Afghanistan
September 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
According to reports, the U.S. has evacuated nearly 120,000 people from Afghanistan. Only about 6,000 of them are Americans. Moreover, it appears that only a small percentage of the non-American evacuees hold the special immigrant visa given to Afghans employed by, or on behalf of, the U.S. government. Representative Tom Tiffany (R., Wis.) says that of the 2,000 Afghans housed at a base in his state, not one has that
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September 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
My friend who is keeping me apprised of the New York Times’ coverage of the Afghanistan debacle detects what strike me as moods swings when it comes to the treatment of Joe Biden. To criticize or to coverup, that is the question. The Times seems to be doing both, depending to some degree whether seasoned reporters or folks from the editorial section are doing the writing. My friend reports: Between
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September 1, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Reuters has obtained an audio recording and transcript of a phone conversation between Joe Biden and President Ghani of Afghanistan that took place on July 23. A partial transcript is here. The conversation had several notable aspects. First, Biden noted the perception that the war was not going well, and suggested that Ghani try to create the opposite impression, “whether it is true or not.” BIDEN: You know, I am
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September 1, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Biden gave his statement on our departure from Afghanistan yesterday. The White House has posted the text of Biden’s remarks here. It has also posted video of his remarks on YouTube. I have posted the video below. We have been following Biden’s statements and remarks over the past two weeks. He had nothing new to say, but he said it louder and more belligerently than he did last week
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August 31, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Realizing that there will be less bad news from Afghanistan in the coming days, the New York Times seems more inclined now to cover for Joe Biden. At least that’s the sense I get from this report by my friend who is following the Times’ coverage of the debacle: Even as NYT catalogues important aspects of the Afghanistan disaster, it covers for Biden’s worst failures. The Americans left behind are
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August 31, 2021 — John Hinderaker
As Scott has noted, the Biden administration now claims that having extracted around 6,000 Americans from Afghanistan, only a very few remain–a few hundred, or maybe just one hundred. But these numbers are radically different from what the administration was telling us only days ago. The first estimate I saw from an administration spokesman was that there were between 5,000 and 10,000 Americans in Afghanistan. Just two weeks ago, Jen
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August 31, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday organs of the Biden administration at the Pentagon and the State Department held briefings to announce the the departure of American forces from Afghanistan. The Pentagon has posted the transcript of Centcom Commander Kenneth McKenzie’s Pentagon briefing announcing the completion of our evacuation here. The Facebook video of the statement followed by questions and answers is below. Hours later the State Department released a recorded statement by Secretary of
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August 30, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on August 19, Joe Biden said the U.S. would stay in Afghanistan until every American who wants to get out is out. As of now, the U.S. is out of Afghanistan, but our government concedes that some Americans are still trapped in that chaotic Taliban-ruled country. Moreover, our government does not intend to use the military to get these Americans out. Let’s break this
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August 30, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times isn’t as hard on Joe Biden as it should be, but it isn’t giving him the kind of cover Biden’s backers would like to see (and probably expect). My friend who is following the Times’ coverage of the Afghanistan fiasco filed this report on today’s edition: NYT’s core news coverage does relatively little to protect Biden. The drone attack gets a headline, but the article quickly
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August 30, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Biden is responsible for the epic disaster that is still unfolding in Afghanistan — “the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road,” to borrow Churchill’s formulation. President Biden, his administration, and our military leadership should be held to account. None of them has yet responded substantively to inquiries about what we have left behind in the way of equipment. “We don’t have a complete picture,
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August 30, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Biden appeared in public at FEMA headquarters yesterday afternoon with the press in attendance. At the conclusion of his remarks Biden stated he “wasn’t supposed to take any questions,” but he took a question from Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs (video below). When Jacobs posed a question about Afghanistan, Biden demurred and skedaddled, both in the manner to which we have become accustomed. As I hear him, Biden responded to Jacobs’s
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August 29, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
John has spotted one noteworthy Afghanistan-related piece in today’s Sunday New York Times, a column by Kori Schake that tries to blame the fiasco on Donald Trump. Trump’s deal was garbage, but the Taliban didn’t live up to its conditions, so Joe Biden wasn’t obligated to follow it. Indeed, there’s little reason to assume that Trump himself would have adhered to the deal, and less to believe that, if he
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August 29, 2021 — John Hinderaker
There was a rocket attack in Kabul earlier today that reportedly killed a child. Meanwhile, a U.S. strike took out a vehicle that was en route to the Kabul airport with “miltiple suicide bombers.” So apparently a more serious terrorist threat was averted for now. Further, the U.S. Embassy has ordered all Americans to “leave the airport area immediately.” Given the short time available to complete the evacuation, it is
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August 29, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Biden has vowed to mitigate threats to the United States emanating from Afghanistan through our so-called over the horizon counterterrorism capability. In the context of our retreat and surrender, this vow comes off with a Monty Python quality lacking the humor of the original. What’s going on under the horizon as we depart? This week Politico’s Lara Seligman et al. reported that “U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of
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August 27, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
U.S. forces carried out a drone strike on an ISIS-K target in eastern Afghanistan today. ISIS-K is the group that claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed more than 170 people, including 13 U.S. service members, at the Kabul airport. A U.S. military spokesman said: U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner. The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications
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August 27, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
On Thursday morning, my friend who follows the New York Times’ coverage of the Afghanistan debacle told me that the Times was backing off somewhat from its criticism of Joe Biden’s handling of the pullout. The paper probably saw some hope that the U.S. could pull off a fairly effective evacuation with no loss of American lives. We all hoped for this. However, the Times presumably intended to declare it
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August 27, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I posted the video of Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller here this morning. I believe the powerful statement he makes in the video must have spoken for many officers who remain silent. Colonel Scheller has just released the statement below updating us on his status via Facebook. I have embedded a screenshot. We wish him the best. UPDATE to the update: Lt. Col Scheller has released another statement:
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