Afghan War:General McKenzie Carries On

On 26 August 2021,General Kenneth McKenzie,US Marine Corps,Commander,US Central Command,gave a virtual briefing to journalists gathered at the Pentagon on the terrorist attack at HKIA in Kabul and continuance of the US military mission in Afghanistan.In the suicide bombing and firefight claimed by the Islamist extremist ISIL-K (another word for Islamic State)organisation,13 US troops were killed in action,including 10 US Marines,a US Navy hospital corpsman,and two other as of yet unidentified military members;18 other service members were wounded-some of them critically.There were also at least 60 Afghan civilians killed and 140 wounded.General McKenzie explained that the attack occurred at the Abbey Gate,which requires physical contact with those seeking to enter the airport.At such interface points,there's no substitute for a young man or woman to search a person.Ultimately,Americans have to do the searches.There's just no substitute for it.There's no way you can do that from a distance.If a person were to carry a bomb on a plane,there could be massive loss of life. We have extremely active threat streams against the airport,tactical streams that threaten rocket attacks;Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (both small and large vehicles);and suicide walkers wearing an explosive vest. To counter the threats,we have the necessary troops to protect ourselves with anti-rocket and mortar systems;MQ-9 and other UAVs;F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters and AC-130 gunships;as well ss AH-64 Apache helicopters on the ground and aircraft overhead with thermal imaging systems.All of these are being deployed. We've reached out to the Taliban,telling them they need to push out the perimeter.They have a practical reason to cooperate:they want us out of the country.They've been useful to work with going forward. We thought this would happen sooner or later.The general went on: I think we can continue to conduct our mission.The plan was designed to maximise our mission even as we bgin to reconfigure ourselves and defend ourselves.The plan is designed to operate under stress and we intend to do that.We believe it is their desire to continue their attaclks and we expect them to do so.We have established contact with our evacuees and are directing them along various routes to get to the airport.These have been conducted by our JTACS (Joint Terminal Attack Controllers) very effectively. We don't know that they have manpads that can take our aircraft down.Wewatch that keenly to protect our aircraft.With our ISR (Intelligence,Surveillance and Reconnaissance) we look closely to see if there might be something to target our aircraft.* In the past 24 hours,12,500 more people have been evacuated.