The specifics of these Q&A as supplied by the White House

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  You just said that you would keep a laser-focus on counterterrorism efforts and that you don’t see as great of a threat of terrorism from Afghanistan as other parts of the world.  But if you and your administration so badly misassessed how quickly the Taliban would sweep through Afghanistan and we no longer have an embassy there from which to run intelligence operations, how can you at all be confident of your assessment of the risk of terrorism and the ability of the U.S. to conduct over-the-horizon missions to keep it in check?  Can you tell Americans that they’re safe and will remain safe from terror attacks in Afghanistan?

THE PRESIDENT:  [which for whatever reason didn’t make it on the tweet]
I think you’re comparing apples and oranges.  One question was whether or not the Afghan forces we trained up would stay and fight in their own civil war they had going on.

No one — I shouldn’t say “no one” — the consensus was that it was highly unlikely that in 11 days they’d collapse and fall, and the leader of Afghanistan would flee the country.

That’s a very different question than whether or not there is the ability to observe whether or not large groups of terrorists began to accumulate in a particular area in Afghanistan to plot against the United States of America.  That’s why we retained an over-the-horizon capability to go in and do something about that if that occurs — if that occurs.

But in the meantime, we know what’s happening around the world.  We know what’s happening in terms of what’s going on in other countries, where there is the significant rise of terrorist organizations in the Middle East, in East Africa, and other places.

And so, the bottom line is: We have to do — we’re dealing with those terrorist threats from other parts of the world in failed states without permanent military — without permanent military presence there.  We have to do the same in Afghanistan.

Q    And, sir, just on that initial assessment: We’ve learned, over the last 24 hours, that there was a dissent cable from the State Department —

THE PRESIDENT:  Sure.

Q    — saying that the Taliban would come faster through Afghanistan.  Can you say why, after that cable was issued, the U.S. didn’t do more to get Americans out?

THE PRESIDENT:  We’ve got all kind of cables, all kinds of advice.  If you notice, it ranged from this group saying that — they didn’t say it’d fall when it would fall — when it did fall — but saying that it would fall; to others saying it wouldn’t happen for a long time and they’d be able to sustain themselves through the end of the year.

I made the decision.  The buck stops with me.  I took the consensus opinion.  The consensus opinion was that, in fact, it would not occur, if it occurred, until later in the year.  So, it was my decision.