Opinion

Afghanistan Evacuation: NOW Do We Have a Crisis in Confidence?

The Afghanistan evacuation has created a crisis of sorts, and it’s entirely self-inflicted. The fallout will be widespread and dangerous. Biden’s Botched Bugout has severely damaged us in terms of relationship to allies who count on the United States to have their back militarily. Taiwan being one, Europe being another. Russia, Iran, and China are laughing at us. North Korea restarted its nuclear program. A summit in the Middle East that included Saudi Arabia, Iran, France, and others, didn’t bother to invite the U.S. or Israel. It’s a crisis in confidence with our leadership, and will seriously affect our National Security.

afghanistan evacuation
Screenshot via benin.tenzica

Fudging the numbers in the Afghanistan evacuation

No one has any quarrel with pulling out of Afghanistan. But they do have serious problems with the cut and run approach of the Biden administration. Then there are the lies, lack of taking responsibility, blaming Trump (the usual), and myriads of pretending they helped when they had no part of…oh, and leaving American citizens behind. That’s the corker. Psaki claimed there were around 100 Americans left in Afghanistan. But Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the AP that there are around 500+ Americans left.

When including the family members of U.S. citizens, Issa said the number of people stranded in Afghanistan could be as high as 1,000.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) stated to the news agency that the Biden administration needs to provide the full number of those left behind in the South Asian nation.

“The problem is, it doesn’t include families,” he said. “They’re lowballing the numbers.”…

Other than Issa, some veteran-led rescue groups told AP that the estimate that no more than 200 Americans were left behind is too low.

Mike Jason, who runs a rescue operation known as Allied Airlift 21, told the news outlet that he believes the figure is far higher, saying it’s also misleading because it doesn’t include family members of Americans trapped there. Alex Plitsas, an Iraq War veteran who’s part of a rescue network known as Digital Dunkirk, said that in one day, he received calls from six Americans stuck in the country earlier this week and that none registered with the U.S. Embassy.

The Epoch Times

The Afghanistan evacuation: The State Dept was part of the problem, not the solution

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Then there’s the problem of the State Department trying to steal credit from the organizers who were able to evacuate 4 Americans over land to safety in another country.

The final time Mariam tried to enter the airport, a Taliban fighter pointed a pistol at her head and warned her not to come back. Shortly after that, Taliban fighters asked Kabul locals who knew Mariam how they could find her. Mills’ team rushed to get her and the children out of the city and into a safehouse.

Plan B was to get Mariam and her family aboard a private charter flight from Mazar-i-Sharif airport, but the planes were never cleared to take off. Some private evacuation organizers have blamed the State Department for failing to gain clearance for private charter flights to land in third countries, while Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul has blamed the Taliban for the planes remaining grounded…

The State Department’s public posture about Mariam’s rescue is “absolute nonsense,” Mills told Fox News in an exclusive interview Monday. “The fact that they’re spinning this, trying to take 100% credit when they didn’t track this family, when they placated this family, when the mother, who was under extreme stress and extreme pressure, reached out to the State Department multiple times and got no help.”…

Fox News

 

Excuses, excuses over Biden’s Bungled Afghanistan evacuation

And there’s the other kicker- the State Department and Taliban BOTH have been reportedly blocking flights from the airport. The Taliban claims it’s because they don’t have proper documents, but witnesses have stated it’s more of a hostage situation. This Afghanistan evacuation has gone badly from the beginning.

“New: CBS has learned multiple flights are being held on the ground at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport in Northern Afghanistan… by the Taliban. An email from the State Department to members of congress — and viewed by CBS — acknowledged that charter flights are still on the ground at the Mazar-i-Sharif airstrip and have permission to land in Doha “if and when the Taliban agrees to takeoff.

“The Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans,” a senior congressional source told CBS News. The group Ascend, an NGO that teaches young women leadership through athletics, told CBS News they have two planes that have been waiting for six days ready to take between 600 and 1200 people — including 19 American citizens and two permanent residents. “The U.S. airfield in Qatar that has been standing by, ready to receive, is now beginning to pack up,” Marina LeGree, the executive director, told CBS News. “We hope visibility will add pressure to force a solution. Six days of talks are not encouraging.”

The State Department advised members of congress to tell groups seeking to evacuate out of Mazar-i-Sharif that the US does not have personnel on the ground in that location and does not control the airspace. Congressional and NGO sources say here are at least two physical plans on the ground and six more with approved clearance. The obstacle is the Taliban — which controls the airport and is not letting people board or the planes take off. CBS has asked @StateDept for comment.”

Eena Ruffini, CBS correspondent on Twitter

Baghdad Bob Syndrome, or the Emperor’s New Clothes Wrapped in Denial

And that’s only one aspect of the fallout from the Afghanistan evacuation. Militarily, it was totally stupid. General Milley may think it’s all hunky dory, but the fact is that it was a total fiasco that got a lot of people killed, not just our 13 military service members. Our so-called leadership said they didn’t see this coming, yet back in July, they were told by Ashraf Ghani himself that the Taliban were coming swiftly- possibly with the aid of Pakistan. Biden begged him to change the narrative and pretend they were okay in a phone call leaked to the news media.

The transcript of this call on July 23 appears to show very clearly that the administration knew things were going badly and that there was very little time to turn things around. Rather than the intelligence community accepting the blame being assigned to it, this leak calls out the honesty of the president himself. The transcript also shows that the Joint Chiefs were willing to participate in promoting this illusion that the Taliban were not taking over Afghanistan. That should not have set well with the intelligence community. It also had to sign on to the false pledge made by President Biden not to leave any Americans behind.

Sean Spoontz at SOFREP

Not only is the so-called Commander-in-chief a dementia-ridden dunderhead, the leadership surrounding him (i.e. Milley and Austin) didn’t bother to try and stop him from executing the most damaging actions since the Vietnam war. LtCol Stuart Scheller is right – nobody took responsibility to stand up and say it was a screw up. They punish the rank and file for complaining about military leadership or the so-called ‘president’, but the fact is that this fiasco was totally avoidable. Add to all of this that not all of the Afghans who “evacuated” were the good guys and you have a massive problem that now the US military and US law enforcement will have to try to solve.

All these things taken together point to an emerging crisis of confidence in the leadership, honesty, and integrity of President Biden by members of the military and intelligence community. The effects of such a crisis just seven months into his term can have dire effects on national security.

Sean Spoontz

H/T Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children

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Faye Higbee

Faye Higbee is the columnist manager for Uncle Sam's Misguided Children. She has been writing at Conservative Firing Line since 2013 as well. She is also a published author.

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