OK, last week I said that my discussions of the coming economic problems could end up being postponed again depending on how bad Afghanistan turned out. As I write, it is Friday Sept. 3, 2021, with a deadline of tomorrow. We were officially out of Afghanistan (specifically the only part we held, Kabul Airport) as of Aug. 31.
How did it turn out? How about like a bloody football-bat, used as an anal probe, crosswise? We have not had the massacre of American hostages yet (as of today), but that is because they probably are still being rounded up and still trying to escape. Wait for it.
Let's run it down briefly. Someday, hopefully, someone will write a book with the details. There were three categories of people we were trying to get out. There was no intention to get the population of the whole country, or even of Kabul, out once we were trapped at the airport. We wanted to get our troops out. In the main, we succeeded, even including the 13 who were killed because the Biden regime got them trapped. But I can only say in the main. How big is Afghanistan? How about the literal size of Texas? I think that it would be a fairly good bet that we had both SpecOps people (Army Special Forces, Navy SEALS, MARSOC Marine Raiders) and other forces around that Texas sized country elsewhere than in a single city in the southeast corner of the country near the border. They are probably trying to get out of the country now. Some may succeed and end up in that book I mentioned. But after what we have seen in the last week, do not try to make the claim that the U.S. government would not deliberately abandon its own, its citizens, or its allies without a thought.
When Joe Biden took over the White House, we were already operating under an agreement with the Taliban, the Afghan government, and President Trump on how to withdraw, and were doing so successfully getting down to just a few thousand from well over 100,000. Important in defining that success was the fact that no Americans had been killed in action in Afghanistan in 17months until Biden unilaterally changed the process without warning. There was a sticking point. The Afghan government as part of the process was to release the Taliban it held. They delayed. So the withdrawal was delayed while we worked it out. It would have happened (we held all the cards). But it put at risk something that Joe Biden dearly wanted. He wanted to be totally out of Afghanistan and able to make a speech on 9/11 of this year claiming to have personally brought peace and ended the war that started on 9/11/200l.
For the sake of that credit that he (or his handlers) wanted to claim; he literally and factually cut and run from Afghanistan. The original plan as approved by President Trump was for us to hold our main base in Afghanistan, Bagram AFB. Large, already defended, multiple runways for more air traffic, Afghan troops there helping to defend it, and some NATO ally troops also. With that place, we could have evac-ed all the American civilians, SIV holders (Special Immigration Visa, given to Afghan allies whose lives would be at risk from the Taliban), and helped our NATO allies get their nationals out. They (NATO) did get their own people out and it turns out the Brits got a bunch of Afghan Special Forces out and are considering forming an Afghan Regiment similar to the Gurkhas in their own army.
Under the direct orders of Joe Biden and his military high command (JCS,) the U.S. secretly abandoned Bagram (and a huge military arsenal) literally in the middle of the night in violation of the previous orders, and abandoning the Afghan Army units there. They, of course, surrendered to the Taliban the next morning when they realized the Americans had abandoned them.
Which brings us back to the American civilians and SIV holders. With no warning, their escape plans to go to Bagram had to be switched to Kabul Airport. The same Kabul Airport that was immediately and completely surrounded by the Taliban. The same Kabul airport that only has one runway and is partially surrounded by hills, which are perfect for artillery and mortars. We know that Democrats loved the fall of Vietnam in 1975, but they did not have to replicate the fall of Dien Bien Phu from the French in 1954.
So how many American civilians were there when things went all f**al? We do not know yet. Original estimates were 10-40,000. And believe it or not that was not unreasonable as an estimate. We have been in the country for two decades. Besides a whole lot of State Department employees (don't worry, as usual they got out early and safely), there were thousands of NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) employees for various charitable organizations, religious organizations, academic organizations, etc., and more private contractors paid for by us than you can shake a bundle of sticks at.
I am guessing in the middle of that range, 20,000. And I could be proven wrong either way. But keep in mind that this is a country the size of Texas with a bunch of large cities, and other than missionaries and Peace Corps types, American civilians tend to congregate in cities. Such as Kandahar, Lashgar Gah, Farah, Herat, Sheberghan, Mazar-e-Sharif, etc. All on the other side of the country from Kabul. Not to mention those in smaller villages. None of which got the heads up to go to Bagram that they were supposed to get to under the Trump plan that was working before Biden changed his mind. I would not bet on a lot of them happening to be at Kabul Airport when the organic waste hit the rotating airfoil. Remember that.
Also of note is that a few days before we left, we locked the gates of the Kabul Airport and would not let ANYONE in, Americans or otherwise. One of the things that happened in the middle of this was that over the objection of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ninth Circle) several Congress-critters went to Afghanistan to see for themselves. The reports are . . . disturbing. They include Americans at the gates of Kabul Airport waving their passports wanting to come in and being kept out by American troops who would not open the gates. And being taken away by Taliban. And several buses of American women doing the same. And being kept out by American troops and who would not open the gates. And being taken away by the Taliban. And SIV holders, the same thing.
Then there are reports from our British and French NATO allies at Kabul Airport. They were running patrols into Kabul and rescuing Europeans and Americans they were able to make contact with by cell phone and computer. There is an incident, reported in the news and apparently caught on video. The Brits do not have the proliferation of field and general officers like we do (hint, we now have 43 4-star officers on active duty in a current military totaling less than 1 ½ million. In WW-II we had a military of 12 million and a total of 24 4-star officers.) A Brit full Colonel has some weight. In the incident, a Colonel commanding 22 SAS Regiment (the Brit Special Forces) got into an argument with an American Colonel. The American was trying to convince the Brit to stop sending those patrols into Kabul “because it was making the Americans look bad.”
Now the Americans there were following orders without a doubt. Orders that had to come from somewhere on Pennsylvania Avenue and go through enough of those 43 4-stars and their staffs to make no one responsible for anything. But you can bet whatever body part you prize the most that we left a lot behind.
Even the official statement by the Department of Defense admits it while claiming a great victory.
Defense Sec Lloyd Austin: “We have just concluded the largest air evacuation of civilians in American history. It was heroic. It was historic." That was on CSPAN on Sept. 1, 2021, at 11:14 hrs.
They got out 120,000 people, which is impressive. Except, except, for the little matter of who we brought out. Leaving aside the troops we talked about earlier, there is the matter of American civilians. I am guessing that we had maybe 20,000 American civilians in Afghanistan. The low-end figure of 10,000 came from the State Department at the beginning of this cluster. So how many American citizens did the Defense Secretary say we got out? How about 5,400 or so by count getting off the planes. And they claim that there may be a couple hundred they did not get out. I know that Affirmative Action math is a Democrat thing, but even 10,000 minus 5,400 is a lot more than a couple hundred. And I am still guessing the starting figure was 20,000.
Then there is the matter of the Afghans who worked with us. According to NBC NEWS, 20,000 Afghans who had directly worked for us applied for Special Immigration Visas (SIV). When you add in their families, it may have brought it to 75,000. We do know that after the evacuation plan was changed, the State Department changed the rules for applying so that it was functionally impossible. So how many of that 75,000 did we get out, counting them as they came off the plane? How about 8,500?
120,000 minus 5,400 American citizens minus 8,500 SIV's leaves a damned large number that should not have been brought out. And I think that every loyal American citizen has the right to ask in the name of all that is Holy and several dozen people they know personally who are definitely not; WHO ARE THESE OTHER PEOPLE AND WHY ARE THEY HERE? I suspect that a significant fraction of them mean us no goodwill and we will pay for it.
Then there is the matter of those we left behind that both honor and duty required that we bring out. The 66,500 Afghans we promised to save and abandoned, well they are doomed. They will be killed by the Taliban as zindiqs, or heretics/traitors to Islam. The estimated 4,600-14,600 American citizens, citizens like you and me, will have a lot of them killed early and the rest either enslaved or held hostage. The ones who are killed early are probably the lucky ones.
There is still some hope for some of the Americans. Working against the opposition of the U.S. government, there is a network of Special Operations veterans working under the name Pineapple Express who are working to get Americans and Afghan allies out. In addition there is a group of retired Marines working with similar aims. It is . . . interesting . . . that both are the only ones working to save Americans, and that they are doing it against the will of the current U.S. government.
I will leave you with a thought. Looking at all of this, do you honestly expect the United States government to do anything to protect you and your family from any threats, foreign or domestic? Especially if the threat is politically correct or you are not.