The war in Afghanistan may be "over," but President Biden's mess, and America's national shame, are not. Yesterday, we mentioned the hundreds (or thousands) of American citizens stranded in Afghanistan, whose collective nightmare is rooted in a disgraceful and craven presidential betrayal. We also noted estimates that thousands of other Americans – permanent legal residents and green card holders – were also left behind. Here are a few of those headlines:
NYT: 'Thousands' of green card Americans believed to have been left behind (their headline says 'stranded') in Afghanistan...https://t.co/Ckog1u5x1u pic.twitter.com/KuFd6L27no
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 31, 2021
Not just going away: "This three-year-old boy was born near Sacramento; his passport shows he is a US citizen, and he's going through a harrowing ordeal right now, unable to escape Afghanistan." https://t.co/vzMOINBF7a
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) August 31, 2021
And then there are the tens of thousands of "SIV" Afghans who helped the US and our allies, and who are in grave peril in the Taliban-controlled country. Biden promised to get them out, then he didn't. In fact, only a fraction of the Afghans airlifted out of Kabul during the chaotic, egregiously-planned withdrawal are SIV holders, who would have been prioritized in an orderly and competent evacuation. They have instead been abandoned in huge numbers and left to fend for themselves. In order to survive, they will rely on the success of unofficial and quasi-official rescue efforts, as well as the good graces of the Taliban. As in, this Taliban:
BBC: “Taliban fighters are searching for, and allegedly killing, people they pledged they would leave in peace.” https://t.co/cO3oZLswLw
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 31, 2021
Many of these allies are understandably terrified and distraught. One of their stories has been relayed by the Wall Street Journal, and its details pack a powerful and personal punch:
Thirteen years ago, Afghan interpreter Mohammed helped rescue then- Sen. Joe Biden and two other senators stranded in a remote Afghanistan valley after their helicopter was forced to land in a snowstorm. Now, Mohammed is asking President Biden to save him. “Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” Mohammed, who asked not to use his full name while in hiding, told The Wall Street Journal as the last Americans flew out of Kabul on Monday. “Don’t forget me here.” Mohammed and his four children are hiding from the Taliban after his yearslong attempt to get out of Afghanistan got tangled in the bureaucracy. They are among countless Afghan allies who were left behind when the U.S. ended its 20-year military campaign in Afghanistan on Monday. Mohammed was a 36-year-old interpreter for the U.S. Army in 2008 when two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters made an emergency landing in Afghanistan during a blinding snowstorm. On board were three U.S. senators: Mr. Biden, the Delaware Democrat, John Kerry, (D., Mass.) and Chuck Hagel, (R., Neb.). As a private security team with the former firm Blackwater and U.S. Army soldiers monitored for any nearby Taliban fighters, the crew sent out an urgent call for help. At Bagram Air Field, Mohammed jumped in a Humvee with a Quick Reaction Force from the 82nd Airborne Division and drove hours into the nearby mountains to rescue them.
Mohammad rushed to help rescue Biden, deployed from an air base the US abandoned before this month's woefully delayed evacuation, riding in a Humvee that is now likely in enemy hands. And he's been reduced to begging the White House through the press in order to be spared from the Taliban as he hides with his children. "I can't leave my house," he told the Journal yesterday. "I'm very scared." And it's almost certain that Biden remembers this man because he's used the anecdote in public, on the campaign trail: "During the 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Biden, who was then running for vice president, often spoke of the helicopter incident and the trip as a way of burnishing his foreign-policy credentials," the Journal notes. Alas, Mohammad served his purpose. He helped Biden in a moment of need, furnishing him with a story with which to impress voters. And now he and his family are on their own, like so many others, victims of a callously discarded presidential promise.
Remember, Biden's "super power" is supposed to be empathy – and he's certainly exhibited empathy in meaningful ways over the course of his career. The man has lost a spouse and multiple children during his adult life, which is unspeakably sad. But sometimes the empathy tank runs dry, evidently. I'm reminded of the very strange, disturbing manner in which Biden seems to have repeatedly smeared the man who was involved in the fatal accident that stole his first wife and daughter decades ago. I hadn't thought of that episode in quite some time, but it resurfaced after I read about this awkward off-note in the midst of grief and tragedy:
Still can't get over this WaPo report that Biden "bristled" at a dad who just lost his son. https://t.co/jbyjMQuTeT pic.twitter.com/dqjw4q7lWO
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) August 31, 2021
There is no doubt that it must be painful and difficult for a political or military leader to meet with bereaved families whose grief and anger remains raw. But this reply – and it's easy to imagine the cranky defensiveness – is Bidenesque in the worst way. With all due respect, I doubt very much that Joe Biden "knows their stories." This is not to say that he's unaware of last week's 13 deaths, or is unmoved by them. But if the president were given a pop quiz by a reporter – asking about where, say, Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez was from, or what led him to enlist, etc. – I would be absolutely astonished if he could answer. I don't think it's necessarily a reasonable expectation for the president to be intimately familiar with these fallen soldiers' stories. But he told a mourning father that he does know them, reportedly with a flash of anger. He shouldn't say "I do know their stories" unless he really does. And I'd wager that he does not. As for the president's defiant, angry, blame-shifting speech yesterday afternoon, which breathtakingly cast the US withdrawal as an "extraordinary success," based on careful preparation and contingency planning, retired four-star General Jack Keane has some thoughts:
I asked Gen. Jack Keane to react to Biden’s speech. He spoke for 12 uninterrupted minutes. Below, he discusses the “shameful betrayal” of leaving people behind, which he calls a “stain on our national honor.”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 31, 2021
His full answer was thorough & withering: https://t.co/OzAspcnCdy pic.twitter.com/UbcZxJyt0P
That long response is well worth your time. As the president has his team double down on blaming stranded Americans for their ordeal (those who didn't flee earlier may have made the mistake of believing Biden and his team about the security situation on the ground and America's commitment to maintain a strong diplomatic presence), they also ask us to believe that the United States could not have done any better. As I said on "Special Report" last night, this is an insulting lie:
The president’s claim that the United States of America was not capable of executing a less catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan — on everything from timely and orderly evacuations to other important contingencies — is manifestly untrue and insulting. pic.twitter.com/u2W8GXMkH6
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 31, 2021
I'll leave you with this haunting thread from a tireless advocate on behalf of Afghan SIV holders, who was sounding the alarm back in March. He and others were pleading for action months ago (content warning):
.@POTUS @SecBlinken @SecDef There is a train crash coming. We all can see it. The train is going to derail & crash into a village. We may have time to evacuate the village but only if we start right now. The same holds true in #Afghanistan. #SaveThem https://t.co/rq1H4LLCAl
— Matt Zeller (@mattczeller) March 26, 2021
Collapse is coming in #Afghanistan. When it happens it will happen faster than DC can respond. This isn’t Vietnam, there isn’t an ocean to put people on boats. We aren’t the Soviets, we don’t get the luxury of driving north under a ceasefire...
— Matt Zeller (@mattczeller) March 26, 2021
We have very little time. Fighting season is nearly upon us in Afghanistan. We have a 1 May deadline to withdraw our last 2,500 troops. Collapse is coming. We have to act. Now. #SaveThem
— Matt Zeller (@mattczeller) March 26, 2021
These prescient pleas fell on deaf ears at the White House – and this president now has the temerity to pretend like the disaster he's led was unavoidable and always had to be this way. As Keane says, a shameful betrayal.
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