Not over yet? More US troops on their way to Afghanistan

John Kirby, Pentagon Spokesman: “Afternoon, everybody. Just a couple of things at the top here. As you know, and I’m sure you heard from my colleague over at the State Department, the president has ordered the reduction of civilian personnel at our embassy in Kabul and the acceleration of the evacuation of Afghan special immigrant visa applicants from the country. To enable the safe, orderly reduction, the secretary of defense has directed the department to position temporary enabling capabilities to ensure the safety and security of U.S. and partner civilian personnel.”

“Now, I want to stress that these forces are being deployed to support the orderly and safe reduction of civilian personnel at the request of the State Department and to help facilitate an accelerated process of working through savvy applicants. This is a temporary mission with a narrow focus. As with all deployments of our troops into harm’s way, our commanders have the inherent right of self-defense in any attack on them can and will be met with a forceful and an appropriate response. As Ned Price, my colleague at the State Department, highlighted earlier, Secretary Austin did join Secretary Blinken in a phone call this morning with President Ghani. These conversations with allies and partners will continue to ensure close coordination going forward.”

Reporter: “Does the military mission include flying U.S. civilian personnel, the department, the embassy personnel out of the country, or only processing and securing them at the airport?”

John Kirby, Pentagon Spokesman: “We certainly anticipate being postured to support airlift as well for not only the reduction of civilian personnel from the embassy, but also in the forward movement of special immigrant visa applicants. So we do anticipate that there will be airlift required of us and we are working through the final plans right now to to put that into place.”

“As the State Department has said, they’re going to try to complete this reduction of their personnel by the end of this month, and these troops are being ordered in to help facilitate that purpose, that mission along that timeline. I won’t speculate beyond August 31st as to what the footprints are going to look like or or how many troops are going to be there and what they’re going to be doing. What I can tell you is we’re focused on trying to get them there as soon as possible to facilitate this mission, which is the reduction of civilian personnel by the end of the month.”

Reporter: “And one one follow up. Was there a specific event which triggered this decision?”

John Kirby, Pentagon Spokesman: “It would be wrong to conclude that there was one specific event that led to this decision that we believe this is the prudent thing to do given the rapidly deteriorating security situation in and around Kabul. So I think there’s a confluence of things you guys have all been reporting over the last 24 to 36 hours, the Taliban’s advances and where they are. And I think, again, cognizant of that security situation, this administration believed that this was a prudent action to take.”