re: Taliban has taken Kabul. Terrorist attack at Airport at least 12 marines confirmed killed

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CNN’s Mudd: 'Pathetic' State Department Can't Confirm How Many Americans Remain in Kabul

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Anchor Alisyn Camerota said, “It worries me, but I don’t know if it worries you that Ned Price and no one can really give specific numbers. If they don’t know the specific demographics of who they’re flying out of there, exactly how many Americans, exactly how many special immigrant visa Afghans, how do they know how many are left behind? How do they know when the mission is complete?”

Mudd said, “Boy, you are a little more polite than I would be. That was unacceptable. I’m not interested in hearing a U.S. Government spokesperson talk about how unprecedented this is with other U.S. presidents and how other presidents didn’t have to deal with this. I’m interested in understanding why we did only 2,000 people in 24 hours, how we increase that pace over the next 24 hours, what the total number is that we want to get out, and how long that’s going to take. That was pathetic! Explaining how well you are doing when there are American citizens who can’t get to the airport? That guy needs some training fast. That was horrible.”

CNN’s counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd said Thursday on “Newsroom” that State Department spokesperson Ned Price was “pathetic” for being unable to give the exact numbers of Americans and Visa holders who have been flown out of Afghanistan.

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The officials are debating which of three broad options for the 20-year war in Afghanistan Biden should pursue. The first is to adhere to former President Donald Trump’s deal with the Taliban, which would require Biden to withdraw all remaining 2,500 US troops by May 1. The second is to negotiate an extension with the insurgent group, allowing American forces to remain in the country beyond early May. And third is to defy the Trump-Taliban pact altogether and keep fighting in Afghanistan with no stated end date.

During the meeting, according to four sources from the White House, Pentagon, and elsewhere familiar with what happened, Milley made an impassioned — and at times “emotional,” according to some — case to consider keeping US troops in the country.

Milley, who was the deputy commanding general of US forces in Afghanistan and served three tours in the country, essentially argued that if American forces fully withdraw by May 1, it would open the door for the Taliban to overtake the country, making life worse for millions of Afghans and imperiling US national security goals.

Women’s rights “will go back to the Stone Age,” Milley said, according to two of the sources. He argued that it wasn’t worth leaving the country after “all the blood and treasure spent” there over the last two decades. He also added that, in his view, the lack of 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan would make it harder to stem threats from a nuclear-armed Pakistan.

“He went on for a while,” said a White House official, “and everyone was sort of like, ‘Whoa.’” The official said Milley’s plea was filled with “a lot more emotion than substance” but that “it wasn’t super logical.”

After Milley finished, Secretary of Defense Austin during his turn to speak said he understood that there was a lot of emotion surrounding this issue after two decades of war. But, Austin asserted, “We’re not going to make decisions based on emotion,” two of the sources said.

Some in the room took that comment as a direct rebuke of Milley, while others understood the secretary’s remarks as simply saying he wanted the Afghanistan review to proceed in a professional, fact-based manner.

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U.S. officials to Reuters have said that they are not ruling out doing airstrikes against large equipment captured by the Taliban.

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Are we being played? Is there some other motive to saying 6k citizens are still there?

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