(PresidentialInsider.com)- Not only did President Joe Biden abandon thousands of Americans in Afghanistan as the Taliban took over the country and took control of millions of dollars of American military equipment, but now the United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has confirmed that the U.S. military is incapable of collecting “large numbers” of Americans stuck there.
It’s effectively an admission that the Biden administration screwed up and should have taken American citizens out of the country before a full military withdrawal, as soon as it became obvious that the Taliban was going to retake Kabul.
By the way – that’s exactly what President Donald Trump said, and the kind of mission he promised to operate as he carefully planned the eventual U.S. withdrawal from the country.
Secretary Austin made the shocking comments in response to questions from the media about the Taliban apparently stopping Afghan allies from reaching the international airport in Kabul.
Austin also offered a different account of what was happening in Kabul. He said that the U.S. military is continuing to coordinate and deconflict with the Taliban and make sure that those who need to get to the airfield have the credentials they need to get there. He added that the Taliban is checking those credentials and have allowed Americans to pass.
But that’s quite different from the story given to us by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, which said on August 18 that the United States government can’t ensure the safe passage of Americans to Hamid Karzai International Airport.
So…he lied.
Austin’s suggestion that the U.S. does not have the capability to evacuate large numbers of Americans drew massive criticism from both sides of the aisle. Writing in the National Review, Dan McLaughlin said that “no American military leader should ever say what Lloyd Austin said.”
"You do not say out loud that we cannot guarantee the safe evacuation of Americans from the clutches of the Taliban. You do not even allow yourself to *think* it so long as you have tools at your disposal to prevent it."https://t.co/hrBRk94hHw
— Evan Donovan (@EvanDonovan) August 20, 2021
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s Army is breaching Taliban lines and rescuing British nationals stuck in the country.
Has President Biden gotten a single thing right so far?
