Ahead of President Biden's speech today -- it's unclear if he will field any questions from the press corps, having snubbed them repeatedly throughout this crisis -- the situation on the ground in Afghanistan is chaotic and dire. The US is evacuating thousands of people (the State Department has reportedly stopped forcing people to sign a note promising to submit $2,000 repatriation reimbursement payments to the government), while tens of thousands of Americans and our Afghan allies remain stranded. The Biden administration has admitted it does not know how many Americans remain in Afghanistan, they've asked Americans to get themselves to Kabul's airport (explicitly not vouching for their safety), and they've refused to conduct rescue missions like the ones being carried out by other Western nations. For example:
Two nights ago, French police escorted out of the embassy in the green zone of Kabul the French, Afghan and international families to whom ???? had offered shelter. The diplomatic and consular team of the embassy has taken care of them at the airport and they have been evacuated. pic.twitter.com/FxqgU7oQ3z
— David Martinon (@david_martinon) August 19, 2021
US officials say the most powerful nation on earth lacks capacity to extend operations into Kabul to collect stranded citizens & people we have a duty to protect. But the UK & French governments are reportedly doing exactly that. But we can’t? We can. We are choosing not to. Why?
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 19, 2021
Let me take a stab at answering my own question: Team Biden has cut some sort of temporary, desperate deal with the Taliban. They're paralyzed by the fear that doing anything aggressive could destroy the tenuous agreement, and things could get even worse. They were so utterly unprepared to do what was necessary to secure safe passage out of the country for our people and friends that they're stuck relying on the Taliban's precarious and mercurial good graces. They're accepting a national humiliation as their makeshift strategy, in order to avoid a national catastrophe, involving American deaths. That's my best informed guess at this point, and it would help explain why the Pentagon's spokesman won't even affirm that the Taliban is our enemy. How are things going? There are reports emerging that Americans, unprotected by their government, are being beaten in the streets. If these are confirmed, and if more violence against Americans occurs, the White House's already-embarrassing hands-off "strategy" will be rendered totally inoperative:
A source tells me, “Situation [in Afghanistan] is rapidly deteriorating… We’ve had Americans get beaten throughout the night.” One of them, an American woman, was beaten “twice” even though she was carrying a U.S. passport.
— Sasha Ingber (@SashaIngber) August 20, 2021
I’m also told Taliban is targeting Afghans US worked with, “going door to door and executing anyone that has worked with the US.” That “Taliban are searching the cars at checkpoints to find out something related to the foreign countries specially United States.” Separate sources.
— Sasha Ingber (@SashaIngber) August 20, 2021
Elsewhere, this is what the Taliban is up to. Recall that they've been telling the international media that they've declared an "amnesty" and they won't be engaging in vengeful acts. They've been lying, obviously:
Horrifying video reportedly shows Afghan police chief executed by Taliban https://t.co/n8TpIqA95o pic.twitter.com/zwRXlCdKa1
— New York Post (@nypost) August 20, 2021
Amnesty International: Taliban responsible for brutal massacre of Hazara men https://t.co/wrTCaMkfQQ
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) August 20, 2021
“Taliban are intensifying the hunt-down of all individuals and collaborators with the former regime, and if unsuccessful, target and arrest the families and punish them according to their own interpretation of Sharia law.” https://t.co/QLab0SaWy1
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) August 19, 2021
Taliban fighters searching for a Deutsche Welle journalist in Afghanistan shot dead a member of his family and seriously injured another, Germany's international public broadcaster reported. https://t.co/uecp15sSa4
— CNN International (@cnni) August 20, 2021
The Taliban are going door-to-door hunting down Afghans who worked for the Americans, NATO or the collapsed government, according to an intelligence document prepared for the UN. It warns of the possibility of “mass executions.” https://t.co/ox4naYtfZO
— Liz Sly (@LizSly) August 20, 2021
These monsters are hunting down and executing "collaborators." They're stalking journalists. They're terrorizing their targets' families. They're massacring people. And the re-subjugation of women and others is well underway:
Taliban somehow infiltrating WhatsApp group chats of students to send voice recorded threats, source says. Taliban also suggesting that female Afghan students will only be allowed to study if they cover their faces and eyes.
— Sophia Cai (@SophiaCai99) August 19, 2021
Afghan Journalist: Taliban Brutally Beat a Boy for Wearing Shorts https://t.co/rzAreKeq7f via @thedailybeast
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 20, 2021
Because the American brain trust decided to abandon our air base in Afghanistan before the withdrawal was complete, the one way out of this hell is through the airport in Kabul. This place:
I’ve been talking to interpreters all day and they are all saying the same thing
— Alex Plitsas ???? (@alexplitsas) August 19, 2021
They can’t get to airport ???? https://t.co/R0gjxg5D9F
The situation at Kabul airport is a disaster. pic.twitter.com/aZHkUqJZA6
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 20, 2021
Few Afghan allies able to make it to Kabul airport due to Taliban checkpoints @clarissaward reports pic.twitter.com/yMar1uccJx
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 19, 2021
NEW - Toddler pulled over wall by U.S. soldiers as desperate crowds gather outside #Kabul airport.pic.twitter.com/NUDYAViOcb
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 19, 2021
Try to imagine the desperation of someone who is willing to cling to an airplane wheel as it takes off. Try to imagine the desperation of someone who flings their own child over a fence. People are terrified of precisely the sort of horrors documented above, and they fear this is only the beginning. They're probably right. The United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan was always going to be painful in various ways, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. But it absolutely, positively did not need to be like this. Our closest allies are aghast and furious. This calamity is one of abject incompetence. The Biden people are blaming everyone else, and each other, insisting that they simultaneously planned for every contingency and couldn't possibly have predicted this. The former assertion is laughable on its face. As for the latter:
An internal State Department memo last month warned top agency officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the U.S.’s Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the document. The classified cable represents the clearest evidence yet that the administration had been warned by its own officials on the ground that the Taliban’s advance was imminent and Afghanistan’s military may be unable to stop it. The cable, sent via the State Department’s confidential dissent channel, warned of rapid territorial gains by the Taliban and the subsequent collapse of Afghan security forces, and offered recommendations on ways to mitigate the crisis and speed up an evacuation, the two people said. The cable, dated July 13, also called for the State Department to use tougher language in describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban, one of the people said...It also urged the administration to begin evacuation flights no later than Aug. 1, the people said.
Meanwhile, the Taliban is seizing American aircraft, equipment and weapons valued in the tens of millions of dollars, at least. It's so bad that US officials are reportedly considering airstrikes. Not against the Taliban, of course, but to destroy our own equipment before it can be used by terrorists or sold to the Russians or Chinese (which, among other problems, would be an intelligence bonanza vis-a-vis our technology). That's "contingency planning," Biden style, I suppose. And finally there's this, via President Obama's Defense Secretary:
"With the Taliban now controlling Afghanistan, there is no question that they will provide a safe haven for Al Qaeda, and for ISIS, and for other terrorists ... this is a national security threat," fmr. CIA director Leon Panetta says on Taliban takeover. https://t.co/guDfhOyYy2 pic.twitter.com/rGD3s1VPwm
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 18, 2021
Just your periodic, urgent reminder that the threat of global jihad didn't magically disappear.As I mentioned at the top, we don't know if Biden will take questions today. What we do know is that after he reads the words off of his teleprompter this afternoon -- in the midst of an active, acute crisis, with tens of thousands of Americans and allies stranded in a volatile and extremely dangerous situation -- his plan is to leave the White House and skip town:
Biden going back to Delaware at 2pm today. pic.twitter.com/ojxbAPQXxZ
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) August 20, 2021
(UPDATE: Under criticism, the White House announced the Delaware trip is off). Unpleasant question: Is Biden...okay? On that front, I'll leave you with this:
In two sentences, he confuses the Navy & Army, then Afghanistan & Iraq. I’ve been angry about a lot of this, but this one feels sad. https://t.co/xTvCf6A8yB
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 19, 2021
Join the conversation as a VIP Member