This is getting somewhat repetitious, but the catastrophe in Afghanistan keeps intruding on my discussion of the ongoing economic screw up. It is now September 8, 2021, as I write. This has to be in to the editor by the morning of Saturday, September 11, still within the length limits I have. And I have this really nasty feeling that the way we lost in Afghanistan is going to have repercussions and they might be on 9/11. We will see how bad it gets.
OK, as I laid out in detail last week, we had 20,000 Americans, mostly civilians, in Afghanistan when we cut and run. According to the supposed actual physical count as they got off the planes, we got about 5,400 Americans out of Kabul. Yet, and yet, our crack State Department is adamant in its claims that only about 100 Americans are left in Afghanistan. To them, 20,000 - 5,400 = 100. This is Democrat government math.
Except reality keeps bloody well intruding. A reminder of something I said last week. Afghanistan is not a small place. In fact, it is about the size of Texas, with a lot fewer roads and a lot more mountains and valleys. We got that 5,400 out of Kabul.
Actually, it's 5,404 out of Kabul. One thing that Joe Biden and his allies have had conniption fits over has been members of Congress getting involved, preferring that they stay away, stay ignorant of what was going on, and just believe what they are told. During the original siege of Kabul Airport, two members of Congress (one from each “party”) went there and were the ones that reported that during the last few days the gates of the Airport were locked and American citizens were screaming to be let in, waving their passports. They were taken away by Taliban and have not been seen since. Our crack, Democrat controlled media kinda forgot to mention that. Nancy Pelosi was mickle-miffed at them for being there.
A few days ago, we got word that four American citizens (a woman and her three children) had gotten out. Specifically, it was organized by U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tx) whose district they are from and U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Ok), Cory Mills and “a private team of other military veterans.” They walked 300 miles to the border and got safely across. Once they were across, they were met by a team from the State Department who claimed that they (the State Department) were responsible for the rescue. The State Department only knew about it because they were notified by the Congressmen just before the rescue team crossed the border. State's only part was to try to claim credit.
The location we are concerned with today, however, is Mazar-i-Sharif, which is a separate city and airport than Kabul. Mazar-i-Sharif is a city of more than ½ million people about in the middle of the north of Afghanistan, maybe 50 miles south of Uzbekistan (formerly part of the Soviet Union). It is about 200 miles away from Kabul, a bit more than an hour by air and a really long time on the ground.
Once again, it is private Americans who are trying to save their countrymen and allies. All of which is over the opposition of the U.S. State Department. At Mazar-i-Sharif Airport today are six jets, privately owned, that went there to pick up Americans and SIV (Special Immigration Visa) holders. That last, remember, are those Afghans who were pre-screened and given asylum. On Sept. 1 (the day after we abandoned Kabul Airport) former Marine Eric Montaldo organized a flight of 300 SIVs out of Afghanistan to Doha, Qatar. The State Department tried to get them refused permission to land in Doha, but they had already landed.
On Sept. 7, (yesterday as I write) the State Department sent a message to Montaldo saying, “it will not formally approve the departure of chartered planes from Afghanistan carrying Americans and allies.” Their excuse is that they have not had time to formally investigate the passengers. You will note from last week that of the 120,000 evacuated under State Department orders when we had Kabul still, of the 20,000 American citizens only 5,400 were taken out. And at that same time, of the 75,000 SIV holders we only got 8,500 out. Which means that of that 120,000 number they are so proud of, 107,000 were uninvestigated when they did it.
There are, as I said, six privately owned jets at Mazar-i-Sharif airport that the Taliban was ready to allow to take off until yesterday morning. Now they say they will not let them leave until the Americans give them permission to leave and land elsewhere. Remember that message to Montaldo in the paragraph above. Originally there were supposedly between 30-50 American citizens and a couple of hundred Afghanis, most of which were supposedly SIV holders. On Tuesday the State Department admitted that there were 1,000 passengers for the six planes waiting, and said that their problem was that after we left there were no U.S. screeners on the ground. . . .DUH. The real problem is probably two-fold. First, it is private organizations who are rescuing people, including U.S. citizens, after they were deliberately abandoned by the U.S. government. The second is that most of the planes belong to the conservative Mercury One Foundation run by Glenn Beck. Both details make a Democrat regime look bad. And I suspect that if they got out, and made contact with media not controlled by the Democrats, that the stories that they tell would contain more truth than the handlers of Joe Biden want out there.
Why do I believe that? Well, I admit that it was something said by a fellow blogger at a site I frequent. Her online name is “Sgt. Mom.” This is because she is retired career Air Force. Specifically, she ran Air Force radio and TV broadcasting stations as her specialty. She knows how the military, and civilians, do news about the services.
What she mentioned was a list of the things we are NOT seeing. You can frequently tell people are lying to you by what they are deliberately NOT saying or doing that they normally do.
We have tens of thousands of soldiers, Marines, and airmen involved in this operation who are now out of Afghanistan. Not to mention foreign troops involved at Kabul who are out. And they are ESPECIALLY not mentioning 110,000 Afghans, a fraction of which supposedly risked their lives for us and were forced to abandon their country and immigrate to a strange one (us). Then there are the American families of all those soldiers, Marines and airmen, and in some cases the Afghans.
Now here in our part of Colorado, any time the troops do something big overseas and come home to Fort Carson, ALL THREE affiliates of the major networks, and the minor networks too, are there for the return of the troops including when they march back in as their families are waiting just outside the formation. And as soon as they are dismissed, the families and troops rush together and there are interviews by TV people. Every single time. Has anybody heard anything about anything like this at either U.S. bases here or in Europe?
We have all these refugees who are supposedly allies and who will become Americans in theory. Normally a whole bunch of them are interviewed by the press and express thanks for the welcome, and hopes for the future. The ultimate human interest story. Has anybody heard anything akin to this anywhere in the country?
The media has put an absolute lid on that kind of coverage. This is not in any way normal. It is like they are afraid that news of what really happened will escape and make the panicked bailout look bad. We ARE being lied to by commission and omission.
There is another thing about the State Department's worries about screening everyone who comes out. All of those places that they are going to be landing at are safely NOT under Taliban control AND the time crush of trying to run away from the Taliban is gone. In the increasingly unlikely event that the U.S. State Department really wanted to get the Americans and SIVs out, it actually would be easy to do so in cooperation with private organizations. Remember, most of the Americans still trapped work for the NGO private organizations; either missionary or aid/relief. Make a short list of airports close outside of Afghanistan that the Americans and SIVs can be taken to. Put a screening team at each airport. It is not like they are going to have traffic volume like at DIA, or even at the Pueblo airport. At most, a couple of planes at a time.
Those coming out will be isolated on the plane and can be moved to isolated quarters on the airport while they are “screened” at leisure. Those who are American citizens or citizens of allied countries can be debriefed and taken home. Those who are SIV holders can be debriefed and brought here to deal with the immigration bureaucracy. Those who are in neither category get to play the home game. It is regrettable, but we are having our own severe domestic problems and cannot take in the whole population of Afghanistan.
We are going to hear a bunch of things about the last few weeks in Central Asia soon, regardless of the media. In the modern age it is the bane of governments that information eventually escapes. Those things we are going to hear are not going to be good. And they will hurt us badly, foreign and domestic. In the meantime, as I said today is Sept. 8. Saturday is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Having just beaten us in Afghanistan, I would expect that our Islamic enemies are going to celebrate our defeat by commemorating 9/11 in their own special and deadly way. I really hope I am wrong. This will have to be turned in before 9/11. It will not appear until 9/17. I hope I am wrong about the consequences of our defeat in Afghanistan. We will know by the time this appears.
UPDATE: It is now the afternoon of Sept. 9. The U.S. State Department has abandoned communications with those thousands of Americans and SIV holders trapped in Afghanistan. One advantage of cell phones is that if you can keep them charged, have minutes on your plan, and are within range of a cell phone tower you can communicate from anywhere. There was a phone number being used by those Americans and SIV holders with cell phones (mostly in cities) trying to get out to keep in contact with the State Department, hoping for rescue. As of this morning, the State Department shut down that line, turning their backs on at least thousands of trapped Americans.
Keep thine codpieces buttoned, for we are in Interesting Times.