- A tough day.
- These American service members who gave their lives,
it's an overused word, but it's totally appropriate here,
were heroes.
Heroes who've been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission
to save the lives of others.
We have some sense like many of you
do what the families of these brave heroes are feeling today.
You get this feeling like you're being sucked
into a black hole in the middle of your chest.
There's no way out.
My heart aches for you.
For those who carried out this attack,
as well as anyone who wishes America harm,
know this, we will not forgive.
We will not forget.
We will hunt you down to make you pay.
We will not be deterred by terrorists.
We will not let them stop our mission.
We will continue the evacuation.
I've also warranted my commanders
to develop operation plans
to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership, and facilities.
We will respond with force and precision at our time
at the place we choose, and a moment of our choosing.
Here's what you need to know,
these ISIS terrorists will not win.
We will rescue the Americans in there.
We will get our Afghan allies out and our mission will go on.
America will not be intimidate
and I have the utmost confidence in our brave service members
who continue to execute this mission
with courage and honor to save lives and get Americans,
our partners, our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan.
- Do you bear any responsibility for the way things
have unfolded in the last two weeks?
- I bear responsibility for fundamentally
all that's happened of late.
Our interest in going was to prevent Al-Qaeda
from reemerging.
First to get Bin Laden, wipe out Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan,
prevent that from happening again.
It's what I've said a hundred times,
terrorism has metastasized around the world.
We have greater threats coming out of other countries
heck of a lot closer to the United States.
We don't have military encampments there.
We don't keep people there.
We have over the rising capability
to keep them going after us.
Ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20-year war.
Thank you so much.