On Sunday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared for interviews on ABC, NBC, and CNN. He was asked to respond to Biden’s recent statements, such as his June remarks that “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” Blinken responded that the world was surprised by the failure of the 300,000-strong Afghan Security Forces, into which billions of dollars and numerous pieces of equipment were invested, but which “proved incapable of defending the country. And that did happen more rapidly than we anticipated.”
The staff of the Kabul Embassy is being relocated, either out of the country entirely, or to facilities at the airport, where they will continue to process visas for Afghani people who had worked with the U.S. and allies.
