states and nato. our secretary of state and our secretary of defense went to repeated ministerial meetings at nato for consultation on this decision and secured a decision for it to be carried out along that timetable. what the president also committed to was making sure every last nato troop on the ground in afghanistan -- and there were more nato troops in afghanistan than american troops when joe biden took office -- could get out safely and securely without a single casualty. he executed that. finally he's committed to that sill tating the flights of our nato allies and partners to get civilians and others out. planes from nato countries have landed and taken off with their personnel over the course of the last 24 hours. [ indiscernible question ] >> how can you assure allies that the united states will defend them. for example, if china affects thailand, the chinese can argue that -- how can you justify the u.s. involvement in taiwan and south korea? i also understood the united states did not wa

one of our supreme allied commanders of nato was in chargi of that nato operation and has been a source wisdom for us on how all of this has transpired. but afghanistan is not iraq. not geographically. you know, it doesn't even have the potential that iraq has to become a functioning society. and i think the building of civil society was something that most people would defend because what we inherited from the taliban inom 2001 was a society where women were being decapitated for doing something as innocent as trying to teach other girls, trying to live a life of dignity and human rights. so that is the fear, of course, among the women's groups, and other groups, that this entire civil society that has been built where music, and art, and culture, and sports, and other activities can be -- you know, can function will be wiped out. has the taliban changed? not likely. they certainly would have to prove that by changing their political and domestic agenda for afghanistan. but they would most likely still harbor terror groups, and al qaeda could be formed or other groups could be formed,

admiral stavridis, what's your analysis as you see the nato meeting just today? >> my sources, andrea, are saying the europeans are going to step up and take in tens of thousands of refugees. i was on a call earlier with a canadian. i think canada will take 20,000+, and i think we will see a sense of obligation given the deep involvement of nato for 20 years, and i think back on the four years i commanded the mission as supreme allied commander. really, there is a deep and abiding sense of obligation among these nations, and so this is where the u.s. can play a powerful role by reaching out to our allies. they are a little short with us right now because we did not consult very effectively and going into this crisis, but now is the time to get an all hands on deck effort to try and deal with this humanitarian crisis that's unfolding in front of our eyes. >> in fact, the allies and the nato allies from my observation and my reporting have been really stand up on all of this, as you know very well. it was the one and only article 5 where they came to our rescue the

are any of our nato allies attempting to get people out or is this an all u.s. military all by itself operation? >> the operations here very much so represent the way this war was fought. there are militaries from all over the world here. it's surreal when you're walking on the street outside the airport here. you have british soldiers who are heavily involved in pulling people out of the crowds, in sorting through, getting them over to the airbase. i've seen canadian troops, polish troops, italian troops. if someone fought in afghanistan, there is a presence here and they are trying to get people out. it's actually america's allies here. the other militaries that have largely been pushing president biden to try to extend that deadline to at least extend it a little bit so they can get their people out and their own nationals as well as their own interpreters and allies on the battlefield. it's very much so a joint project. those who are here from allied forces rely on the u.s. military. this would not be possible without the u.s. air force and the ability to ba

support, without nato's support there, you could see this day coming. the afghan troops were simply not well enough equipped to deal with the taliban on their own. they didn't have that battlefield experience. they weren't motivated like the taliban. they weren't organized like the taliban. and now that all the foreign troops are leaving that country, it seemed pretty obvious that the taliban would take that place over without much of a fight. and that's what's happened. the question is, is how quickly will that happen, just in the 72 hours n the next three days, will wext see a total transanything that country? that's more likely it will i happen. as it happens, you are also seeing a mass exodus from that country. people who over the last two decades had hoped for a brighter future for themselves, for their children who thoughts, they had seen the end of that very harsh taliban rule are now escaping, pouring across the border here, into iran, leaving everything they have in that country behind, trying to desperately leave with their families w their ch

many will interpret this as a failure of a nato mission. in many ways, those are fair interpretations. nations are like people. we make mistakes. we learn what we do wrong. and hopefully we improve as we go forward. >> all right. thank you msnbc military analyst admiral james s, the avridis. >>> coming up, president biden is facing his first major foreign policy crisis. richard and i we'll be right back. that delicious omelet was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. paper money. it's the future! get outta here. i'm leaving with my gold. it's not crazy. help me, mother. it's an omelet. just crack an egg. come here! i've got big news! now, nurtec odt can not only stop a migraine it can prevent a migraine as well. nurtec is the first and only option proven to treat and prevent migraines with one medication. onederful. one quick dissolve tablet can start fast and last. don't take if allergic to nurtec. the most common side effects were nausea, stomach pain, and indigestion. with nurtec, i treat migraine my way. what's your way? as

were our nato allies as well. so from asia to africa, from europe to the western mem sphere, nations are making generous offers to support resubtlement efforts. i've been in personal contact with many leaders, including qatar, germany, spain, italy, the uae and others. they're making vital contributions to thank them for their support and to discuss how we continue to coordinator -- is the reason why i continue in contact with them. i want to, again, thank all of our partners for their continues to stand together. we've also activated the first stage of what's referred to as the civil reserve air fleet, to help with the onward movement of evac week from these transit centers. then we're going to get to the civil reserve fleet, as the parliament is designed -- was designed in the wake of the berlin airlift after world war ii, to use commercial aircraft to augment or airlift capacity. it's a voluntary program for our commercial airlines, and we're grateful for the airlines that are supporting us. it will only use th

. >>> let me bring in an admiral that was in charge of the nato command. jim, walk us through what the president, what the options are being put forth on him, put forth before him now of dealing with this current security mess that we have at that airport, it's obviously harder to get people into the airport, it is not going to get easier, going to get harder. what are the various realistic options to finish the evacuation? >> option one will be wrap it up right now. stop taking anybody else and get our military out of there. i don't think he will select that. smack too much of lebanon response to the terrorist bombing where we decamped immediately. option two, chuck, continue the mission with a very firm eye toward getting out of here as currently postulated on tuesday, try to push the security perimeter out further, try to work with the taliban to get better security, but effectively option two is continue the mission. option three would be to extend the mission, open it more broadly, perhaps conduct strikes against isis-k at their camps and so forth. i

our nato allies are up in arms about the position. we heard from tony blair who is calling the biden administration response to this imbecilic. president biden will attend the meeting virtually. jake sullivan, the national security adviser was speaking this morning about why the chaotic situation at the airport is making things so much more complicated. here is what he said. >> one of the challenges is once arriving at the airport, the three main gates coming into the airport have been crowded with large numbers of afghans. just ordinary afghans who want to get on a plane out of the country. we have been spending the last period working out various operational solutions to get americans onto the air base. >> reporter: those massive crowds are a problem not only because of how hard they make it to process all of these folks and figure out who is who but because of this new isis k threat. the group who has voiced a specific threat to americans and the international airport. that makes those folks who are all being told to congregate in

that this house to involve nato and global peacekeeping forces. and we heard that in a way that we had not heard that earlier. and it gave me a little bit more comfort about the strategy. lindsey graham can shut his mouth. impeachment, i mean -- this was the danger of the rightful impeachments that were inflicted upon the florida retiree, that we just knew, come january, republicans would be wanting to find any old reason you throughout the impeachment term. we heard from senator scott last week, and the 25th amendment, that craziness. we've heard it from lindsey now. and that's exactly what you said, it's from the fox news audience, cheap seats, peanut gallery. >> and we don't likely quote the big lie enthusiasts, we merely do so in this case to let people know what's out there. bill, this ones coming to you. this is aaron david miller, the veteran state department middle east hand. he wrote this on social media tonight. l medi tonight. bill, is there a good chance he might be right? >> i don't really think so actually. it's nice and sophisticate

our nato allies are strongly standing with us. their troops are keeping alongside ours in kabul as is the case whenever i deploy our troops into harm's way, i take that responsibility seriously. i carry that burden everyday. just as i did when i was vice president and my son was deployed to iraq for a year. there is going to be plenty of time to criticize and second guess when this operation is over, but now, now, i am focused ondone. i would ask every american to pray for every man and woman sacrificing for this nation. in the coming days my team and i will continue to share information and update the american people on exactly where things are and we will use every resource necessary to carry out the mission at hand and bring to safety american citizens and our afghan allies. this is our focus now. and when this is finished, we will complete our military withdraw and finally bring to an end 20 years of american military action in afghanistan. thank you and may god bless our troops and the diplomats and those serving in harm's wa

war effort either nato or u.s. military or even aid programs. so it's a really dangerous situation for a lot of people who work for americans and for nato and there are tens of thousands of them. >> on top of that, you have families who have fled these regions and in a lot of cases their houses have been destroyed and they have nothing and they have no money to buy food and the u.n. is warning of an escalating humanitarian crisis here where you have tens of thousands of people, no way to eat and they're dependent upon volunteer essentially showing up with bread and water in order to keep them going. it really is descending into quite a humanitarian crisis and when you look ahead at the possibility of the taliban moving into kabul with all of these displaced people, all of this fear and the densely populated city center, it could get much, much worse, andrea? >> such a dire forecast. such a dangerous situation. please be safer, kelly. thank you for that. joining us now is state department spokesman ned price. ned, you heard the reports from the f

. >> right now the pentagon is focused on getting as many americans and afghans and other nato allies out of afghanistan by the august 31st deadline, but they're not talking about anything beyond that at this point. it's important to point out they have had a good 48 hours getting a lot more people out than last week. if they are able to continue this pace, they will get tens of thousands more people out before the august 31st deadline. there are things frankly outside of their control that may have an impact on that. weather can have an impact on how many flights can come and go. there is a real threat from isis. obviously if there were any sort of attack, that could have an impact on operations there as well. we also have to look at what exactly this august 31st deadline means. there are nearly 6,000 troops on the ground at kabul airport right now. you can't just flip a switch and get them all on flights out. it can take anywhere in the neighborhood of three to four days to get them all out. if you're talking august 31st, we're talking the end of this week now when the u.s. military

9/11 when our nato net presented of said we are gonna eight united states, the number of casualties our allies have had, the, greeks australians, canadians, they have had a lot of sacrifice as well. i think we need to thank them and be grateful to them and have them be involved this exit and i think our allies understand that. they want everything to go as well as possible. they want to heal the breach and move on. >> absolutely right. we fall side by side in the trenches in europe. okay all the way through the present day. our thanks to our starting line, for this first week night, thanks for starting the week off with us. coming up, what is the chance moderate democrats would want to sink their own presidents congressional agenda. and why should you care? well we will put that question to our political experts, and later, she warned that the internet is a petri dish for conspiracy theories. and utter nonsense about the virus, dressed up as news and information. she was right about that. and now people are dying from it, i'll ask the harvard expert, who has a plan to battle mask bu

let's bring in a retired admiral, former nato commander. now msnbc chief national security and diplomacy analyst. thank you for joining us. the administration has been saying in s many different ways this is a contingency they planned for. does it appear they planned for this? >> i think it is fair to say that the pentagon is full of plans. and certainly as a military, and when i commanded this mission for four years, 2009 to 2013 as supreme allied commander in nato, yeah, we had plans for the worst case. i, however, find it hard to believe that they would have guessed on wednesday of last week for example, that we would be in the predict mountain that we are in right now. so, was there a plan for a worst case? probably. were they actually expecting it to unfold this way? i doubt it. >> if you were still lead e if you were the president and watching all of the intelligence coming in, would you have foreseen this? would you have foreseen that this was going to happen in what, nine days? >> absolutely not. i would have said, and i was saying

she also worked at headquarters for the nato led mission in kabul. as i welcome you both, elise, you spent time in kabul. was this deal a surrender? do you see an alternative to what went down? >> surely it was a weak deal. we had no room to negotiate, we had no leverage, because donald trump made it very clear that he wanted to get completely out and he would rush it along by making declarations that he wanted it pushed along even further and that will weaken the deal even more. but biden didn't necessarily have to accept the contours of this deal. we've seen other agreements that trump negotiated and joe biden decided to get out of and not to pursue, and certainly republicans had no problem backing out of the agreement that president obama negotiated. so while donald trump set the pre-conditions for not such a great deal, joe biden executed it. so he owns this. >> based on what she's just saying here, elise is saying, how do you account for the way the biden administration has gone about this? >> you know, president biden did say that regardless, h

>>> for 20 years, afghanistan has been a joint effort with our nato allies. we went in together and we're leaving together, and now, we're working together to bring our people and our afghan partners to safety. >> on those rescue efforts, here is what republican senator lindsey graham had to say today. >> the only way in hell we're going to get our people out is for the president of the united states to tell the military, use the full force and might of the u.s. military to get every american out and all of those who fought along our side. unless the president gives that order, we're going to leave thousands of people behind, and if we do, president biden should be impeached for dereliction of duty. >> so on that, and for more, we are joined again by two of our friends, don calloway, democratic strategist and founder of the national voter protection action fund, and bill kristol, writer, thinker, editor at large at the bullwark. don, now we've heard from the cheap seats, let's hear from you. do you think it is a little bit over-amped? what do you make of the

and nato effort. i've had the privilege of seeing women from 2005 on, since my first trip, seeing their contribution to security and stability. and all these young women fighting for their future. there was a girl i just spoke with who was talking to a girl her age who was displaced who told her that in the town she fled, the taliban wa anesthetizing girls, to sell them in pakistan or traffic in pakistan or other countries. i don't know, i want to be very careful, i don't know if that's true, but that is what girls say they are facing and it's what people who don't even know foreigners are telling me. so i think that is what we're facing. and the one thing we can do is process more visas and create more open space for people to evacuate who supported the u.s. and nato. >> and the fear certainly is real. gayle, do you get a sense that people in afghanistan fema band -- feel a3w57bd -- feel abandoned by the u.s.? >> what i think they feel that is certain is fear of the uncertain. and they know that what

the british talking about this, because joe biden came to brussels, we were all in brussels for the nato meeting, i'm not gonna do it donald trump, did not only undermine nato but withdraw from syria, against the advice of his defense secretary quit over and at the time. this was against the device of this defense accra terry and chairman of the joint chiefs, and the president decided to go's own. way i think it's because, he was so burnt in 2009 by being the lone voice in the national security council, if you remember this, that he was the lone voice against the surge. and he was really eviscerating, in the former defense secretary and former cabinet member, to the vice president, for always being wrong on foreign policy, and he is not forgotten, that and so he was very strong, and stubborn frankly against the advice of the military, and i don't know, but the suspicion, is that the national security adviser and secretary of state did not want to argue with him about. it they know joe biden better than any of us to. but i tell you the hearing, the briefing they did from the hill today, i

or the nato countries, the nato allies to consider doing more to help the afghans, at a minimum to help evacuate those afghans who are now in danger because they helped us with our efforts, our military, political, military efforts in afghanistan, so they clearly also have a responsibility, they also have been evacuating their citizens and the afghans who helped them. i think that, look, all is not lost, alicia. at this moment, i'm glad we're sending some additional troops in because we have to try to save as many lives as we can including american lives. but i don't know how we move forward from here to allow the afghans a real chance to maintain the afghan government a real chance to maintain its capital and have some, you know, some normal island of existence for some of the afghan citizens, especially the women. >> all right. brett and evelyn, thank you so much for walking us through this all. to breaking news from haiti, at this hour, 227 people are confirmed dead. search and rescue operations are underway for hundreds more missing after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the s

>> i think that particularly we're talking about the nato allies. the european allies. canada's fully integrated with the u.s. economically, militarily, you name it. that's not going anywhere. the u.s. is focused much more on china as a principle, as the principle strategic threat and competitor and they're engaged in the quad and they are pivoting to asia. i think the japanese, the south koreans, the australians much more worried about china and the u.s. pullout of afghanistan. i think those relations are strong. i'm not worried about taiwan, particularly, but specifically on europe where you're talking about countries that have really, they were really concerned about four years of america first under trump and they believed, they wanted to believe that biden coming in meant that we could start to rebuild collective values, coordinate the policy and trust. and even though they like biden a lot more than trump with the exception of say hungary's prime minister, viktor orban, this has really dealt a blow. and angela merkel's likely successor, the next likely chancellor,

worked for nato as interpreters or some sort of support staff role, and one of the men we met there was from kandahar. he said he arrived today and he talked about how the taliban militants were going door to door essentially looking for people who either worked for the afghan government or are working for the afghan government or worked with u.s. or nato forces, and these are the kinds of stories we've been hearing over and over again, and this is the reason why so many people have ended up here from other provinces, as these towns and cities are taken over by the taliban. we did learn and confirm just in the past overnight hours, the past 12 hours or so that kandahar, the second largest city in the country also the birth place of the taliban, very symbolic city in that sense also the hub for american forces over the past 20 years has, in fact, fallen into the hands of the taliban to key victory for them. we also understand that lashkar gah and helmand. herat in the west is also confirmed to be in the hands of the taliban today. you're looking at an arc of major cities around the c

you will hear from the nato secretary general shortly. we, the united states, have to contend with people that say are you still as reliable an ally as we thought. >> admiral, thank you. i want to go deeper and bring in the massachusetts democratic congressman. he served in the marines in iraq and is a member of the house armed services committee. congressman, is there a lane between ending a forever war but not completely walking away? i just asked the admiral, we've got troops in italy, germany, japan, south korea. why did it have to be like this? >> yes, there is. the admiral is correct. there were more deaths at one single base, camp pendleton in california in the marine corps than there were in all of afghanistan for u.s. personnel. so the administration will certainly make the case that the taliban was planning an offensive, things were going to get worse, and there's a legitimate argument there. there's a legitimate argument that kotsz of withdrawing are higher than costs of staying, even if you agree we shouldn't have been in the

forces and other nato forces, the perimeter like all of afghanistan is now controlled by the taliban. and the taliban in order to keep people away from here have been extremely aggressive. they have been whipping people, beating people with clubs, they also have been firing in the air. now the taliban say they are going to offer asylum, offer safe passage to people so they can come through and get on this base. that would immensely speed up the process, it would also change the tone and mood of the afghans when they finally get here. i have seen this over the last several days. when afghans arrive, they're exhausted. they've run through a horrible taliban gauntlet, maybe been beaten. they get here, they're nervous, stressed out, worried, makes it difficult for american troops to process them. when the americans ask them to go through security or wait in a holding area, some afghans think they're not going to get through, they're being stopped, can be a bit of panic, a rush on doors. voices get elevated and things get tense. i have seen afghans passing babies from one family to the nex

and from nato allies. they've been rolling up that equipment and gathering the fighters, emptying the presence. so, as the afghans have been folding and falling back, the taliban have been moving and strengthening as they go. so, from a military perspective, this offensive has really been remarkable to watch as they roll through. but again, the big news this morning, it appears that the taliban are not only at the gates of kabul. some sporadic elements may have made their way into the city. and we're just watching to see what's going to happen in the coming hours. 's going to happen in th co>> courtney this obviously the question that's gonna be on everybody's mind. but you just mapped the mo of the taliban and how they've been able to really surround and isolate couple as you said. moved from the outskirts, rural areas into more urban cities. taking equipment provided by the u.s. and nato. empty in the presence. if this was their mo in each province as they're going along, why was that the afghan military

so it's not a nato mission. that said, we fully anticipate to be in close consultation with our allies and partners going forward, and if we can be of assistance to them, if they desire to make changes in their footprint, then the secretary fully intends to make it clear to them that we'll be ready to help as needed. >> thank you. >> yeah. let's see -- dan le mans. >> yes, thank you, john. can you clarify how this doesn't qualify as an n.e.o.? and regardless of that, if you cake it clear if an n.e.o. is needed because it speeds up still, you've got everything you need in place for one? >> yeah, again, the purpose here is to help with the reduction of civilian personnel out of an embassy. that's not the same as a noncombatant evacuation operation where you're moving a massive amount of people who aren't necessarily u.s. government employees. this is a different -- it's a different operation altogether, and we're just not there. the other thing we're going to be doing is helping the state department, again, accele

our nato brethren said we'll come to the aid of the united states. the number of casualties our allies have had, the british, the australians, the canadians, they've had a lot of sacrifice too. and i think we need to thank them, we need to be grateful to them. we need to have them be involved in this exit in as graceful a way as possible. i think our allies understand that. they want everything to go as well as possible. they want to heal the breach and move on. >> you're absolutely right, we fought side by side in the trenches in europe, on the beaches of normandy, all the way through the present day. our thanks to our starting line, phil rucker, rick stengel, dr. celine gounder, thanks for starting the week off with us. >>> coming up, what's the chance moderate democrats would want to sink their own president's congressional agenda? and why should you care? we'll put that question to our political experts. >>> and later, she warned that the internet is a petri dish for conspiracy theories and utter nonsense about the virus dressed up as news and in

we were all this for the nato meeting. america is back. i won't do what donald trump did and not only undermine nato but withdraw from syria against the advice of his defense secretary who quit over it at the time. this was against the advice of the defense secretary and the charmt of joint chiefs and the president decided to go his own way. and i think it is because he was so burned in 2009 by being the lone voice in the national security council. ben will clearly remember this. he was the lone voice against the surge and he was really eviscerated in bob gaetz' book, fellow cabinet member to the vibe for always being wrong on foreign policy. and he has not forgotten. that so he was very strong and stubborn against advice of the military. and i don't know but suspicion is that his national security adviser and secretary of state didn't want to argue with him about it. they know joe biden better than any of us do. hearing, the briefing they can for the hill today was a disaster on both democratic and republican funds. i talked to a leading

the big six nato allies have now ended their evacuation missions. brittain, in fact, last to fly their troops out of kabul earlier today. u.s. forces committing to evacuation efforts until the withdraw deadline on tuesday. officials say they are getting the job done. >> 66 flights left out of kabul yesterday in that 24-hour period, with 6,800 evacuees. today i can report an updated total evacuation that is more than 117,000. the vast majority of which are afghans. of this total number, approximately 5,400 are american citizens. >> and just moments ago state department officials said they have heard from 350 americans who are still trying to leave the country and 280 americans who are not yet ready to leave. conditions on the ground remain treacherous. the airport is still under that high security alert. troops are bracing for a second terror attack. americans are being advised to avoid the gates. a few hours ago the u.s. military launched a drone strike near jalalabad, officials saying they killed two people suspected of being planners of terror att

this is something like the countries in uk, australia, our nato allies, folks involved in afghanistan have been worried about as well. i understand there was some intelligence from the british side, concerned about exactly the type of attack that courtney was just describing. granted, we don't know exactly what happened here. again, there were concerns about this general type of explosion or attack could happen at the gates from the uk side. what more can you tell us about that? >> yeah, garrett, it is 3:00 p.m. here in london. all morning, the british government has been warning very, very urgently about what they have been calling the threat of a highly imminent, lethal attack on kabul airport. now these were not vague warnings. these were not general expressions of concern. this was senior members of the british government going on television and saying we are very concerned. there could be an explosion at the airport in the next couple of hours. so clearly, there is intelligence that the british government was aware of, that the u.s. government was aware of, presumably was shared

extension would be the secretary talking with the president, would that decision include inputs from nato allies? is that a factor? >> i the we absolutely will consider them, and as the general briefs, very much part of moving people out. >> have they communicated to the united states that they need more time. >> can you member we. >> it is tactical movements on any given day, but that has a caveat. we look at the airport etc. and the immediate environment of the airport. that is where you have taliban check points and crowds attemptabling. that is where access to the gates is critical in that space just outside of the airport. and what we're doing is we're in constant communication with the taliban and that space and what it looks like. the only thing that i would say is as you heard the secretary say this and general millie say this. we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that those that need to get out can get out and that includes the monitoring and the accessibility on any given day. >> i appreciate that, but i'm just looking for details, i think it is a different thre

afghans who were in the crowd because they are so desperate to leave and they're people that stood with nato and the u.s. i do think the administration is working hard. it is a lot of people and it is not only the u.s., right? the u.s. -- there can be a humanitarian part that gives safety to all these people and we're talking about journalists and people who came to the u.s. diplomatic areas who came to the u.s. development areas every single day, young people who really tied their fate to the majority that was coming and they were young women and our young women and young men just like the ones in your family and you're counting on so many of us to help them. they have the paperwork and they have the ability to go, and it's just building on the work that's already been done to get folks to safety. because we're about to see significant clashes between the islamic state and the taliban who were never friends and who now, if you look at folks who monitor extremism of bulletin boards and chats are saying the trash talking between isis and the taliban are through the roof. so we're going to see

this side of the airport has long been an american and nato base and it is full with extra troops brought in to protect the evacuation. >> this has become effectively the last u.s. military base in afghanistan. the last presence of american troops in this country after 20 years. they're only focused on one thing. roughing it up. >> reporter: the evacuations are mainly bringing out americans and other foreign nationals. along with afghans who managed to get visas and who are happy to be leaving. hundreds packed into one american cargo jet. the biden administration has promised to expedite visas for afghans who worked for the u.s. military. tens of thousands are still waiting. i spoke to a group of afghans. they all worked on this base for over five years. not one has a visa. >> what did you do on this base? what was your job? >> i work in the billeting office. >> finding people rooms. if you go back home, are you worried? >> of course they will kill us. >> you're here. you all have badges. you're on this base and you can't get out. that seems like a total collapse of bureaucracy or they ju

we'll do that sharing intelligence i expect with countries not part of nato or western alliance. russia will be mighty worried about terrorism on its borders, the stans that border afghanistan to the north are going to be worried. we'll be exchanging a lot of information. that really in the end is america's abiding power. we are the only country that has this global intelligence capability, global counterterrorism capability. people around the world will need it, it is up to the united states and president biden to make it available, to say whatever mistakes we made getting out of afghanistan, we all need to be safe together. i think he will have responsive ear to that because people are worried. >> probably frustrates the europeans, they can mudder and complain, end of the day they probably need us more than they want to admit. david, thank you. much appreciated. >>> coming up, with the u.s. military gone, there won't be diplomatic presence in afghanistan. i speak with a former ambassador about what the new mission could look like and future of u.s. relations with the taliban, t

ambassador to nato and chair of international and defense practices at the bgr group. given everyone who needs to be evacuated from thousands of americans to people from other countries to the afghans who work the long side us, from your professional expertise, is it likely u.s. troops will be in afghanistan past the end of the month? >> look, it's not clear. but the challenge is laid out. in a set of circles. so imagine a set of circles with the uner most circle being the military side of the international airport. the u.s. military now controls. so the chaos we saw awe couple days ago, it's at the center there and has been replaced with a sense of order and discipline. this is where friendly forces are in close face-to-face contact with taliban checkpoints. people have to make it through the checkpoints to get to the evacuation sites. beyond that is another circle. the city of kabul itself. that is totally under taliban control. the really imposing problem is the largest circle yet. and that is the rest of afghanistan. where there are also thousands of afghans who wo

i met with the foreign ministers of nato. i have spoken one-on-one with dozens of my counter parts. last week president biden plet with the leaders of the g7 countries and wendy sherman as been convening a group from all regions of the world every other day. going forward, we'll coordinate closely with countries in the region and around the world as well as with leading international organizations, ngos and the private sector. our allies and partners share our objectives and are committed to working with us. i'll have more to say on these matters in the coming days. the main point i want the drive home here today is that america's work in afghanistan continues. we have plan for what's next. we're putting it into action. this moment also demands reflection. the war in afghanistan was a 20-year endevour. we must learn itsless sons and allow those lessons to shape ou we think about foreign policy. we owe that to future diplomats, policy makers, military leaders, service members. we owe that to the american people. as we do, we will remain relentless si focussed on today and on the futu

the american flag still flies here, this side of the airport has long been an american and nato base, and it is full. full with extra troops. >> this has become the last u.s. military base in afghanistan. the last presence of american troops in this country after 20 years. they're only focused on one thing, wrapping it up. >> the evacuations are mainly bringing out americans, another foreign nationals. along with afghans who managed to get visas and who are happy to be leaving. >> hundreds packed into one american cargo jet. the biden administration has promised to expedite visas for afghans who work for the u.s. military. tens of thousands are still waiting. >> i spoke to a group of afghans, they all worked on this base for over five years. not one has a visa. what did you do on this base? >> i work in the office. >> finding people. >> if you go back home are you worried? >> of course, they will kill us. >> you are here, you are on this base and you can't get out, that's a total collapse or broccoli or they just don't care? >> they don't care. >> what is it like for all of you to wat

more so than nato and the u.s. >> all right. general, take a drink. we have two gentlemen who can address this very question and answer. michael crowley is with us, "new york times" diplomatic correspondent. mark jacobson is also here, combat veteran who served in afghanistan back in '06. he also served in kabul as deputy nato representative, was a senior adviser to defense secretary ash carter back in the day. gentlemen, welcome to you. who better than mr. crowley, the diplomatic correspondent, to perhaps finish the answer that general mccaffrey started. on the quest for legitimacy, if i'm reading it right, by the taliban and barry's answer that there are other actors, other parties standing by on the figurative outskirts of kabul waiting to come into that vacuum, michael. >> yeah, that's right, brian. i mean the situation in afghanistan is still very much in flux. the taliban took control much faster than anyone had anticipated. as we all know the government and security forces stumbled and collapsed so the taliban stumbled in to some degree. it is

we bring in nato ambassador douglas sleuth. thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. as i was taking a listen to the president yesterday evening speak being the events of yesterday, the tragic events of yesterday, it actually reminded me of george w. bush and the speech that he delivered on the eve of 9/11 when he vowed to fight back against those responsible for at tacks here in the united states. i want to take a listen to the president from yesterday and then remind folks what it was like to listen to george w. bush back on september 11th, 2001. >> those who carried out this attack as well as anyone who wishes america harm, know this. we will not forgive. we will not forget. we will hunt you down and make you pay. >> make no mistake. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. >> a lot of commonality there to say the least when you take a look at those moments, spanned by 20 years' time. we know what happened after that speech from the president bush, then president bush, and i think a lot of people are wondering what pres

the nato countries fighting in afghanistan, not one little town. amid all that bloodshed, amid the disproportionate share of the bloodshed in the war being centered in that one town, by september of 2010, the british foreign minister announced that sangin was going to go through a serious change, it was no longer going to be britain's problem, primarily. he announced that henceforth, all responsibility for sangin would be taken over by the american military. by a group of u.s. marines. one of those marines, said to perhaps the most dangerous place in afghanistan's, at the most dangerous times of the war, one of the marines was this man 's major thomas schueman. you see him there on the left. over the course of his long service in afghanistan, he served seven astonishingly difficult and intense months in sangin. he says during his seven months there, 25 marines he served with died there, in that one town, more than 200 others were wounded. he recounted one particularly brutal day in sangin to the chicago sometimes. it was the day in which he earned

of all the g-7 countries as well as cutter, turkey, the european union and the secretary general of nato. we discussed how we will work together to facilitate safe travel out of afghanistan, including by reopening kabul's civilian airport as soon as possible. >> secretary of state antony blinken announcing a multilateral initiative to continue to try to get afghan allies and u.s. citizens, dual citizens, out of afghanistan, in part by planning to reopen the country's main airport in kabul. how is that going to work, and unless and until that happens, what are the other ways out? joining us now is nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent, the host of "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc, andrea mitchell. andrea, it's great to see you. it's been too long, my friend. >> thank you. it's great to see you, rachel. >> we heard a lot from secretary blinken about america's commitment and thanking our partners and talking about what has just happened. what's the nitty-gritty in terms of the plan going forward to get additional people out who the u.s. has committed to get out if and when they wan

from including some of our closest allies in the world in the context of the g-7 and the context of nato in the context of other groupings. >> what you're referring to is a separate question from recognition. a separate question from conferring legitimacy. but what i will say is that these are questions that we're discussing with our european partners and beyond. as i believe you heard, our dpu it you secretary, every other day convenes a group of nearly 30 countries including nato allies and in the pacific region to discuss issues that are tactical and operational and also strategic in terms of what any relationship with the future government of afghanistan will look like. are not questions we're prepared to answer today because we have heard a range of statements from the taliban, some of them have been positive, some of them have been constructive. but ultimately, what we will be looking for, what our international partners will be looking for are deeds, not words. what we are going to be focused on and questions of any future diplomat uk presence, any questions of recognition, any qu

it's nato mission. at the time we had 150,000 u.s. and allied troops there. now we're down to handful and unfortunately, despite all the effort that went in over the last decade to train the afghan security forces, they are not thus far proving themselves very effective on the battlefield. i think matt's comments are about right. there's a three in four chance the wheels come off. i think there's a one in four chance that they can bring the taliban to the table by holding onto the really major pop you lag centers. by the way, the fall of kunduz is significant. it's about the size of philadelphia. it's the sixth largest city. it's not one of the top five. the taliban control nothing else in the top 12 or 13 cities. >> what is it about the taliban, right now, that is allowing them to take on these cities going from rural to urban areas? is it something funding their equipment? is it their will? >> it is largely a matter of will, at this point. that's what the afghan armed forces are lacking are leadership and will. you have to fall back on leadership and will.

i think a number of nato allies were not happy with the way this was done. uk to say the least. so there might be something there in terms of getting the rest of the world to help out. but i'm not sure how you maintain a military presence of any kind in afghanistan, in kabul, without raising the possibility of some kind of contact with the taliban. there hasn't really been any, so far. but anything involving pushing back the perimeter. basically, compressing the people, that dense crush of people around the airport. moving them out beyond it. it -- it just feels like it raises the potential for something to pop off. are you prepared for that? >> you're -- you're absolutely right. it does raise the potential but what is the alternative? are we going to simply abandon those people who are left behind? we -- frankly, the time for asking questions about the strategy that was employed is -- is in the future. right now, we have got to focus on making sure that -- look. we have the finest military in the world. we have seen incredible response by them. and i don't want to put any servi

47,245 afghan civilians including children and babies. 1,144 allied service members including from nato member states. 444 aid workers. and 72 journalists. the number of civilian deaths could be much larger, but that is the official number, 47,245. you can call the 20-year war america's longest war only if you are willing to overlook the 300 years of war waged against the people who were found on this continent when the europeans arrived. america's genocidal war against nato tribes did not officially end until the beginning of the 20th century. today president biden issued a written statement saying, i want to thank our commanders and men and women serving under them for their execution of the dangerous retro grade from afghanistan as scheduled in the early morning hours of august 31st kabul time with no further loss of american lives. the past 17 days have seen our troops execute the largest air lift in u.s. history, evacuating over 120,000 u.s. citizens, citizens of our allies and afghan allies of the united states. they have done it with unmatched courage, professionalism and resolve

of all the g-7 countries as well as cutter, turkey, the european union and the secretary general of nato. we discussed how we will work together to facilitate safe travel out of afghanistan, including by reopening kabul civilian airport as soon as possible. >> secretary of state antony blinken announcing a multilateral initiative to continue to try to get afghan allies and u.s. citizens, dual citizens, out of afghanistan, in part by planning to reopen the country's main airport in kabul. how is that going to work, and unless and until that happens, what are the other ways out? joining us now is nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent, the host of "andrea mitchell reports" on nbc, andrea mitchell. andrea, it's great to see you. it's been too long, my friend. >> thank you. it's great to see you, rachel. >> we heard a lot from secretary blinken about america's commitment and thanking our partners and talking about what has just happened. what's the nitty-gritty in terms of the plan going forward to get additional people out who the u.s. has committed to get out if and when they want to

look at what our nato allies are saying about us. the recommendations they're making, frankly, excluding us. we have to as a nation recognize evil in the world. when you see mothers standing outside the gates handing their babies off, that's because they know the taliban is evil. as americans, we have to say we must fight that and defend ourselves against future attacks. >> was nation building the step too far? i mean was that -- in some ways i understand you have to build some institutions if you want to create that stability, but it didn't work. it didn't work in vietnam, and it didn't work here. >> you have to build those institutions. that's exactly the point. we have to be very specific. there's no question that there were mistakes, strategies pursued that id the on the work, strategies that didn't have the resources they needed. for the united states to be in a position where we need to ensure afghanistan is not a safe haven, that means we've got to provide the support necessary to continue to have the afghans bear the brunt of

>> then nato secretary was certainly moved by your speech. as sir certainly we were. sadid lailuma sadid, thank you for expressing yourself on our ear. and jeff, thank you also for our time. >> at the moment, thousands of new yorkers were told to take cover at the new york city combat concert. we'll tell you who set was cut short. actually, you see him right there. [laughs] >> he likes but he writes the songs. >> he writes his songs, he doesn't make the forecast. though [laughs] in boston right now, you can see the conditions. live pictures, downtown boston. a little overcast. conditions will worsen throughout the day and we will continue to track henri. seeing blood when you brush or floss can be a sign of early gum damage. new parodontax active gum repair kills plaque bacteria at the gum line to help keep the gum seal tight. new parodontax active gum repair toothpaste. (vo) at t-mobile for business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can focus on what matters most. whether it's ensuring food arrives as fresh as when it departs. being fir

troops, a couple of thousand more nato troops? there's no reason that that mission could not continue. it does not impact our strategic posture around the world, it does not mean that we can't handle the chinese the russians, i just think that this was a false choice. they were not thinking about the long-term strategic implications of abandoning afghanistan, looking like we are running with -- our tail between our legs. that is what it looks like right now. >> mark jacobson, of syracuse, we appreciate you starting us off this hour. let's turn now to the fight for women's rights with the taliban in control, afghanistan's women and girls now find themselves fearing that 20 years of progress will vanish. during a press conference this week, a taliban spokesman sought to reassure women that would not be the case. the spokesman promised to honor women's rights within the taliban's view of islamic law. he did not elaborate on when exactly that meant. joining us now is zahra nader, contributor to the filler project, we appreciate you be