美国东部夏令时周一下午4点19分，美国总统拜登结束讲话，为自己从阿富汗撤军的决定进行辩护阿富汗，在白宫东厅的讲台上敲打他的活页夹以示强调。
下午4点57分，总统直升机“海军一号”已经升空，前往总统官邸戴维营。对拜登来说，没有回头路可走。
“我知道我的决定会受到批评，但我宁愿接受所有这些批评，也不愿把这个决定传递给另一位美国总统——又一位——第五位。因为它是正确的。对我们的人民来说，这是一个正确的决定，”拜登宣称，他的立场不容置疑。
但随着拜登撤回戴维营，他的政府官员被留在华盛顿，回答总统没有回答的挥之不去的问题:挣扎着离开这个国家的濒临灭绝的阿富汗人的命运到底会如何?为什么政府对塔利班接管的速度如此惊讶?
对于那些在20年战争中帮助过美国军队，现在又面临塔利班武装分子报复威胁的阿富汗翻译和承包商来说，得到答案是当务之急。
国务院发言人内德·普莱斯周一证实，迄今已有1600多人从阿富汗撤离，但他拒绝具体说明其中有多少人是特别签证申请人。
普莱斯说:“只要我们认为我们在(哈米德·卡尔扎伊国际机场)服务的公务员是安全可靠的，我们就会进行雄心勃勃、积极进取和昼夜不停的努力，尽可能多地搬迁。
国防部发言人约翰·柯比星期二早上说，国防部正在努力将航班起飞速度提高到每小时一班。他希望在接下来的24小时内达到这种节奏。但是对于那些无法安全通过塔利班检查站到达机场的阿富汗人来说，解决办法很少。
“我知道有人担心我们为什么不尽早开始撤离阿富汗平民。部分原因是一些阿富汗人不想早些离开，他们仍然对自己的国家抱有希望。部分原因是因为阿富汗政府及其支持者劝阻我们组织大规模流亡，以避免引发他们所说的“信任危机”，拜登在周一的讲话中说，试图为政府缓慢的撤离速度辩护。
周一晚上，拜登总统批准了5亿美元的国务院拨款来援助阿富汗难民他们被成功疏散。
“我们计划在接下来的几周内在阿富汗实地考察。柯比周二在美国广播公司的“早安美国”节目中说:“这不仅仅是让美国人搬出去，更重要的是履行我们对那些在过去20年里帮助过我们的阿富汗人的道德和神圣义务，让尽可能多的人搬出去。
对于濒临灭绝的阿富汗人来说，离开这个国家的挑战因塔利班的突然袭击而加剧。
“事实是，这确实比我们预期的发展得更快，”拜登周一表示，承认他的情报简报没有准确预测事件的步伐。拜登没有直接回答他是否认为这是情报失误。
虽然一些高级军事官员警告拜登不要撤军，并向他提出了一系列可能的后果，但拜登选择了前进。国防部发言人约翰·柯比周一在“早安美国”节目中为总统的选择辩护。
“总司令就是总司令。这不是推翻他的军事领导人或其他顾问。他有多种选择。他得到了每个选项的利弊，然后由他来决定。国防部建议他，我们有发言权。我们在餐桌旁有一个座位。我们提供了我们的建议和忠告。总统做出了决定，现在我们处于执行模式，”柯比说。
甚至拜登自己政党的成员也对阿富汗的情报提出了质疑。参议院情报委员会主席、弗吉尼亚州参议员马克·华纳(Mark Warner)提议调查是什么导致政府低估了塔利班的进展。
华纳周一在一份声明中表示:“我希望与其他司法管辖委员会合作，就为什么我们没有为阿富汗政府和安全部队如此迅速和全面崩溃的最坏情况做好更好的准备提出严厉但必要的问题。”。
对于那些希望进行这些调查的人来说，答案可能令人沮丧。政府在阿富汗行动的无党派监督机构美国阿富汗重建特别监察长周一发布了一份报告，该报告是在塔利班接管前汇编的，分析了美国在阿富汗20年的努力。这份报告给出了一个直言不讳的结论。
“20年后，阿富汗的情况有了很大的改善，但没有多大改善。如果目标是重建并留下一个能够自我维持、对美国国家安全利益几乎不构成威胁的国家，那么阿富汗的整体形势将是暗淡的，”报告总结道。
Biden retreats to Camp David leaving unanswered questions on Afghanistan
At 4:19 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, President Joe Biden concluded a speech defending his decision to withdraw U.S. forces fromAfghanistan, tapping his binder on a podium in the East Room of the White House for emphasis.
By 4:57 p.m., the presidential helicopter, Marine One, was in the air, headed for the presidential retreat, Camp David. For Biden, there was no looking back.
"I know my decision will be criticized, but I would rather take all that criticism than pass this decision on to another president of the United States -- yet another one -- a fifth one. Because it’s the right one. It’s the right decision for our people," Biden declared, leaving no doubt about his stance.
But as Biden withdrew to Camp David, his administration officials were left in Washington to field the lingering questions the president did not address: What exactly will be the fate of endangered Afghans struggling to leave the country? And why was the administration so surprised by the speed of the Taliban’s takeover?
For the Afghan interpreters and contractors who have aided U.S. forces during the 20-year war and are now under threat of retaliation from Taliban militants, getting answers is urgent.
More than 1,600 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan so far, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price confirmed Monday, but he declined to specify how many of those people are Special Visa applicants.
"As long as we deem that our public servants serving at [Hamid Karzai International Airport] are safe and secure, we will be engaged in an ambitious, aggressive, and around-the-clock effort to relocate as many as we possibly can," Price said.
Defense Department Spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday morning that the Department of Defense is working to ramp up flight departures to one per hour. He hoped to achieve that cadence within the next 24 hours. But for those Afghans who are unable to travel safely through Taliban checkpoints to the airport, solutions are sparse.
"I know that there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghans -- civilians sooner. Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier -- still hopeful for their country. And part of it was because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering, as they said, 'a crisis of confidence,'" Biden said in his remarks Monday, attempting to defend the administration’s slow evacuation pace.
Monday evening, President Biden approved $500 million in State Department funding to aid Afghanrefugeeswho are successfully evacuated.
"We plan on being on the ground there in Afghanistan for the next couple of weeks. It's not just about moving out Americans, it is very much about meeting our moral and sacred obligations to those Afghans who helped us over the last 20 years getting as many out as we can," Kirby said on ABC’s "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.
For endangered Afghans, the challenge of leaving the country has been exacerbated by the sudden Taliban blitz.
"The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated," Biden said Monday, admitting that his intelligence briefings did not accurately predict the pace of events. Biden did not directly address whether he considers it an intelligence failure.
While some senior military officials cautioned Biden against withdrawal, presenting him with a litany of possible consequences, Biden chose to move forward. DOD Spokesperson John Kirby defended the president’s choice on "Good Morning America" on Monday.
"The commander in chief is the commander in chief. It's not about overruling his military leaders or other advisers. He is given options. He is given the pros and cons for each option, and then it's up to him to decide. He was advised by the Defense Department, we had a voice. We had a seat at the table. We provided our advice and counsel. The president made his decision and now we're in execution mode," Kirby said.
Even members of Biden’s own party are raising questions about the intelligence on Afghanistan. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.,chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, proposed investigating what led to the government’s underestimation of the Taliban advance.
"I hope to work with the other committees of jurisdiction to ask tough but necessary questions about why we weren’t better prepared for a worst-case scenario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and security forces," Warner said in a statement Monday.
For those looking to carry out those investigations, the answers might be disheartening. The government’s nonpartisan watchdog on operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, on Monday released a report compiled just before the Taliban takeover, analyzing 20 years of U.S. efforts there. The report delivers a blunt verdict.
"Twenty years later, much has improved, and much has not in Afghanistan. If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that can sustain itself and pose little threat to U.S. national security interests, the overall picture in Afghanistan is bleak," it concludes.
