U.S. Marines from the battalion that bore the brunt of the deadly ISIS-K attack at Abbey Gate during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan were ordered to clean up portions of Hamid Karzai International Airport, filled with trash, human waste, and "other unspeakable things," before leaving the country.
This revelation, along with others, is detailed in the soon-to-be released book, "Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End," by co-authors Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson. "Kabul" reveals how the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines were ordered to destroy sensitive equipment and deny the Taliban anything of use as the U.S. military prepared to completely leave Afghanistan. The unit had just lost nine of their own who were in Ghost Company, in addition to four other service members from other units and branches, and they certainly carried out the order:
They bashed every bit of sensitive equipment in sight and quite a few windows to boot. One of the company commanders took a unit guidon (a guidon...is a flag on a staff with a pointy end that can be embedded in the turf when a unit stands in formation) and threw it like a spear through a flat-screen TV. A junior Marine involved described it — understandably — as a good release after the hell they'd encountered the previous two weeks...why should they leave the area and its amenities pristine for the Taliban?
Following the orders, the Marines went on to break "everything we could. We flipped cars into the roads..." but higher-ups believed they went too far. Army Sergeant Major Garric Banfied "complained that 'penises were spray painted all over the place' by the Marines...' He reported those concerns to higher headquarters."
The 2/1 Marines, following a false alarm of a suicide bomber being on a plane, were then given "the biggest f**k you' ever": They were ordered to clean up the airport terminal where tens of thousands of people had been waiting for flights during the previous weeks:
Police calling a section of turf in a war zone is unheard of. Nevertheless, the order from on high was that the men and women of 2/1's final task at HKIA — after seeing thirteen fellow service members killed in action and dozens of others in a suicide bombing — was to clean up [areas strewn with] trash and human feces in the passenger terminal...[Afghans] had defecated and urinated in place for lack of other options and discarded their trash, clothing, and other items wherever necessary...the Marines were also ordered to unflip all of the vehicles they had flipped over the previous day.
The Marines who spoke with Dunleavy and Hasson say they are sure the unfathomable order came from on high because even their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Brad Whited, helped them clean up the terminal "and was as visibly displeased as they were. Marines at every level of the company were infuriated by the order..."
To make matters worse, when Army investigators asked 2/1's sergeant major if he had anything to add during his interview about the Abbey Gate bombing, he said the cleanup order was an "injustice" to his Marines and it "came with a threat that we would not leave at all if it was not completed."
One Marine who took part in the cleanup effort says in the book the ordeal was "degrading and ridiculous." All remaining 2/1 Marines finally left Afghanistan shortly before midnight on August 29.
"Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End" goes on sale starting tomorrow, August 15, and is available wherever books are sold (click here).
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