{"id":672118,"date":"2021-08-22T11:36:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-22T15:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=672118"},"modified":"2021-08-22T11:36:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-22T15:36:08","slug":"lloyd-austin-refuses-to-reveal-what-he-told-biden-or-give-afghanistan-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lloyd-austin-refuses-to-reveal-what-he-told-biden-or-give-afghanistan-prediction\/","title":{"rendered":"Lloyd Austin Refuses To Reveal What He Told Biden Or Give Afghanistan Prediction"},"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%2Flloyd-austin-refuses-to-reveal-what-he-told-biden-or-give-afghanistan-prediction%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=672118&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><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/LA-scaled-1.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted during an interview on Sunday that some people who have desperately tried to get to the airport in Kabul have had \u201ctough encounters\u201d with the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>During an interview with ABC News host Martha Raddatz on \u201cThis Week,\u201d Austin refused to divulge the recommendation that he made to President Joe Biden about what course of action the president should take with regard to leaving U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Austin also refused to make a prediction about what will happen in Afghanistan in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got tens of thousands of people out there, desperate to get to the airport, surrounded by the Taliban,\u201d Raddatz said. \u201cSo, why can\u2019t the U.S. send convoys out there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have an American passport, and if you have the right credentials, the Taliban has been allowing people to pass safely through,\u201d Austin claimed.<\/p>\n<p>After pushback from Raddatz, Austin admitted, \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as an absolute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd this kind of environment, as you would imagine, Martha, there have been incidents of people having some tough encounters with Taliban,\u201d he encountered. \u201cAs we learn about those incidents \u2014 we certainly go back and engage the Taliban leadership and press home to them that our expectation is that they allow, you know, our people with the appropriate credentials to get through the checkpoints.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you want to see a small force remain in Afghanistan?\u201d Raddatz asked several minutes later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMartha, and you know I\u2019m not gonna tell you what, what my recommendation to our president was, I will just tell you that like everyone else, the president listened to our input,\u201d Austin responded. \u201cAgain, he conducted a very rigorous and thoughtful process and he made a decision, and I support that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id>\n<p><em>LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We\u2019re gonna try our very best to get everybody, every American citizen who wants to get out, out. And we\u2019ve got \u2014 we continue to look at different ways to \u2014 in creative ways \u2014 to reach out and contact American citizens and help them get into the airfield.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS HOST: You said American citizens. What about those Afghans? What about those interpreters? What about the people who are desperately calling?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: Absolutely the people that are in the Special Immigrant Visa program are very very important to us and these would be the interpreters and many of the staff that supported our embassy, and other embassies, by the way. We want to evacuate them as well.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: Will you ask the President to extend the deadline if they\u2019re not out?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: We\u2019re gonna continue to assess the situation. And again, work as hard as we can to get as many people out as possible. And as we approach that deadline, we\u2019ll make a recommendation to the president.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: Why aren\u2019t American troops able to go out into Kabul and help those Americans, help those Afghans who helped Americans \u2014 get to the airport?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: We have been out. We \u2014 you saw evidence of an operation the other day where we flew a couple of helicopters over to \u2014 that was a very short distance \u2014<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: About a 1000 yards, right?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: Yeah, but, but certainly it helped 169 American citizens get back, get into the, into the gate without, without issues.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: You\u2019ve got tens of thousands of people out there, desperate to get to the airport, surrounded by the Taliban. So, why can\u2019t the U.S. send convoys out there?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: If you have an American passport, and if you have the right credentials, the Taliban has been allowing people to pass safely through.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: Not in all cases.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: There\u2019s no such thing as an absolute. And this kind of environment, as you would imagine, Martha, there have been incidents of people having some tough encounters with Taliban. As we learn about those incidents \u2014 we certainly go back and engage the Taliban leadership and press home to them that our expectation is that they allow, you know, our people with the appropriate credentials to get through the checkpoints.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: But further out into Kabul, there are people desperate to get in. We\u2019re the most capable military in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: We are, and that most capable military in the world is going to make sure that airfield remains secure and safe, and we\u2019re going to defend that airfield. We\u2019re going to look at every way \u2014 every means possible to get American citizens, third country nationals, Special Immigrant Visa applicants into the airfield.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: What is the threat level now at the airport?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: I won\u2019t get into any specific intelligence assessments, but you know that environment well enough, you\u2019ve been there many many times, that it\u2019s \u2014 there\u2019s a, there are a mix of threats in the environment.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: We saw those first days of people, clinging to airplanes \u2014 falling to their death. The absolute utter chaos. And that\u2019s still going on outside the airport. How did this happen?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: Very disturbing images indeed, Martha. As we moved into the airfield and began to secure the airfield, there were a number of civilians that got on to the airfield, before we could completely seal it off. And that was caused by the panic that was created because the government simply dissolved, and the security forces evaporated.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: The president told our George Stephanopoulos that he doesn\u2019t think this exit could have been handled any better way. That chaos would ensue, no matter what. Do you agree with that?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: I agree that if a government collapses to the degree that it did, if the security forces evaporate at the speed that they did, you will clearly have chaos. And that\u2019s what we saw.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: Let\u2019s go back to the planning. We closed Bagram. I was over there with General Miller, and there were concerns about closing Bagram. There were concerns about Afghan interpreters at that point. Who \u2014 whose job was it to worry about those interpreters \u2014 those Afghans at risk?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: Our goal was to keep the embassy open, and also provide a security element in and around Kabul International to protect the embassy and protect our interest in the immediate \u2014 the immediate area. In terms of whose job it is, whose job it was, to address the Special Immigrant Visa applicants, it\u2019s all of our job. It\u2019s an interagency process that\u2019s really honchoed, or led by, the State Department. But, it\u2019s all of our responsibility.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: Are you going to get them all out of there? I know all your people here are working hard, but there\u2019s no real way to get this done right now.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: I\u2019m sure that if people, you know, five days ago looked at where we were, they would say, you probably can\u2019t get very much done at all. If you look at what we\u2019re doing now and taking \u2014 evacuating thousands of people every day. It really has been a tremendous piece of work. In terms of what we\u2019ll be able to accomplish going forward, you can\u2019t \u2014 we can\u2019t place a, you know, a specific figure on exactly what we\u2019ll be able to do, but I\u2019ll just tell you that we\u2019re going to try to exceed expectations, and do as much as we can, and take care of as many people as we can, for as long as we can.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: I know the president has said that the intelligence absolutely did not show that anybody \u2014 that the Taliban could take over in 11 days. What\u2019s the earliest you were aware that that could happen?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: There were assessments that ranged initially from one to two years to, you know, several months, but it was a wide range of of assessments, and as the Taliban began to make gains, and then we saw that in a number of cases, there was less fighting and more surrendering and more forces just kind of evaporating. It was very difficult to predict with accuracy \u2014 this all occurred in a span of about 11 days. Nobody predicted that, you know, the government would fall in 11 days.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: When you, when you look at the planning, I mean, Joe Biden has said he wanted to get out of there for years and years. So it was probably pretty certain that he would say that. Do you believe as you look at it now, and the military loves to plan for the worst case, that the planning was acceptable and appropriate?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: I do based upon, you know, what we were looking at, and the inputs to the plan. But I think you have to go back and look at what the administration inherited. I mean we came in, we were faced with a May 1 deadline to have all forces out of the country. This deal had been struck with the Taliban. And so he had to very rapidly go through a detailed assessment, and look at all options in terms of what, you know, what he could do. And none of those options were good options. He went through a very rigorous process, very detailed process. He listened to the input that was provided by all of the stakeholders in the interagency process. And so, at the end of the day, the president made his decision. But again, he was faced with a situation where there were no good options, all were very tough.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: Did you want to see a small force remain in Afghanistan?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: Martha, and you know I\u2019m not gonna tell you what, what my recommendation to our president was, I will just tell you that like everyone else, the president listened to our input. Again, he conducted a very rigorous and thoughtful process and he made a decision, and I support that decision.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: What do you think the final outcome will be there?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>AUSTIN: I\u2019ve gotten out of the business of making predictions long, long ago, but I think that\u2019s a chapter that\u2019s yet to be written, obviously.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>RADDATZ: It is indeed. Our thanks to Secretary Austin.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted during an interview on Sunday that some people who have desperately tried to get to the airport in Kabul have had \u201ctough encounters\u201d with the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-672118","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\/672118","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672118\/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=672118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}