WATCH: President Biden Speaks About Kabul Evacuation

August 16, 2021
US soldiers rest as Afghan people (not pictured) wait to leave the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airpor... US soldiers rest as Afghan people (not pictured) wait to leave the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar / AFP) (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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August 16, 2021

After nearly twenty years of occupation, the U.S. is scrambling to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

The military is currently evacuating scores of American citizens and Afghans who helped the war effort from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport — the last significant part of the country not under Taliban control.

It follows a week in which the U.S.-trained Afghan army and government melted away in the face of a Taliban offensive.

After two predecessors who promised to withdraw from Afghanistan but ended their presidencies with troops remaining in the country, Biden is the first president to follow through on the promise.

Watch Biden's remarks here:

More Less

After nearly twenty years of occupation, the U.S. is scrambling to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

The military is currently evacuating scores of American citizens and Afghans who helped the war effort from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport — the last significant part of the country not under Taliban control.

It follows a week in which the U.S.-trained Afghan army and government melted away in the face of a Taliban offensive.

After two predecessors who promised to withdraw from Afghanistan but ended their presidencies with troops remaining in the country, Biden is the first president to follow through on the promise.

Notable Replies

  1. About friggin’ time. A no win situation from day one.

  2. To Miller, the Afghans seeking to escape reprisals from the Taliban are just another part of that vast global conspiracy.

    No one can seriously tell me that TFG’s administration would have handled this humanitarian catastrophe any better. The best I can imagine is what they did to Puerto Rico: all talk and no action.
    That said, Kabul hasn’t utterly degenerated into a replay of Saigon: at this writing, the US military still has a significant presence at the airport and the Biden administration does seem to have a real interest in providing for the orderly evacuation of Afghans seeking to leave.
    ETA: As for Stephen Miller, he’d have been right at home with the Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us,” in Charlottesville.

  3. If the Afghans are unwilling to fight for their own country, there is absolutely nothing that the US or anyone else can do to make a democracy in that country.

  4. And the intelligence folks knew all this back during the Reagan administration when they were supplying arms to Afghan “rebels” back in the day when the Russians were in this position…

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