The Civil Reserve Air Fleet was created out of the Berlin Airlift of WWII and that may provide a means for Joe Biden to escalate the evacuation from Afghanistan considerably. This is some good news. Wall Street Journal:
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is planning a dramatic ramp-up of its airlift from Kabul by making preparations to compel major U.S. airlines to help with the transportation of tens of thousands of evacuees from Afghanistan, while expanding the number of U.S. military bases that could house Afghans.
The White House is expected to consider activating the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, or CRAF, created in 1952 in the wake of the post-World War II Berlin Airlift, to provide nearly 20 commercial jets from up to five airlines to augment U.S. military efforts to transport Afghan evacuees from bases in the region, according to U.S. officials.
The civilian planes wouldn’t fly in or out of Kabul, which fell to Taliban rule Aug. 15, officials said. Instead, commercial airline pilots and crews would help to ferry the thousands of Afghans and others who are stranded at U.S. bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Germany.
The involvement of the commercial airliners would relieve the pressure on those bases, which are fast filling up with Afghan evacuees as the U.S. expands efforts to fly them out of the airport in Kabul. Thousands of Afghans at risk of retaliation from the Taliban because of their association with U.S. forces have flooded the airport in the past week.
The U.S. Transportation Command, part of the military, has provided an initial notification to airlines that they may be told to implement the reserve fleet, the U.S. officials said. White House, Pentagon and Commerce officials hadn’t yet issued final approvals for its use, and alternative options still could be instituted, the officials said. The possible use of CRAF hasn’t been previously reported.
This would do a lot to staunch the endless criticism that Biden has received this week, as if there was ever an easy way to get this job done. Plus, it goes without saying that the Taliban went back on their word to not block people from getting to the Kabul airport. And maybe that was foreseeable. The problem with foreign policy is that you assume that people will act in their own interests and it was in the Taliban’s own interest to let people leave, but obviously some other, more petty, rationale kicked in instead, giving us the worse case scenario of a situation which was never going to be anything but bad.
Maybe we can ship Y’all Qaeda volunteers to Afghanistan, so the planes won’t be empty going in.
So the Talibangelicals join the Taliban bringing their own home-spun version of Sharia Law???
I like it, besides, what could go wrong???
Maybe they don’t want people to leave because they need them to keep things running. The taliban may want to take things back to the dark ages. However, keeping the internet and electricity and water and transportation functioning that people have begun to rely on takes educated and well trained workers.
The higher-ups in the Taliban have learned a lot in the last 25 years. The villagers, not so much – they’re more fanatical than the guys at the top.
The use of the CRAF sounds like an excellent idea, the problems faced now, just because we were in Afghanistan because of Bush-Cheney, then DJT made his own deal to release 5500 Taliban, including the new head Taliban man, and the Republicans don’t want anybody to remember THEY have created this monster …
Obviously the CRAF setup has been used infrequently, simply because the Republicans, USED to share the load and help with international humanity problems, NOW they ARE the problem and have no anchor in reality left, Trump and his party will NEVER accept ANY responsibility, even though it is crystal clear they are barking crap at Biden because being loud mouthed seems their only route to take these days …
Our House committee can’t drop the hammer on Trump, his family and every complicit Republican from the Jan, 6 fiasco too soon … Their new, bright orange jumpsuits will keep most of us happier … the families that have, or are losing members to covid-19, can charge all the Republicans for false information on the vaccines, especially Ron Paul and Ted Cruz …
Well, we all know what will happen if Biden does go this route: GOPers will start flooding the airwaves criticizing the plan for “forcing” private companies to do government bidding and that it’s a “stealth plan to socialize the airlines” (or some other such nonsense).