(LibertySociety.com) – On August 18, President Joe Biden extended the US military mission in Afghanistan to at least the end of the month. The extension is meant to ensure the evacuation of every American who remains. But former President Donald Trump has doubts Americans will make it out of the country at all.
Trump believes the Taliban will trap US citizens and hold them hostage in the fallen capital of Kabul. Biden stands firm that the Taliban agreed to let Americans leave the country. At the same time, on August 19, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that the administration doesn’t even know how many Americans are still in the country.
Trump describes the situation as a setup and predicts “a very bad ending.” Given Trump’s prior position in the United States and his negotiation with the extremist group, it stands to reason he has a firm understanding of the crisis in Afghanistan.
Americans Trapped
Following the untimely withdrawal of US troops from the fight in Afghanistan, 7,000 people safely left the area through the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. But there’s no official count of how many of those people were American citizens, or how many are still in the danger zone. However, Biden did estimate a number between 10,000 and 15,000.
The Pentagon’s goal is to evacuate up to 9,000 people per day, including 65,000 Afghans and their families. But the road to freedom is treacherous, with Taliban checkpoints and roadblocks making safe travel a challenge.
US citizens have no guaranteed passage to available aircraft. If they’re lucky enough to make it to the airport, the scene in Kabul is nothing short of a horror show. Desperate mothers are throwing their babies over razor wire to troops inside the airport zone, hoping foreign governments will safely transport their children. Meanwhile, the enemy is firing live rounds over innocent people’s heads while soldiers struggle to process them through the airport gates.
The previous reports and videos of people attempting to leave the country by hanging from airplanes and falling to their deaths were like nothing anybody has ever seen, Trump said.
The Road to Escape
Kirby assured reporters the Pentagon has an agreement with the Taliban for successful evacuations of Americans and allies. Still, given the radical group’s history, it isn’t easy to take them at their word. It seems they’re doing everything they can to make the escape route difficult, and only adding to the chaos in the capital.
The longer Americans remain in the unstable area, the greater the risk they might not make it out at all. Considering the US government’s obscurity regarding how many people may still need safe extraction from the country, the situation appears dire. We hope that’s not the case.
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