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Afghanistan updates: US, Taliban hold first direct talks since withdrawal
State Dept. spokesperson Ned Price called the talks "candid and professional."
It's been more than a month since the U.S. withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan on President Joe Biden's order to leave by Aug. 31, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control of the country.
In testimony to Congress last month, their first since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan -- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, candidly admitted that they had recommended to Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.
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Top enlisted service member tells troops their service mattered
The military's top enlisted service member sent a message to U.S. troops reassuring them that their service in Afghanistan mattered.
"You can hold your head high that we prevented an attack on the United States homeland," writes Ramon Colon-Lopez, the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"To each of you, your service mattered," he added. "This is personal to us, and we know it is personal to every one of you."
He also praised those involved in the massive airlift from Afghanistan.
"Your actions honor the sacrifice of our brothers and sisters in arms who lost their lives or were wounded in Afghanistan," he wrote. "Over the last two decades and the last 2 weeks. you embodied our American values of equality, liberty, and human dignity for all."
US-funded journalists left behind, no updates on airport talks, overland routes
Some 500 Afghan journalists and their families who were employed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) were left behind in Afghanistan -- reporters, producers and more who worked for Voice of America and other U.S.-funded outlets, according to the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"We did not forget about USAGM employees and their families, nor will we. These individuals ... have not only worked for us, they have worked with us," said State Department spokesperson Ned Price. "We remain keenly focused on getting them out safely just as soon as we can."
Price wouldn't confirm how many there are or what the plans to evacuate them may be, saying it was "not prudent for us to speak to tactics."
He cited the same reason for declining to say more about how the U.S. may help some Americans travel on overland routes to escape Afghanistan, saying only that it "reinforces the point that we're looking at all available options to bring Americans to safety."
Price also had no status update on the negotiations to reopen Kabul's airport, no update on how many American citizens remain in Afghanistan and no update on a protecting power -- a country that oversees U.S. interests where there is no embassy, like Switzerland in Iran or the Czech Republic in Syria.
Americans should believe Biden's promise to get them out of Afghanistan: Psaki
ABC News correspondent Karen Travers asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki why Americans should trust Biden saying he remains committed to getting Americans who remain in Afghanistan out, if he broke a promise he made in his interview with ABC News just 13 days ago, that "yes" he would keep troops there until every American who wants to get out, gets out.
Psaki told Travers to look at the numbers.
"Because he's evacuated 5,500 American citizens and their family members and 120,000 total people over the last two weeks, nearly all of them since that time," she said.
More than 100 Americans who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday and in his remarks Tuesday, Biden called the evacuation mission an "extraordinary success."
President claims US prepared to handle collapse of Afghan military, government
Biden said the decision to depart Afghanistan by Aug. 31 was predicated on the "assumption" that the Afghan government "would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown."
"The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban," Biden said. "That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown, turned out not to be accurate."
-ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky and Benjamin Siegel