The Biden Administration’s evacuation of Afghanistan in August of 2021 was a disaster. Some analysts point to that moment as the beginning of Biden’s imploding poll numbers, as Americans were horrified by the images of people clinging to airplanes and falling to their deaths.
Newly leaked documents show that Biden and his team were completely unprepared for this moment.
Jonathan Swan and Hans Nichols broke the news at Axios:
Scoop: Leaked document reveals Biden’s Afghan failuresLeaked notes from a White House Situation Room meeting the day before Kabul fell shed new light on just how unprepared the Biden administration was to evacuate Afghan nationals who’d helped the United States in its 20-year war against the Taliban.Why it matters: Hours before the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s capital on Aug. 15, 2021, senior Biden administration officials were still discussing and assigning basic actions involved in a mass civilian evacuation.
- Outsiders were frustrated and suspicious the administration was having plenty of meetings but was stuck in bureaucratic inertia and lacked urgency until the last minute.
- While the word “immediately” peppers the document, it’s clear officials were still scrambling to finalize their plans — on the afternoon of Aug. 14.
- For example, they’d just decided they needed to notify local Afghan staff “to begin to register their interest in relocation to the United States,” the document says.
- And they were still determining which countries could serve as transit points for evacuees.
Shelby Talcott of the Daily Caller has more:
The obtained memo was the meeting’s “summary of conclusions” and details how officials were still scrambling to work out simple details for a mass evacuation in Afghanistan. In one note, the memo reveals officials had only then come to the agreement to contact locally employed staff to gauge interest levels “in relocation to the United States.”The notes also reveal that officials hadn’t yet sorted out exactly what countries would be transit points for those needing to leave Afghanistan.“State [Department] and DOD [Department of Defense] will begin planning transit processing for evacuees after departure from Kabul,” the document reads.“The NSC staff will chair a small group discussion to explore ways to engage Canada and other third countries, such as North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, to host Afghan allies at risk … who have either not been vetted or received limited vetting,” another portion of the memo reads.
It’s stunning to remember that Biden actually left Americans and allies behind. It doesn’t seem real.
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