Joe Biden has gone to significant lengths to get people who want to leave Afghanistan out of there, including bringing on commercial airliners if necessary. But according to Adam Schiff, it may be a logistical impossibility to evacuate everybody in the remaining days of August, which begs the question of what happens next?
“Given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, the number of SIVs, the number of others who are members of the Afghan press, civil society leaders women leaders. It's hard for me to imagine all of that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month,”
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 24, 2021
Finally Schiff said that the intel community was very aware that the Taliban had the ability to take over the country.
"the intelligence agencies assessments of the Afghan government's ability to maintain itself became increasingly pessimistic,” he said. (more)— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 24, 2021
Schiff's take was echoed by Intel Committee Member Jason Crow:
"I do not believe at this point, sitting here today, that I have any evidence of a intelligence failure," Crow- a Democrat- told @jeremyherb— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 24, 2021
17,000 people have been flown out so far. I don’t think that it’s naive to be cautiously optimistic. Great progress is being made. And don’t forget, we’re already on an extension from April.
Interesting that ISIS enters the conversation. You may recall Trump crowing about having eliminated ISIS as early as 2017. First he got rid of MS-13 and then ISIS Then Mike Pence got in the act and declared ISIS gone in 2019. Not that making a liar out of either one of them would be news, just saying. Let’s see what excuses they offer when/if ISIS shows up.
It’s more than 40,000 people now. They moved 17,000 since yesterday evening.