When you join the military, one credo is hammered into your head from day one, Leave no man behind! But unfortunately, in the collapse of Afghanistan and Kabul, the State Department’s motto seems to be, Leave no man behind! Just so long as they fill out an Akron phone book pile of paperwork, and have 3-5 years to wait for approval. And that is a brewing recipe for disaster.
Rachel Maddow’s A-Block tonight was a harrowing tale of a former Afghan veteran major who started getting phone calls a month ago from his long time interpreter. The Taliban had been contacting him directly on his cell phone, giving him his address, and telling him that time was running out, once the US troops were gone, they’d be paying him a visit. The interpreter was in a state of absolute panic. He had already filled out the paperwork long ago, and was still waiting. Worse yet, he was hundreds of miles from Kabul, in Taliban controlled territory.
What followed was a month of harrowing terror. The major literally sent thousands of dollars to his interpreter to bribe his way through Taliban checkpoints and provide transportation to Kabul. And step by step, the perilous journey was made.
When they got to the airport in Kabul, it only got worse. They couldn’t find an American service member to shepherd them through to the processing area. In desperation, his major started calling and texting anybody he knew who was still in uniform for help, and tweeting for anybody on the ground at the airport who could assist. Plans came together, and plans fell apart. And today the major got the sweetest message of his life. A selfie of his interpreter and his family, with the words Wheels Up!
This is a brewing nightmare scenario for the Biden State Department. Their evacuation plan is falling apart at the seams, bogged down by paperwork. At this point, the State Department motto should be three words long, Fuck The Paperwork! We don’t have to ship them all directly to the US, but if they claim to have assisted the military, get them the fuck out of Kabul to a third country, and then start the paper chase.
Because these veterans are not fucking around. This is personal for them. Some of these Afghans actually saved their lives, they made them a promise, and they’ll be damned if they let the government weasel out of it. They are mobilizing on behalf of their brethren all over the country, setting yup text, phone, email, and Twitter chains, and pulling out all of the stops to make sure that No man is left behind! And the media is starting to pick up on it and report it.
The abrupt collapse of Kabul and the Afghan government, leading to a patchwork effort to get everybody out is already a media nightmare for the Biden administration. If it starts to appear that a bunch of Afghan veterans thousands of miles away are more effective than the State Department and US military at getting these interpreters and aides out of the country, the shit is really going to hit the fan. This is a situation that needs to get itself unfucked most riki-tik.
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
Thanks, you’ve said something I’ve wanted to say for a long time (FTPW), you could add GD in there too. These last few days have been like a heartbreak.
I know…But what torques me the most is how we make all of these promises, and then fall back on endless bullshit paperwork as an excuse for not following through on them!!!
U mean promises like “liberty & justice for all”, or “equal treatment under the law”, & a mountain of other hypocritical lies? I agree, but who raised hell when frumpy threw our allies, the Kurt’s into hell to please a dictator?When a nation can sit by & watch 5000 children & families be destroyed by a traitorous rapist & he isn’t in jail, please clarify how the Taliban is soon much more evil. As a veteran, we should never abandon any ally, just like we should never go to war without the best reason in the world. Protecting our industrial military corporate culture isn’t it.
Kurds.
Murf, I somewhat agree with you. But, remember ALL OF THIS IS TRUMP’S FAULT. Trump and Pompeo signed the agreement WITH THE TALIBAN (releasing thousands of Taliban forces in the process) that precipitated this crisis.
And if you think that Trump would’ve given two “poops” about all those Afghan allies who’d helped out guys, well, let’s just be glad we’ve got a President who is trying to do something. As for the paperwork, let’s not forget we’ve had thousands of people who’ve been trying to LEGALLY immigrate to this country for years only to have their status held up by paperwork–even people who were claiming things like “I’m a gay man who’s received death threats and whose home’s been burned down” and “I’m a woman who’s had acid thrown at me because I walked down the street in a pantsuit” and “My country’s military forces threw me into jail and tortured me because I was crossing the street while an anti-government demonstration was going on”–held up or pushed aside because someone didn’t feel the need was that important (or, in some cases, was meritless or an exaggeration, etc).
If you think Biden’s humanitarian crisis is bad, under Trump it would be a hundred times worse. And Trump and all the GOPer drama queens we’ve seen the last couple of days would have done NOTHING at all. Trump and the GOP drama queens would be crowing about how Trump got us out of Afghanistan and that would be the end of it.
True.