Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gave a noticeably awkward silence Saturday when asked about his regrets regarding the chaotic withdrawal...
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gave a noticeably awkward silence Saturday when asked about his regrets regarding the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
Austin was participating in a keynote discussion at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, when he was asked the question by Fox's Bret Baier.
After an uncomfortable silence that lasted for nearly 10 seconds, Austin finally replied.
'Bret, I regret the fact that we lost 13 of our finest at Abbey Gate. I regret that we lost 10 civilians in an errant strike.'
'Having said that, Bret, I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of the fact that our American forces, in 17 days, evacuated 124,000 people from Afghanistan,' Austin added.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, pictured, delivers the keynote address during the Reagan National Defense Forum on Saturday
Austin, left, answers questions from Fox News correspondent Bret Baier during a question and answer session at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California
Pictured: US soldiers board a US Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul on August 30 - as troops were racing to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan and evacuate allies
Eleven Marines, a Special Forces member and a Navy Corpsman were all killed in the ISIS-K suicide attack on August 26 as US forces frantically tried to get people on evacuation flights before the August 31 deadline.
Three days later, a drone airstrike that the US government had said took out an ISIS-K terrorist driving an explosives-packed car actually wiped out an innocent family.
Survivors and neighbors said the strike had killed 10 people, including seven children, an aid worker for an American charity organization and a contractor with the US military.
The disastrous handling of the Afghanistan troop withdrawal has caused concern among experts and officials worldwide regarding the US's reliability to maintain its position as world leader.
The disastrous handling of the Afghanistan troop withdrawal has caused concern among experts and officials worldwide regarding the US's reliability to maintain its position as world leader.
This year's Reagan Forum comes amidst acts of aggression by both Russia and China that are on a scale not seen since World War II, according to Fox News.
On November 30, US and UK officials warned Russia against any new Ukraine aggression as the country increased its troop build-up, according to CNBC.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the US troop withdrawal from Kabul was an 'extraordinary success' and blamed Donald Trump and local soldiers for the chaos in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is now fully under the control of the Taliban - above Taliban soldiers in Kabul
Biden will now have to rely on cooperation with the Taliban (pictured in Kabul on Tuesday) to try and get the remaining Afghan allies and American citizens out
Meanwhile, China has been using economic coercion to bully its neighbors across the Indo-Pacific region, leading to the formation of a new trilateral security pact between the US, UK and Australia, a defense expert told CNBC back in September.
Foreign policy experts and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle took the opportunity at the Reagan Forum to offer their opinion on President Joe Biden's departure from the Trump administration's 'America First' strategy.
A handful of officials said the president's policy break was damaging the country's standing on the world stage.
Meanwhile, other experts at the forum warned that the US's standing as the 'partner of choice' in regard to global allies has significantly dropped in response to Biden's handling of the Afghanistan situation.
The Biden administration was slammed both at home and abroad after the Taliban immediately occupied the capital of Kabul after the US withdrew its remaining troops following a two-decades long presence in the country.
Families of the fallen U.S. service members were left disappointed by Joe Biden at the dignified transfer on Sunday. One sister of a fallen Marine yelled at the president: 'I hope you burn in hell! That was my brother!'
Thirteen members of the US military were killed in an ISIS-K suicide attack last Thursday as US forces frantically tried to get people on evacuation flights. Afghans desperate to leave ran after US planes on the tarmac and two fell out of the skies to their deaths in a bid to escape the rule of the insurgents
On the day of the deadline, Biden said the troop withdrawal from Kabul was an 'extraordinary success' while blaming Donald Trump and local soldiers for the mess in Afghanistan and the eventual Taliban takeover.
MailOnline.com reported that even as of last month, dozens of Americans were still stranded in Afghanistan.
A defiant Biden said the operation couldn't have been done in a 'more orderly manner' and 'respectfully disagreed' with critics who said he should have started the evacuation sooner to avoid the chaos.
The president also hailed the 120,000 people they had gotten to safety in 'one of the biggest airlifts in history,' and vowed to keep working to get Afghan allies out and said the State Department had reached out to stranded Americans 19 times since March asking if they wanted to leave.
The Taliban celebrated the American withdraw by hosting mock funerals with coffins draped with the US, UK and French flags as well as NATO's insignia.
They launched fireworks into the Kabul skyline and flaunted the American weapons and equipment they obtained that US military personnel left behind.
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