When American troops stole out of Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan in the early morning of July 31, it came as a shock to conservative Americans. The United States doesn’t do that. We don’t steal away in the middle of the night without telling the new local commanding officer, and leaving behind billions of dollars of high-value military equipment and weaponry for the enemy to claim as their own.
And what came next was even worse. The President of the United States announced that all of our troops would be out of Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 (he later changed that date to August 31). He made no plans to also evacuate the 14,700 plus American civilians who were still in Afghanistan and who had no way to get out of the country without the help of the U.S. government. And there were no plans to evacuate the Afghan translators and interpreters who helped us navigate the dangerous missions that had put our soldiers’ lives at risk every day they were in Afghanistan. America doesn’t do that either. We don’t tell our plans to the enemy, and we don’t leave our countrymen nor the people who loyally assisted us throughout America’s service in-country.
But we did. Our President and those who advise him not only left thousands of Americans behind at the mercy of the Taliban, who have no mercy, he left behind those loyal Afghans who risked their own lives and the lives of their families to assist our soldiers there.
There are thousands of stories about those our government left behind. Here is just one:
The head of the family was an official in the Afghan government who worked with the Americans for a number of years, helping our Embassy and security forces to identify and interpret Taliban operations. When it became clear that the American troops would be leaving Afghanistan, this man and his large family stayed close to home. That is⏤until the Taliban paid him a visit. Fortunately, he was not at home, but the mere knowledge that the Taliban had targeted him caused him to have a stroke. His family was distraught. They sought refuge in the home of a friend, and they were able to stay there for a short time. But soon, their presence became too much of a danger for this family, and they asked the man and his wife and children to leave. By this time, their money was nearly spent, and they had no place to go.
Enter the American heroes who are trying, despite our government, to rescue the Americans and allies from the Taliban. Several different groups of Americans stepped up to help. One group provided some money for food and rent, another tried to identify safe houses where people like this family could stay, and another tried to organize transportation out of the country.
For this family, another safe house was found, and money to pay for it was arranged. But then their funds ran out, so there was no money for food, medicine, or warm winter clothes, the father needed urgent medical care, and the young children in the family were getting sick from the harsh cold of the approaching winter.
Then, just when they thought that the path to freedom was at hand when the family was told that a transport plane had been chartered to take people, including this family, out of Afghanistan, this chilling message came through to them from one of their heroes.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken
“All our flights have been grounded by the State Department. . . .
State Department closing nearly all the landing sites.”
Even the application for an emergency medical exemption was ignored. And if the message above is correct, even if they could take off, they could not land, because the State Department has, once again, interfered. One of the heroic Americans working on this said to me, “we have good people trapped by the incompetence of our own government.”
What our own State Department is doing to put our fellow citizens – and to those who trusted us when we told them we would protect them – at mortal risk is criminal. Washington is infested with people who put their own interests before the safety and the lives of others – and, in this case, thousands of others.
This family is one of the thousands trapped in Afghanistan, abandoned by a government that is going out of its way to abuse them. There was no excuse for leaving thousands of Americans and Afghan allies behind enemy lines, without a means to escape, while we abandoned them and armed the enemy that is determined to destroy them. There was no excuse for leaving the Taliban billions of dollars of weapons, vehicles, planes, and ammunition with which to capture, torture, kill, and destroy those we chose to abandon.
It is past time for our government to take responsibility for those it left behind enemy lines. They must do whatever is necessary to expedite – not stand in the way – of the rescue of the thousands of people – men, women, and children – still trapped in Afghanistan and afraid for their lives.
Our government⏤our President and all those who are behind the curtain in Washington⏤have the blood of thousands on their hands. What they have done, and continue to do, is beyond criminal; it is a crime against humanity. They must be held accountable.
