KABUL, 24 June 2021, (TON): The US military “can already provide the over-the-horizon support that the Afghan government will need,” Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said, adding that the United States leaders continually assess the progress of the retrograde from Afghanistan and the state of operations in the country and adjust accordingly.

Kirby said “those capabilities already exist. Leaders are looking for better ways to perform the missions. Other aspects of the Afghan situation are still being studied. Commanders at many levels are wrestling with what over-the-horizon counterinsurgency and over-the-horizon logistics will look like.”

He said that the US leaders continually assess the progress of the retrograde from Afghanistan and the state of operations in the country and adjust accordingly.

Kirby said that US defense secretary and military leaders in the Pentagon, at US Central Command and in Afghanistan “are constantly looking at the pace we’re going at, and the capabilities we have, and the capabilities that we're going to need throughout to complete the withdrawal.”

He further said “so as we said, from the very beginning; while there is a schedule, we are mindful that that schedule could fluctuate and change, as conditions change.”

Kirby said there are only two aspects of the Afghanistan retrograde that will not change: “The first is the US military will withdraw all US forces from the country, and the second is the withdrawal will be finished by the September deadline set by President Joe Biden.”