow-taliban-momentum-regaining-lost-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Secy. of Defense: Afghan leadership committed to slow Taliban momentum, regaining lost ground"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsecy-of-defense-afghan-leadership-committed-to-slow-taliban-momentum-regaining-lost-ground%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=602121&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_2468139\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2468139\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a news briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 8:25 AM PT \u2013 Sunday, July 25, 2021<\/h5>\n<p>Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Afghan leadership needed to somehow cut the Taliban\u2019s momentum if they wanted to retake the country. Speaking from an Alaskan Air Force base on Saturday, Austin said Afghan leadership has been consolidating their forces around the country\u2019s key population centers.<\/p>\n<p>Austin said the first thing the nation needed to do was make sure they slowed the Taliban\u2019s operations and put themselves in a positive position where they could retake some lost ground. He noted from his engagement with Afghan leaders that they have shown commitment to doing just that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to them making progress,\u201d he expressed. \u201cThey have the capabilities, they have the capacity to make progress and to really begin to blunt some of the Taliban\u2019s advances, but we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recent reports mentioned the Taliban has been steadily retaking territory across Afghanistan.&nbsp; Around 85 percent of the war torn country was reported to be controlled by Taliban forces.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecDef?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SecDef<\/a>: Our [Afghanistan] drawdown continues in a safe and orderly manner, and we are still on track to finish up by the end of August. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@POTUS<\/a> has made a decision, and we are going to get it done and get it done right. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JrPeFtHpOx\">pic.twitter.com\/JrPeFtHpOx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Department of Defense \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@DeptofDefense) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeptofDefense\/status\/1417907697614299136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 21, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This comes as U.S. troops withdraw from the country, with a complete removal set for August 31.<\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/rep-ronny-jackson-joe-biden-needs-cognitive-test\/\">Rep. Ronny Jackson: Joe Biden Needs Cognitive Test<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a news briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images) OAN NewsroomUPDATED 8:25 AM PT \u2013 Sunday, July &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}