Stranded in Afghanistan, cont’d

Associated Press reporters Bernard Condon and Julie Watson have a compelling story on Americans left behind in Afghanistan: “Fearful US residents in Afghanistan hiding out from Taliban.” The story belies the Biden party line about the extraordinary success of our departure in disgrace from Afghanistan. It even belies the line about unceasing efforts on their behalf (“A U.S. State Department official contacted [a green card-holding couple] several days ago to tell them they were being assigned a case worker, but they haven’t heard a word since”).

Consider this, for example:

Those contacted by AP — who are not being identified for their own safety — described a fearful, furtive existence of hiding in houses for weeks, keeping the lights off at night, moving from place to place, and donning baggy clothing and burqas to avoid detection if they absolutely must venture out.

All say they are scared the ruling Taliban will find them, throw them in jail, perhaps even kill them because they are Americans or had worked for the U.S. government. And they are concerned that the Biden administration’s promised efforts to get them out have stalled.

When the phone rang in an apartment in Kabul a few weeks ago, the U.S. green card holder who answered — a truck driver from Texas visiting family — was hopeful it was the U.S. State Department finally responding to his pleas to get him and his parents on a flight out.

Instead, it was the Taliban.

The cluelessness here is not entirely unilluminating: “Neither the U.S. nor the Taliban have offered a clear explanation why so few have been evacuated.”

Whole thing here.

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