Biden deserves credit for stranding the Voice of America. Afghanistan Voice of America, Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe Staff Left Behind - WSJ WASHINGTON—Lawmakers and media organizations are calling on the Biden administration to help get more than 100 government-funded media employees out of Afghanistan, where they risk retribution from the Taliban for their affiliation with the U.S. government. Combined with their family members, the number of workers for Voice of America and the Afghan branch of Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe left behind totals more than 500, according to lawmakers who have asked President Biden to ensure that they get out of the country safely. The media staffers, who aren’t U.S. citizens, are contractors, unlike their colleagues in the U.S., who work directly for the U.S. government.
"Those left in Afghanistan complain of broken US promises": https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-travel-afghanistan-immigration-8dfd16bf16a15bb9896743719c82e115
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/09/a-happy-ending.php 10 hours ago A Happy Ending by John Hinderaker (John Hinderaker) Amid the disaster of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, there were some stories that ended happily. This is one of them. One of my colleagues and his sister are friends with an Afghan family, a husband, wife and three young children. The father translated for our forces in that country. The family came to America some time ago as legal permanent residents, and the father has a Minnesota driver’s license. Several months ago, they learned that a grandmother, who lived in Kabul, was dying. Well before the Afghan collapse, the entire family booked flights to and from Kabul so that they could say goodbye to her. The time came for them to return, and my friend’s sister met their flight at the Twin Cities airport. But they were not on it. As I understand it, they were told that, notwithstanding that they all had tickets, only one family member would be allowed on the aircraft. This was several weeks before the collapse of the Afghan military and government, but they were unable to get another flight, and when Kabul fell they were stuck there. My colleague communicated with individuals on the ground in Kabul and more than once, arrangements were made for this family to go to a safe location where they could be picked up by Marines and brought to the airport. But for some reason, these arrangements misfired. Communications were, to put it mildly, difficult. My colleague finally came to me and asked whether Senator Tom Cotton might be able to help. He had seen news to the effect that Cotton’s office had been able to help some people get out of Kabul. I said I would contact Senator Cotton. I did so, and one of his staffers called my colleague in a matter of minutes. He conveyed the necessary information including, I believe, photographs of the family. I don’t know who did what or how it came about, but the next thing I learned, directly from Tom Cotton, was that the family was safe in Qatar. Shortly thereafter, my colleague showed me a picture they had texted him of themselves at the Qatar airport. So some stories ended happily. Sadly, as a result of the grotesque ineptitude of the Biden administration, far too many did not. Our thanks to Senator Cotton and all those who contributed to saving this deserving family.
Did you read what I initially responded to? The poster said that Fox News was claiming that it was criminal. I am an attorney, so I looked into it and said that I didn't hear anything that was criminal. Did he? He also said that the Afghan's had the superior numbers and army. He also said that he would continue to provide air support. He seemed to me to be mostly trying to get the Afghan President to provide a plan on defending the area on the ground. Is Joe Biden concerned about perception? Of course he is, he is an elected official.... but I didn't see anything in the released transcript that I found damning. That is a major leap. Why are you assuming that he is more concerned with the perception over how the actual war is going? He said that they would provide air strikes if there was a ground war plan in place, he asked the President of Afghanistan to put a military warrior in charge and he pointed out that he had superior numbers. It sounded like he was trying to motivate the President to do something and not just roll over.... which is exactly what happened.
Well........ no ****.......... we are like the insanely good looking, sexy and rich married man that has a mistress that he makes all kinds of veiled promises to....... and then dumps her on her 40th birthday because she isn't as pretty or exciting anymore. This is how we do things......
What a waste of time and money - and LIVES........much better to form a multinational hit squad that simply takes out leaders of countries that destabilize the world. There are no more wars to fight, there is no battleground where armies face off.......we need to shrink our bloated military by at least 50% and get busy building infrastructure and planning for the cyber wars. We need to EDUCATE our populace so they can protect our grid systems, our online presence....stop letting the American Evangelical Taliban try to screw us back into the stone age. DD
LOL. Yes the overall withdrawal was America First even if we left behind people who decided to stay longer. We got our military out and everyone knew the deadline well in advance. Spare me your crocodile tears in an evacuation that saw over 100,000 flown out of a remote war zone. Seeing the forest through the trees, we abandoned our allies in the war on terror because we didn't want to spend the resources on it. That's pretty "America First". It's just called connecting the dots, but I am assuming Trump = conservatives now. If true, wouldn't that just make me more correct with "American First"? I think Biden knows our nation building in Afghanistan was a failure and didn't want to commit anymore resources towards it and Trump shares a similar feeling. How many Kurds did we take with us during the Syrian Withdrawal? That's what I thought.
Need a full accounting. I read the excerpts of the call from AP and I can't tell much from it. It does sound like Biden knew it was a bad situation (didn't we all?) and was trying to tell the President to put a military man in charge, draw up a strategy, and then the US would provide air support. Obviously, none of that happens. 3 weeks later, the Afghan President vanishes and Kabul falls to the Taliban. The Taliban started the offensive on May'21 and within 4 Months took over. Here is part of the Dothan agreement that might have tied the American hand in using forces to slow down the Taliban: F. The United States and its allies will refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs. Source: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/up...or-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf The Doha agreement clearly hoped for a permanent ceasefire and a political solution but did nothing to push for a ceasefire and political solution. Seriously, reading it again, that's one of the weakest, high-school-level agreements I have read - we are leaving, good luck and fight it out, but please try not to. I changed my mind. That agreement was probably worth considering tearing it up and trying to come up with a better one, even at the risk of pushing the exit date out a year. We spent way too much there to just fold like this.
I will say it again that this wasn't an unmitigated disaster but it wasn't the success that the Biden Admin. is spinning it has. A lot of people were gotten out of Afghanistan with relatively few lost of life. The death of the Marines and Afghans was very tragic but this could've been much worse. We could've seen many more suicide bombers and the Kabul airport coming under fire. Instead of planes trying to get out with people clinging to them they also could've been doing so while taking fire. I still feel that the Biden Admin was being overly optimistic in their planning and in their rhetoric. I also feel that instead of just securing the airport the US should've secured Kabul. Yes that would take many more troops but given that the Taliban themselves were willing to allow the US to do so they should've taken that offer. The evacuation could've proceeded more orderly and many more Afghans and Americans could've gotten out. I've agreed that we couldn't stay much longer but I am absolutely certain this could've been handled much better.
No question it could have gone better - but we are at the spin point now… Biden will spin it as a major success …. the Republicans will spin it as the worst disaster in modern warfare. the reality is it was a terrible situation, handled poorly… like a terrible marriage, maybe you pay more in the divorce settlement than your friends think you should have, but all you care about is the fact it is over… that’s how it is for a majority of Americans… they are sick of being over there, sick of hearing about it, they just want OUT and to forget about it. Which is why I don’t think it long term will be a negative for Biden (which he is lucky about; because he didn’t handle this as well as expected).
Let's be honest, it was also probably a political calculation to not drag this out. Better for this to peak in the news cycle late August 2021/Sept 2021, instead of May 2022 or August 2022. Like I said earlier, I'm glad Biden stuck to the deadline. I truly think breaking agreement or trying to renegotiate it would have been disastrous and dragged this out.
Im fine with that description. A war zone would have resulted in a much bigger disaster than a dozen + marines killed in a suicide attack.
its amazing, right? 600,000 COVID deaths are forgettable ... but Benghazi! Kabul airport!! Never forget!
Those we lost in Afghanistan did not die in vain https://thehill.com/opinion/international/570728-those-we-lost-in-afghanistan-did-not-die-in-vain
