McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command at the time, was in regular contact with U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan as they evacuated. Shekib Rahmani / AP / AP Hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane at the perimeter of the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021. Now, the problem with that is — it's an interesting counterfactual, but you've got the government of Afghanistan that's saying, look, the people that you're bringing out are the best people in Afghanistan. And so I think that's sort of what draws out to me. We lost track of why we were there, and we did not keep the main thing the main thing.

Source: CNN August 10, 2022 15:19 UTC