Events are occurring so quickly and the situation is becoming so bad in Afghanistan that keeping up with reports from half a world away is nearly impossible. By the time those on the ground or in a neighboring country publish one update, thinking it can’t get any worse for a while, more bad news breaks. This from redstate.com.
That’s happened again, this time via State Department Undersecretary Wendy Sherman, who took to the podium today to ostensibly give information on what’s transpiring. Instead, we got faux empathy and a lot of evidence that we are truly led by the most mediocre people imaginable.
Here was a bit of that before we get to the really disturbing announcements coming out of State.
Wendy Sherman: "[The Taliban] seek legitimacy….Their actions will speak to whether in fact they will protect the basic human rights of the Afghan people and their actions in these days will tell us whether there's reality to what their words say or whether there is not." pic.twitter.com/I0eMzr93VC
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 18, 2021
Will someone tell The Taliban that Wendy Sherman teaches at Harvard and therefore demands their respect?!
— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.substack.com (@JordanSchachtel) August 18, 2021
The Taliban don’t give two shakes about “legitimacy.” They just want Americans gone. And they don’t care whether that’s horizontal or vertical.
After they’ve rid their country of live Americans, they will be content to isolate themselves as a tribal land more at home in the 8th century than the 21st.
The above kinds of pleas for them to respect human rights are just embarrassing at this point. They make us look pathetic and weak. The Taliban do not care about strongly worded letters. And being begged by American (western) women (females) only serves to aggravate them or cause them to ignore the plea. Our State Department isn’t just playing by wrong rules, they’re playing the wrong damn game.
#BREAKING Taliban violating promises on Afghans' access to airport, says US State Department No. 2 pic.twitter.com/d2w9e9HmB5
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 18, 2021
Worse, the State Department also let it be known that they could not and would not guarantee safe passage to the airport for Americans stuck behind enemy lines.
"THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CANNOT ENSURE SAFE PASSAGE TO THE HAMID KARZAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT,” the US Embassy in Kabul told American citizens in a security alert today, per @kylieatwood, adding space on evac flights will now be available on “first come, first serve basis.”
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 18, 2021
Right now, the British are running ops outside the airport to retrieve their citizens. US forces are staying within the perimeter, apparently under orders to just let Americans figure it out themselves.
The next act of this tragic saga is predictable. Americans are going to end up dead, and lots and lots of Afghan allies with special issuance visas are going to end up dead.
In response, we are going to end up in open conflict again. By withdrawing in the incompetent and inexcusable way that he has, Biden has accomplished the opposite of what he promised. Instead of getting our troops out, we now have 7,000 of them redeployed to Kabul. This is a powder-keg waiting to go off, and even if it’s accidental, someone is going to light a match.
Things are on a knife’s edge, and Biden has already announced that he’s going to talk about COVID and then head back to Delaware.
