The latest disastrous takeover by the Taliban is a major screwup by the Biden Administration. Fatalities have occurred at the expense of the White House and now thousands of Americans are stranded.
The response to this current disaster is even worse than the fact that it happened. The White House has projected that over 15,000 US Citizens are stranded in Afghanistan with no clear plan to get them out.
More from American Military News
During a Wednesday press briefing, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has the capability to extract some Americans in extreme circumstances, but not to gather up large groups of Americans who cannot get to the U.S.-controlled airport in Kabul after the Taliban seized near-total control of the country over the weekend.
“We don’t have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people,” Austin added.
Austin’s admission that U.S. troops have no plan for large-scale evacuation efforts outside the Kabul airport perimeter comes after reports the Taliban have set up checkpoints around the country and blocked access to the Kabul airport, in some cases beating and whipping people attempting to get through.
“We’re going to do everything we can to continue to try to deconflict and create passageways for them to get to the airfield,” Austin said. “I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul.”
There are as many as 15,000 U.S. citizens left in the country, according to The Washington Post.
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