Flights resume at Kabul airport as U.S. aims to extract 22,000 Afghans who helped military
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 3 years ago • 8 commentsBy: Saphora Smith, Matteo Moschella, Courtney Kube and Chantal Da Silva
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Evacuation flights at Kabul airport resumed Monday, hours after desperate Afghans surrounded passenger jets and tried to force themselves onto a plane overnight as panic spread after the Taliban took control of the capital 20 years after having been toppled by U.S. forces.
A video showed a U.S. military aircraft trying to take flight as dozens of Afghans sprinted alongside, apparently in an attempt to stop it from taking off without them. Some even climbed aboard, clinging to the outside as the aircraft gained speed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the airport, separated by a row of barbed wire, the U.S. rushed to evacuate American diplomats. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said late Sunday that all embassy personnel had been safely evacuated to premises at the airport, whose perimeter is secured by the U.S. military.
Defense Department press secretary John Kirby said Monday that 1,000 more troops would be deployed to Kabul, eventually bringing the total force there to more than 6,000. About 2,500 U.S. troops are on the ground.
Kirby also confirmed two incidents in which U.S. troops fired on armed people at the airport, resulting in the deaths of two of them. Later, Kirby addressed the situation at the airport during a news conference by saying preparations were made to "examine what a noncombatant evacuation would look like."
"It's not a perfect process," Kirby said. "Plans aren't always perfectly predicted."
A U.S. official told NBC News that in the previous 24 hours, initial reports indicated that assailants fired into the crowd at the airport and that U.S. forces returned fire. The official said reports indicated that the gunmen were killed.
Taliban controls Kabul amid US evacuation from Afghanistan
The U.S. military suspended operations at Kabul airport for several hours Monday because chaos on the runways meant it was unsafe for planes to land or take off, three U.S. officials said. They resumed hours later, with C-17s landing on the military side of the airport.
Officials said Monday that the government is prepared to take more than 20,000 Afghans who are candidates for Special Immigrant Visas, or SIVs, with them to U.S. bases. A total of 700 people have left the country since Saturday.
"Our military embrace the opportunity to recognize their contributions to combined operations in Afghanistan by welcoming them into the U.S.," said the Pentagon's director for defense intelligence, Garry Reid, adding that officials are working to create capacity to support refugee relocation at temporary sites.
"At this point, we're looking to establish 22,000 spaces," Reid said. "We can expand if we need to."
Civilian flights stopped Sunday because of people on the runways and a radar issue, the officials said, adding that the intention was to reopen the civilian side, too, but that the radar issue needed to be fixed first.
Speaking on NBC News' "TODAY," national security adviser Jake Sullivan appeared to try to play down concerns surrounding dramatic scenes of U.S. Embassy staff members' being evacuated to Kabul's airport.
"To be fair, the helicopter has been the mode of transport from our embassy to the airport for the last 20 years," he said.
Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that he was shocked by the scenes at the Kabul airport and that the U.S. should have anticipated the chaos.
"We're told this is a responsible exit when we're watching what's happening — the tarmac where U.S. air forces transport planes is being overrun with civilians. That airport isn't secure," he said.
President Joe Biden said Monday that he stood by his decision to withdraw, adding that the U.S. mission for going in was "never supposed to be nation-building."
Biden admitted that the situation deteriorated quicker than his administration had anticipated after it inherited a withdrawal deal negotiated by former President Donald Trump.
Biden: I stand by my decision to withdraw from Afghanistan
"If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now is the right decision," Biden said. "American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war, and dying in a war, the Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves."
The deployment of 6,000 troops will be focused on securing the airfield to get U.S. citizens out of Afghanistan, as well as supporting the safe departure of U.S. allies, Biden said. Addressing criticism of America's apparent failure to remove Afghans who supported U.S. interests, Biden blamed the lack of a wide-scale evacuation effort on resistance from the Afghan government.
"I know there were concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghan civilians," Biden said. "So, part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave it, still hopeful for their country. And part of it is because the Afghan government ... discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering — as they said — a crisis of confidence."
While the U.S. made for the exits, neighboring countries and U.S. rivals China and Russia looked set to try to capitalize on the chaos.
China has said it is willing to forge "friendly relations" with the militants. Russia said Sunday that it did not plan to evacuate its embassy in Kabul and that it would "now be talking" to the Taliban political office in Doha, Qatar.
Afghans climb atop a plane at the airport in Kabul on Monday as thousands gathered at the city's airport.Wakil Kohsar / AFP - Getty Images
Reuters reported that five people were killed in the chaos at the airport, citing witnesses. NBC News could not immediately verify the reporting independently.
In the rest of the city, people said an eerie calm had taken over the streets after the storm that saw the militants take the crown jewel of Afghan cities. Most shops were closed, fewer people were out on the street compared to Sunday, and overhead a frenzy of aviation activity could be heard, residents said.
Many Afghans are concerned that the militants will reimpose the brutal and austere rule over Afghanistan that all but eliminated women's rights and persecuted minorities.
"Everybody is panicking," said an Afghan who recently moved to Kabul from Jalalabad because no one in the capital knows he worked for the Americans as an interpreter. "Everybody is trying to get to the airport."
The 22-year-old man said he would not try his luck there because he knew the Americans would not let him in. Instead, he is patiently waiting for his Special Immigrant Visa to be finalized.
"I can't take somebody else's place, somebody else's flight. I need to wait," he said. "It's dangerous to go to the airport."
Not everyone can be patient, and some do not even have roofs to shelter under.
Crowds descend on Kabul airport after Taliban take city
The desperately poor — who had left homes in the countryside for the presumed safety of the capital — remained in parks and open spaces in the city. The United Nations said thousands of people continue to be displaced into Kabul and other urban areas, and at least 17,600 internally displaced people need humanitarian assistance.
Foreigners also scrambled to leave the country or sat tight waiting to hear from their governments.
"It's like a Covid lockdown," said Wayne Parry, an Australian citizen who said he got stuck in Afghanistan on a work trip. "Everyone is just waiting and is obviously nervous."
Parry, 50, said he was staying in a guesthouse in Kabul as he waited for updates from Australia's diplomatic staff.
"We're holed up here. We can't go outside," said Parry, of Melbourne. "There's a sense of resignation because the Taliban has got what they want, so there's nothing any of us can do except sit and wait."
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The pentagon press secretary estimated between five and ten thousand Americans remain in Kabul.
That’s a lot of hostages
Yeah, there's about 10,000 Americans including children in Kabul city. They followed the "shelter in place" orders (which have once again been issued) by the Embassy and are now basically abandoned. there are also about 80,000 Afghan citizens who are slated for death for working with America, her allies and contractors.
My son, daughter-in-law and wife have been in contact with some friends they have there and they've isolated themselves with about 30 or so other Americans in one location looking and waiting for help.
Hopefully, help will arrive before the Taliban hunting them do.
Canada has had 5 planes land at Toronto in the past day, one full of embassy staff and the other 4 with Afghans and their families, many more are being flown to Germany first. Angela Merkel has pledged to take in another 10,000. All to the good, but if just one Talibanish whacko gets through, the xenophobes will have a field day switching blame back and forth for the icompetence de jour of some 'woke' leader ... for them, every journey starts with a step backwards.
Think I'll bake a Tuesday pie ... litchi and peach ...
What is happening in Afghanistan provides a clear, unequivocal, and tangible demonstration that providing training, tools, and opportunity doesn't change anything.
The overwhelming bulk of the 22,000 Afghans who 'helped the American military' were being trained to support the Afghan military and run the government bureaucracy after the United States left. They were supposed to stay in Afghanistan and keep the country running. They weren't supposed to jump off the gravy train at the first sign of trouble.
There was an interview on the news (I don't have the details) with an Afghan who had been trained as a helicopter mechanic. He wasn't being trained to help the American military; he was trained to support the Afghan military when the US pulled out. But, no, he is now sitting somewhere in the United States expressing disappointment at how Americans let Afghanistan fall into chaos.
Biden continues to prove he is a moron; and doesn't even remember recent history that he was a part of.
1) George Bush and the rest of the world liberate Kuwait from Iraq. Kuwaitis didn't fight in the war- they were too busy partying in Saudi Arabia.
2) Obama (Biden's former boss no less) reinserting US troops back into Iraq to save an Iraqi government that is loyal to Iran. We trained the Iraqi military as well; and all they could do was surrender to ISIS/ISIL. They made ISIS/ISIL a military force with all of the weapons they gave up.
Whoever is writing Biden's speeches needs to be fired. If Biden is doing it himself- he still needs to be fired.
I continually heard the administration talking head Jake Sullivan note that we will get as
"many as possible out".
Jake, my questions to you which no one in the press conference asked is:
WHAT is "as many as possible"? Is it one or a thousand or ten thousand? And exactly what will YOU and BIDEN do for those LEFT BEHIND? Will you just console the family members of those people as they watch them being beheaded or dragged through the streets? Will you shake a finger at the Taliban and say "bad, bad Taliban, you promised you wouldn't" and like Obama before you when he told the Russians, tell them firmly "Stop it"?
Jake, if you don't know the answers to those, maybe you could ask Biden to take questions that aren't prescripted.
While the US involvement in Afghanistan should never have happened, the US withdrawal from there should have happened long before now. If the Afghan people are not willing to fight for their own country and freedom, even after being supported by the US and other countries, and being supplied with the equipment and training to do so, then I agree that the US and the others who are no longer willing to take full responsibility for the war and are also pulling out after a prolonged and costly war in human lives.
While the previous POTUS talked about the need to bring our men and women in uniform home earlier, they made no real effort to do so. That Biden has now made the decision to do that, he is getting blow back from both sides of the aisle. But, While they are busy flapping their gums and gnashing their teeth on how badly Biden has handled the withdrawal, which he hasn't in any way, they are likely not willing or able to bring our troops home to end the war and saves untold American lives.
It does not take balls to blame others when unforeseen problems arise, the balls are on those who actually do what the job and deal with the surprise events that take place in the process.
Those who point the finger of blame and loudly criticize Biden for having the balls to finally do what has needed to be done, and finally do what others only emptily promised to do, and those who have demanded endlessly for years to end the war and bring our troops home, you can voice your disapproval all you want, but, you are no less guilty of prolonging the war by working against any prior efforts to do that.
So.....just keep pointing the finger of blame...just do it where the guilt really lies....at the one in the mirror you are facing.
JMOO
`Let em land, give them all weapons, load the cargo hold with ammo and send them back to fight for their country