Evacuees from Afghanistan walk at the U.S. airbase in Ramstein, Germany, August 28, 2021. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Tara Copp, Defense One: The Last U.S. Military Plane Has Left Kabul. What’s Next for Americans, Afghans Left Behind?
"Do not count on Americans to save you," one volunteer rescue group warns Afghans now at risk.
The last U.S. military plane has left Afghanistan, U.S. officials announced, ending 20 years of war but also closing down the main route home for stranded Americans and Afghans who are now running for their lives.
"I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters via videoconference.
“The last C-17 lifted off from Hamad Karzai International Airport on August 30, this afternoon, at 3:29 p.m., East Coast time. And the last manned aircraft is now clear of the airspace above Afghanistan.”
Pentagon and White House officials had earlier acknowledged that operations would end with some American citizens and others left behind.
For “Americans and other individuals that want to be able to leave Afghanistan after our withdrawal is complete, the State Department is going to continue to work across many different levers to facilitate that,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. “We do not anticipate a military role in that.”
The lightning-fast collapse of Kabul just two weeks ago exposed just how ill-prepared the State Department and supporting U.S. government agencies were to get their employees out.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: So what is next?
For the Afghans who fought against the Taliban, their lives are at great risk. Now is the time to look for an avenue to escape the country ASAP.
And for the Afghans who had nothing to do with the war, their lives are going to take a turn for the worse.
The country is already facing severe food shortages, but the current chaos in Afghanistan is only going to guarantee starvation and the real possibility of famine.
I expect critical infrastructure like communications, power, and water will break down in the coming weeks and months. The people who manage these vital services have fled and/or are in hiding. And even if some do want to go back to work, there is no money to pay them.
Ditto for government services. Anyone who worked for the Afghan government is now a marked person.
Afghanistan's financial and banking system is finished. Something new will need to replace it. How long that will take is anyone's guess.
The Taliban will try to put together a government, but it is not going to be easy. The Taliban is made up of different groups, and many of them have different agendas. If they cannot present something to the world in the coming days, that will tell me that they do not have a consensus on how to govern.
The countries that surround Afghanistan are positioning themselves to take advantage of the situation. But they are going to take their time and wait until the Taliban get their act together. That may take some time.
The U.S. and its allies are now facing a different crisis. Millions of Afghans are going to flee Afghanistan in the coming year. They are all going to go to Europe.
The terror threat will rise to levels that we have not seen in years. Jihadists around the world are now rushing to Afghanistan with the belief that everything will return to pre-9/11. That means training camps, a friendly Islamist government, and the resources of an entire country with a massive captured American arsenal to help them grow and plot their dreams of a caliphate.
President Biden said that the reason why he wanted the US out of Afghanistan was to not burden future Presidents with Afghanistan. The contrary is going to happen.
Future Presidents are going to face a growing and dangerous threat of Islamic radicalism from Afghanistan, and it will be a foreign policy headache that will exist for years.
This is why I disagree with supporters of President Biden who think that by unilaterally leaving Afghanistan it will mean the war has ended. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Radical Islamists belief in a global Caliphate is not going to change because President Biden and Washington DC has made the decision to leave and abandon Afghanistan. They will be striking again. Or to quote Trotsky. You (the U.S.) may not be interested in war, but war (radical Islam) is certainly interested in you.
No doubt. And the cleanup force will have to fight through an $85B arsenal that Biden left the Taliban. The cleanup force will have no indigenous fighters to assist them because they've been hunted down. No bases to operate from because Biden gave them away. And no allies to rely on because Biden has destroyed US credibility.
ReplyDeleteTack on Russia and China who think we're a joke. Inflation, gas prices, no southern border, urban center anarchy, etc...
And we're only 8 months into the Biden *residency.
Very depressing Russ, and solid analysis by the editor.
ReplyDeleteEnd of the day, from womans rights to military asset the US went to Afganistan and where nothing but an occupying force where they trained killers murderers and theives.They underminded civil society by implementing puppet leaders and speculation about opium and other drug exports only highlight US involvement as a financially incentive related one rather then one of growth and empowerment.
ReplyDeleteI think the most telling statistic of US failure is that of computer ownership in Afghanistan, across the entire world children brought up with smart phones in their pockets and computers in their households can acomplish more then the boomer generation could think of.
Rather then children picking up guns and fighting for their lifes, they could be picking up a mouse and keyboard and playing pretend, they could be enriching the lifes of their families with simple youtube videos.
The US occupying forces were nothing but a boot on the throat of the Afgans for an attack that killed just 2000 people. 20 years, they could have ushered in a new era, with a new generation that far exceeded the old, instead ... well there is a reason the Taliban have the support of the people and there is a reason the Taliban will thrive in ruling this Islamic dominated country.
When you allow a book, a book designed for war, that arose from two clashing superpowers that then dominated them both for hundreads of years and indeed destroyed one entirely. Your asking for it, but i mean the US is so far up Saudis ass they wouldn't have considered waging a war on Islam by using western teachings of science, maths and enginnering would they. Just another country dominated by a book designed to build a following that has people giving their lives for more power control and influence.
The US religion that is dominated by paper money is not one that will succeed, where he who has it, is born into it can do as he pleases. Not in a country that values human sacrafice for the greater good. To build a country, you need to empower leaders, not losers obessed with getting their dick wet, getting drunk and high who walk around like they own everything and everyone because of who their parents or grandparents were.
The history of Afghanistan and US ties, from the Cold War to 9/11 -
ReplyDeleteThe Trump Clown Car Has a Smashup in Arizona
ReplyDeleteKeep trying!
DeleteMilitary records Freddy!
DeleteThank you, President Biden.
ReplyDeleteOnly you had the guts and fortitude to end the war many Americans wanted to end.
You have my vote in 2024.
your mommy saw my records
ReplyDelete4 presidents, two from each party, were involved in the Afghan mess. What have we learned from Viet Nam and Afghanistan wars? Can we figure out Why we went in; What was our goal; what does it take for such
ReplyDeleteincursions to succeed?
Wiggle wiggle wiggle it'll do you no good.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Lapides where's your military record?
"...just how ill-prepared the State Department ...."
ReplyDeleteBlinken has been preparing for 4 decades.
The goal is to destroy America, its resources and values
ReplyDeleteThe globalists need America and its constitution gone
1:19 is a jihadi, a really, really bent leftist or someone playing around. My confidence is 98% to 100% that it is a jihadi. Mark it.
ReplyDeleteyour mother saw mine
ReplyDeleteloved it
That's as old as Lapides, where's your military record?
DeleteSpot on Russ in So Cal.
ReplyDeleteask you mommy...she has a copy of it
ReplyDeletePlease talk to Fred about your syntax!
DeleteMilitary record, you brag but provide no proof. Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle!
The RTL guys continue to have LTR problems along with their mommy problems.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, the trustee alleged, Ted Budd “acted in concert” with his father “in connection with the fraudulent transfers.” As a result, Ted Budd was named as a defendant in a civil case filed by the trustee.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, a settlement negated the need for a trial and specified that there was no admission of wrongdoing. The “Budd entities” agreed to pay less than half of the amount initially earmarked for the farmers and other creditors — some of whom remain angry they only received a portion of their lost earnings.
“We got screwed and there was not a freaking thing we could do about it. There was no way to fight multimillionaires,” said Scott Scheuerman, a Wyoming farmer who had urged fellow growers to send their crop to the company, which had bought up dozens of processing plants. “We were the little guy. We were just a number, and they could care less about us.”
Ted Budd’s untold role in the case illustrates the risk that Trump, still the most powerful figure in the GOP, has taken in impulsively backing a low-profile candidate who is loyal to him and has spoken dismissively about the Jan. 6 insurrection. By elevating Budd into a top primary contender in a key midterm race, Trump has created extraordinarily high stakes for his party.
In your head he lives hahahahahaha!
DeleteAnother Washington Post copy and paste. Who does it? We know.
ReplyDelete