Civic Register
| 8.30.21
U.S. Ends War in Afghanistan, Concludes Military Evacuation From Kabul: ‘We Did Not Get Out Everybody We Wanted to Get Out’
How do you feel about the end of the military evacuation from Afghanistan?
What’s the story?
- General Frank McKenzie, U.S. Central Command’s commanding general, announced that the last U.S. military flight departed Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan at 3:29pm Eastern on Monday, August 30th, shortly after midnight of August 31st ― the Biden administration’s deadline for withdrawal. Over 116,000 people have been evacuated by the U.S. and its allies in the last two weeks, although hundreds of American civilians remain in Afghanistan, along with thousands of at-risk Afghan allies.
- The final flights marked the official end of the war in Afghanistan, which began in October 2001 after the September 11th terrorist attacks and saw 2,361 Americans killed and more than 20,000 wounded. McKenzie confirmed, “Every single U.S. servicemember is now out of Afghanistan, I can say that with 100% certainty.” He said the last Americans to be evacuated were 82nd Airborne Division Commanding General Christopher Donahue and U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson.
- It also marks the end of a two-week-long military evacuation, although it’s estimated that several hundred American citizens along with thousands of Afghan allies were unable to be evacuated before the departure of the final five aircraft. It’s unclear how many U.S. legal residents, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders and their families, and other Afghans at risk of Taliban reprisals remain in the country.
- McKenzie estimated that the number of American civilians remaining in Afghanistan is “in the low hundreds” and said that the U.S. had maintained the ability to bring more on until the very minute, but none were able to make it to the airport. He added:
“We would’ve liked to be able to bring out everybody that wanted to come out. We were not able to do that. The situation wouldn’t allow it. I think we did a very good job of getting everybody that we could get out, given the unique challenges and the tactical situation on the ground… There’s a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get out everybody we wanted to get out.”
- President Joe Biden released a statement in which he praised the “unmatched courage, professionalism, and resolve” of the U.S. military in executing the evacuation, which more than resulted in over 116,000 people evacuated since August 14th by the U.S. and coalition partners, including about 6,000 Americans. The president added:
“Tomorrow afternoon, I will address the American people on my decision not to extend our presence in Afghanistan beyond August 31. For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned. Their view was that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops, and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead.”
- In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on August 19th, Biden had said that he was committed to keeping troops in the country until every American who wants to get out was evacuated. He said at the time that “if there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”
- The U.S. personnel securing Hamid Karzai International Airport faced increasing security threats in recent days. A “complex terrorist attack” by ISIS-K killed 13 American servicemembers on August 26th, while wounding at least 20 more and murdering more than 170 Afghans.
- The U.S. carried out a drone strike on ISIS-K militants outside of Kabul early Saturday morning and conducted a second strike in Kabul targeting suspected car bombers near the airport on Sunday. Defense officials said the strike on the car generated “significant” secondary explosions indicating the detonation of “a substantial amount of explosive material.” There are reports that 10 Afghan civilians were killed in the blast, including several children.
- ISIS-K carried out another attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport during the night of August 29th-30th, with five indirect rockets fired at the facility and the American personnel station there. At least one rocket exploded ineffectively in the complex, while at least one other rocket was downed by a C-RAM artillery defense system. The C-RAM system was rendered inoperable along with numerous vehicles and aircraft as the U.S. departed.
— Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: Kabul Evacuation: DoD photo by Master Sgt. Alexander Burnett / Public Domain | C-17: Combined Joint Task Force - 82 PAO photo by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson / Public Domain)
The Latest
-
Obama Endorses Kamala Harris as She Looks for a VPUpdated July 26, 2024 As her presidential campaign kicks off, Harris has been at the center of attacks and endorsements. The read more... Voting Rights -
The Latest: Experts Fear the Spread of Polio in GazaUpdated July 26, 2024 The health crisis in Gaza continues to worsen as essential health services are severely compromised in the read more... Israel -
IT: 🇺🇸 Biden ends 2024 re-election campaign, and... Do you support Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee?Welcome to Monday, July 22nd, reporters... Joe Biden has announced he will end his candidacy for re-election. In a letter posted read more... -
Quick Breakdown on Trump's VP Pick, JD VanceUpdated July 22, 2024 Last week, former President Donald Trump picked Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate . Vance, who read more... Advocacy
Climate & Consumption
Health & Hunger
Politics & Policy
Safety & Security
I’m watching these hearings what a waste of time it’s republicans attacking the Democratic Party and the leaders of our great military. Where were all these republicans when Trump was killing American police officers. Oh I guess that was ok because he’s a Republican. Such a sad sad country
Check out the new docuseries, “Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror” on Netflix. It is an expansive and detailed historical study about HOW & WHY we got to 9/11, with an almost complete history of WHEN & WHY Afghanistan became a focal point for the American government and the American people. This 5 episode series explains so much and in such detail, afterwards you’ll know EXACTLY WHY we left Afghanistan, and WHY we should have left much sooner than August of 2021! It’s ALL there. And it’s ALL the TRUTH! The main idea I got out of it is this: Never go to war without a clear exit strategy that leaves the invaded country better than you found it. NOT doing so will be catastrophic!
It has become bitter sweet, the incompetence from Joe Biden and his administration, what is a disaster. The question I would like to have someone ask Joe Biden, all the military equipment that was left in Afghanistan? Trillions of dollars, if the American people paid for. Airplanes, helicopters, tanks, hobbies, machine guns, ammo, and a lot more.? He left all of this to the enemy. Yet we do not get any answers from Joe Biden. He stands before the American people reading off a Teleprompter, walks off the stage when he’s finished congratulating himself. Without answering any questions. I also would like to ask him why we have such open borders or anybody can come through. How are we going to support all of these people did Joe Biden is leading into our country. The American people are stressed now. Joe Biden is spending more money than we have. Putting more debt on our children and our grandchildren for decades, if our country survives. He gives money out with such ease, does he know where the moneys going to come from. He says that he’s going to tax corporations. Corporations that own businesses are going to pass it on to the consumer. That’s how stupid he is. Already he shut down our oil pipeline. But 11,000 people out of work the first day he was president. Now look at the price of gas we are having to buy it from other countries. He is setting us backwards not forward. The price of food is Rising at a high-level. He hasn’t made things better for America. He’s made things 100% worse. And yet he congratulated himself. The Democrats and the Republicans are not working for America. If they can’t see with this president is doing and they are dumb stupid and blind. Stop listening to Nancy Pelosi, the woman who works for her own benefit.
Afghanistan: Taliban says it will 'raise voice for Kashmir Muslims' A spokesman for the group tells the BBC it plans to support Muslims in Indian-administered Kashmir. But they don’t give a flip for the uighurs … the chinese paid them to say chinese are welcome friends and xinjiang is an internal issue. The chines will finance them so western financial threats carry no weight Talibs have also teamed up with isis & al qaeda to defeat the panjshiris So much for integrity & promises? They can’t even govern their own country but will take sides overseas! All of the above is a direct result of the west especially usa empowering china with dollars which is coming back to haunt The sooner we turn that tap off to china - trade deficits, mfg dependence, tech transfer the better for usa. It is not a free & fair world. Can’t have it both ways? To my reps please note!
The war needed to end but I don’t think it could have been a perfect exit.
For Pres Biden try to get Pres Ghani to LIE about conditions on the ground regarding the Taliban takeover in the July 23rd phone call was unforgivable & should be investigated. Of course, Demmys will ignore this. THEN, to cut short the end date so he could take a victory lap on 9/11 is ONE of the most bone headed maneuvers of this administration. Kandahar & BAGHRAM AFB should have never been shut down until our citizens, SIVS & equipment were OUT. Then the military should have withdrawn. This withdrawal was a preventable CATASTROPHE!
The effort of evacuation was totally outstanding. Say whatever you want, but I’m in awe of the efficiency this was carried out by our military. It had to be done in a war we should never had been in. My thanks to Biden for having the balls to do what 3 other presidents wouldn’t.
Biden’s handling of the war drawdown is one of the worst debacles in American history. Biden turned over billions of dollars worth of US military equipment to the Taliban, our enemy. Biden should be impeached immediately — he doesn’t possess the mental faculties to lead.
Biden's remarks about the success of the Afghanistan withdrawal is like calling the Titanic a success in ship design and navigation., Getting out of Afghanistan was the right thing to do. Biden, the State Department, and the DOD looked like the Keystone Cops. Why would we withdraw our troops before evacuating all U.S. citizens and Afghan allies, as well as military materiel?
The man is a deluded tool of his handlers. But then, we all knew that when he was elected, so now we have to live through this misbegotten administration. God help us.
I have noticed how the MSM is now trying to turn away from the fact that the Biden Administration has left Americans behind in Afghanistan. I think they are glad they can focus on the lies about abortion rights rather than this fact. When Americans were taken hostage in Iran ABC news said that they would stay on the air and cover what was going on until every hostage was released. The hostages were held for over 400 days. Now they are like - move along, nothing to see here. Ooh look, there are people who don’t want children to be killed. Oh the horror.
I want everyone to remember that Trump set this in motion. Trump was the president who acknowledged the Taliban and wanted to invite them to camp David.. I also want to remind people that the Trump administration practically shut down the special visa application department, which makes it really hard to get our Afghan allies out. I also want to remind people that Americans were told and knew months in advance that the military was pulling out...they had months to get where they needed to go to get themselves out. Yes, I believe there needs to be more done to get the Afghan allies out and that they should have started getting them out way sooner ( but with the visa department being as it was, how does that happen?) . It was a bad situation that Biden did not start and had not alot of control over...but i believe the Biden Administration and the military did an incredible job with what they had. And as for not extending the deadline.....how many more suicide bombings did you want to witness ? The airport was/is a huge target with lots of people....there were real threats to that. How many more troops and civilians had to die before then people said...oh Biden should not have stayed, too many people died to get those last few hundred out. Also, what about when Trump pulled out of Syria and did not even help our Kurdish allies? None of the Republicans seem to remember that?! Not everyone is going to be happy. They will say...I could have done better.....well then where were you? And this talk about impeachment is ridiculous. If Biden breaks the law, then yes impeach him....but he has not broken the law with this.
IT WAS NEVER GOING TO BE SMOOTH! Stop blaming Biden for something GEORGE BUSH STARTED and then ASSHOLE TRUMP finished by bargaining with the Taliban. REPUBLICANS ARE ALL ASSHOLES!
The moron in charge needs to be put to bed. Standard liberal approach - lie, deny, deflect. And larubia, as long as you're posting news flashes, how about the invasion at our southern border? Guess CNN isn't covering that one, huh?
It was a tough decision, but leaving Afghanistan should have been done long ago. None of the previous presidents even tried to leave. Mistakes may have been made, but we evacuated more people than have been evacuated in any other war we've been involved in since WWII. Donald J. Trump was the one who released Taliban prisoners, including their current leader. Without the release of the Taliban prisoners, there may have been a better outcome, but what's done is done, at least we are not sacrificing more young people for the military-industrial businesses.
It’s easy to sit back and criticize how it was done, but in reality individuals in Afghanistan were actually told months and months and months ago that we were leaving. They too, shoulder some of the responsibility. Was military equipment left there, yes. isn’t the first time we’ve left military equipment. I am sure that they felt the Afghan army would use this equipment against Al-Qaeda, After all we had partnered and trained and worked with them for 20 years. Who knew unless you had a crystal ball, that they would lay down arms and walk away. Which only proves withdrawing from Afghanistan was the right thing to do.
It's over and the ones that are complaining are the ones who get there campain money from the military complex.
America has been dominated. It’s time we show love.
This callous cold man should not be leading this country. He cannot lead his own life let alone run America. He has made egregious mistakes from his very first day in office and those who hail this buffoon are sorely mistaken in this choice. The Democrats made a very bad choice in allowing him to even be on the Presidential election ticket. We know what took place with the 2020 election, we know how he won and the nefarious ways the Democrats went about it. Who in their right mind could ever think this demented individual could make any beneficial decisions? He has singlehandedly put this country in danger with his errant decisions regarding pulling our military out of Afghan territory and the mode in which he did so. How do you leave Americans behind but stand before America claiming a victory on his actions, how can he even believe leaving behind millions of dollars of military equipment has gained him the right to pat himself on the back? God bless and hold the 13 military individuals who died needlessly because of one man’s decision.
No previous exit from a lost war has gone so well. No other POTUS in history has extracted 122,000 civilians on the way out! This was an amazing operation. We should have done it a decade ago. Of note, the extraction during #45 left ALL of our allies in the ground to be killed by the Turks. #45 extracted exactly zero.