After unrelenting summer, Joe Biden looks to get agenda on track
The collapse of the Afghan government, a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant, devastating weather events, a disappointing jobs report. What next? After a torrent of crises, President Joe Biden is hoping to turn the page on an unrelenting summer and refocus his presidency this fall around his core economic agenda. But the recent cascade of troubles is a sobering reminder of the unpredictable weight of the office and fresh evidence that presidents rarely have the luxury of focusing on just one crisis at a time. Biden’s unyielding summer knocked his White House onto emergency footing and sent his own poll numbers tumbling. “The presidency is not a job for a monomaniac,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “You have to be multitasking 24 hours a day.” Never has that been more true than summer 2021, which began with the White House proclamation of the nation’s “independence” from the coronavirus and defying-the-odds bipartisanship on a massive infrastructure package. Then COVID-19 came roaring back, the Afghanistan pullout devolved into chaos, and hiring slowed. Biden now hopes for a post-Labor Day reframing of the national conversation toward his twin domestic goals of passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill and pushing through a Democrats-only expansion of the social safety net. White House officials are eager to shift Biden’s public calendar toward issues that are important to his agenda and that they believe are top of mind for the American people. “I think you can expect the president to be communicating over the coming weeks on a range of issues that are front and center on the minds of the American people,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “Certainly, you can expect to hear from him more on his Build Back Better agenda, on COVID and his commitment to getting the virus under control, to speak to parents and those who have kids going back to school.” During the chaotic Afghanistan evacuation, the White House was central in explaining the consequences of Biden’s withdrawal decision and the effort to evacuate Americans and allies from the country. Now, officials want to put the State Department and other agencies out front on the efforts to assist stranded Americans and support evacuees, while Biden moves on to other topics. It’s in part a reflection of an unspoken belief inside the White House that for all the scenes of chaos in Afghanistan, the public backs his decision, and it will fade from memory by the midterm elections. Instead, the White House is gearing up for a legislative sprint to pass more than $4 trillion in domestic funding that will make up much of what Biden hopes will be his first-term legacy before the prospects of major lawmaking seize up in advance of the 2022 races. On Friday, in remarks on August’s disappointing jobs report, Biden tried to return to the role of public salesman for his domestic agenda and claim the mantle of warrior for the middle class. “For those big corporations that don’t want things to change, my message is this: It’s time for working families — the folks who built this country — to have their taxes cut,” Biden said. He renewed his calls for raising corporate rates to pay for free community college, paid family leave, and an expansion of the child tax credit. “I’m going to take them on,” Biden said of corporate interests. While Biden may want to turn the page, though, aides are mindful that the crises are not done with him. Biden is planning to speak this week on new efforts to contain the delta variant and protect kids in schools from COVID-19. And his administration continues to face criticism for his decision to pull American troops from Afghanistan before all U.S. citizens and allies could get out. “President Biden desperately wants to talk about anything but Afghanistan, but Americans who are hiding from the Taliban, ISIS, and the Haqqani network don’t give a damn about news cycles, long weekends, and polling — they want out,” said Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. He called on the Biden White House on Friday to provide a public accounting of the number of Americans and their allies still stuck inside Afghanistan. Biden also will soon be grappling with the fallout from the windup of two anchors of the government’s COVID-19 protection package: The federal moratorium on evictions recently expired, and starting Monday, an estimated 8.9 million people will lose all unemployment benefits. The president also is still contending with the sweeping aftereffects of Hurricane Ida, which battered the Gulf states and then swamped the Northeast. After visiting Louisiana last week, he’ll get a firsthand look at some of the damage in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday. Already, he is trying to turn the destruction wrought by the hurricane into a fresh argument for the infrastructure spending he’s been pushing all along, telling local officials in Louisiana, “It seems to me we can save a whole lot of money and a whole lot of pain for our constituents — if when we build back, we build it back in a better way.” According to White House officials, even as other issues dominated headlines, Biden and his team have maintained regular conversations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., about the president’s legislative agenda. His legislative team held more than 130 calls and meetings with members of Congress, their chiefs of staff, and aides on the infrastructure bill and spending package, and his administration has held over 90 meetings with legislative staff on crafting the reconciliation bill. Responding to concerns raised by pivotal Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., over the price tag on the roughly $3.5 trillion social spending package, White House chief of staff Ron Klain told CNN on Sunday that he was convinced that the Democrat was “very persuadable” on the legislation. Cabinet officials have also been engaged with lawmakers, officials said, and traveled to 80 congressional districts to promote the agenda across the country while Biden was kept in Washington. Biden, said Beschloss, may have
Last troops exit Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war
The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America’s longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises, and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war. Hours ahead of President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline for shutting down a final airlift, and thus ending the U.S. war, Air Force transport planes carried a remaining contingent of troops from Kabul airport. Thousands of troops had spent a harrowing two weeks protecting a hurried and risky airlift of tens of thousands of Afghans, Americans, and others seeking to escape a country once again ruled by Taliban militants. In announcing the completion of the evacuation and war effort. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said the last planes took off from Kabul airport at 3:29 p.m. Washington time, or one minute before midnight in Kabul. He said a number of American citizens, likely numbering in “the very low hundreds,” were left behind and that he believes they will still be able to leave the country. Biden said military commanders unanimously favored ending the airlift, not extending it. He said he asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to coordinate with international partners in holding the Taliban to their promise of safe passage for Americans and others who want to leave in the days ahead. The airport had become a U.S.-controlled island, a last stand in a 20-year war that claimed more than 2,400 American lives. The closing hours of the evacuation were marked by extraordinary drama. American troops faced the daunting task of getting final evacuees onto planes while also getting themselves and some of their equipment out, even as they monitored repeated threats — and at least two actual attacks — by the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate. A suicide bombing on Aug. 26 killed 13 American service members and some 169 Afghans. The final pullout fulfilled Biden’s pledge to end what he called a “forever war” that began in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington, and rural Pennsylvania. His decision, announced in April, reflected a national weariness of the Afghanistan conflict. Now he faces condemnation at home and abroad, not so much for ending the war as for his handling of a final evacuation that unfolded in chaos and raised doubts about U.S. credibility. The U.S. war effort at times seemed to grind on with no endgame in mind, little hope for victory, and minimal care by Congress for the way tens of billions of dollars were spent for two decades. The human cost piled up — tens of thousands of Americans injured in addition to the dead, and untold numbers suffering psychological wounds they live with or have not yet recognized they will live with. More than 1,100 troops from coalition countries and more than 100,000 Afghan forces and civilians died, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project. In Biden’s view, the war could have ended 10 years ago with the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden, whose al-Qaida extremist network planned and executed the 9/11 plot from an Afghanistan sanctuary. Al-Qaida has been vastly diminished, preventing it thus far from again attacking the United States. Congressional committees, whose interest in the war waned over the years, are expected to hold public hearings on what went wrong in the final months of the U.S. withdrawal. Why, for example, did the administration not begin earlier the evacuation of American citizens as well as Afghans who had helped the U.S. war effort and felt vulnerable to retribution by the Taliban? It was not supposed to end this way. The administration’s plan, after declaring its intention to withdraw all combat troops, was to keep the U.S. Embassy in Kabul open, protected by a force of about 650 U.S. troops, including a contingent that would secure the airport along with partner countries. Washington planned to give the now-defunct Afghan government billions more to prop up its army. Biden now faces doubts about his plan to prevent al-Qaida from regenerating in Afghanistan and of suppressing threats posed by other extremist groups such as the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate. The Taliban are enemies of the Islamic State group but retain links to a diminished al-Qaida. The final U.S. exit included the withdrawal of its diplomats, although the State Department has left open the possibility of resuming some level of diplomacy with the Taliban depending on how they conduct themselves in establishing a government and adhering to international pleas for the protection of human rights. The speed with which the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15 caught the Biden administration by surprise. It forced the U.S. to empty its embassy and frantically accelerate an evacuation effort that featured an extraordinary airlift executed mainly by the U.S. Air Force, with American ground forces protecting the airfield. The airlift began in such chaos that a number of Afghans died on the airfield, including at least one who attempted to cling to the airframe of a C-17 transport plane as it sped down the runway. By the evacuation’s conclusion, well over 100,000 people, mostly Afghans, had been flown to safety. The dangers of carrying out such a mission while surrounded by the newly victorious Taliban and faced with attacks by the Islamic State came into tragic focus on Aug. 26 when an IS suicide bomber at an airport gate killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 Americans. Speaking shortly after that attack, Biden stuck to his view that ending the war was the right move. He said it was past time for the United States to focus on threats emanating from elsewhere in the world. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “it was time to end a 20-year war.” The war’s start was an echo of a promise President George W. Bush made while standing atop of the rubble in
White House: U.S. has capacity to evacuate remaining Americans
The United States has the capacity to evacuate the approximately 300 U.S. citizens remaining in Afghanistan who want to leave before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline, senior Biden administration officials said Sunday, as another U.S. drone strike against suspected Islamic State militants underscored the grave threat in the war’s final days. “This is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission these last couple of days,” America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said not long before confirmation of that airstrike in Kabul, the capital. The evacuation flow of Americans kept pace even as a new State Department security alert issued hours before the military action instructed people to leave the airport area immediately “due to a specific, credible threat.” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that for those U.S. citizens seeking immediately to leave Afghanistan by the looming deadline, “we have the capacity to have 300 Americans, which is roughly the number we think are remaining, come to the airport and get on planes in the time that is remaining. We moved out more than that number just yesterday. So from our point of view, there is an opportunity right now for American citizens to come, to be admitted to the airport and to be evacuated safely and effectively.” Sullivan said the U.S. does not currently plan to have an ongoing embassy presence after the final U.S. troop withdrawal. But he pledged the U.S. “will make sure there is safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident” after Tuesday, as well as for “those Afghans who helped us.” But untold numbers of vulnerable Afghans, fearful of a return to the brutality of pre-2001 Taliban rule, are likely to be left behind. Blinken said the U.S. was working with other countries in the region to either keep the Kabul airport open after Tuesday or to reopen it “in a timely fashion.” He also said that while the airport is critical, “there are other ways to leave Afghanistan, including by road and many countries border Afghanistan.” The U.S., he said, is “making sure that we have in place all of the necessary tools and means to facilitate the travel for those who seek to leave Afghanistan” after Tuesday. There also are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but who have told the State Department they plan to remain in the country or are still undecided. According to the latest totals, about 114,000 people have been evacuated since the Taliban takeover on Aug. 14, including approximately 2,900 on military and coalition flights during the 24 hours ending at 3 a.m. on Sunday. Members of Congress criticized the chaotic and violent evacuation. “We didn’t have to be in this rush-rush circumstance with terrorists breathing down our neck,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. “But it’s really the responsibility of the prior administration and this administration that has caused this crisis to be upon us and has led to what is without question a humanitarian and foreign policy tragedy.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the U.S. policy in Afghanistan, with 2,500 troops on the ground, had been working. “We were, in effect, keeping the lid on, keeping terrorists from reconstituting, and having a light footprint in the country,” he said. U.S. officials said the American drone strike hit a vehicle carrying multiple Islamic State suicide bombers, causing secondary explosions indicating the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material. A senior U.S. official said the military drone fired a Hellfire missile at a vehicle in a compound between two buildings after individuals were seen loading explosives into the trunk. The official said there was an initial explosion caused by the missile, followed by a much larger fireball, believed to be the result of the substantial amount of explosives inside the vehicle. The U.S. believes that two Islamic State group individuals who were targeted were killed. In a statement, U.S. Central Command said it is looking into the reports of civilian casualties that may have been caused by the secondary explosions. An Afghan official said three children were killed in the strike. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. It was the second airstrike in recent days the U.S. has conducted against the militant group, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing Thursday at the Kabul airport gate that killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans struggling to get out of the country and escape the new Taliban rule. The Pentagon said a U.S. drone mission in eastern Afghanistan killed two members of IS’ Afghanistan affiliate early Saturday local time in retaliation for the airport bombing. In Delaware, Biden met privately with the families of the American troops killed in the suicide attack and solemnly watched as the remains of the fallen returned to U.S. soil from Afghanistan. First lady Jill Biden and many of the top U.S. defense and military leaders joined him on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base to grieve with loved ones as the “dignified transfer” of remains unfolded, a military ritual for those killed in foreign combat. Sullivan said earlier that the U.S. would continue strikes against IS and consider “other operations to go after these guys, to get them and to take them off the battlefield.” He added: “We will continue to bring the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan to make sure they do not represent a threat to the United States. In a joint statement, the U.S. and about 100 other nations said they are committed to ensuring that their citizens, employees, Afghans, and others at risk will be able to travel freely from Afghanistan. The statement said the Taliban had made assurances that “all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country.” The 13 service members were the first U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan since
Kabul airport attack kills 60 Afghans, 13 US troops
Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans, and 12 U.S. troops, Afghan and U.S. officials said. The U.S. general overseeing the evacuation vowed the United States would “go after” the perpetrators of the bombings and warned that more such attacks are expected. “We are working very hard right now to determine attribution, to determine who is associated with this cowardly attack. And we’re prepared to take action against them,” Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told Pentagon reporters in a briefing. “Twenty-four-seven. We are looking for them.” Shortly after McKenzie spoke, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killings on its Amaq news channel. McKenzie said the attacks would not stop the United States from evacuating Americans and others, and flights out were continuing. He said there was a large amount of security at the airport, and alternate routes were being used to get evacuees in. U.S. officials said 11 Marines and one Navy medic were among those who died. McKenzie said another 15 service members were wounded. Officials warned the toll could grow. More than 140 Afghans were wounded, an Afghan official said. One of the bombers struck people standing knee-deep in a wastewater canal under the sweltering sun, throwing bodies into the fetid water. Those who moments earlier had hoped to get on flights out could be seen carrying the wounded to ambulances in a daze, their own clothes darkened with blood. The IS affiliate in Afghanistan is far more radical than the Taliban, who recently took control of the country in a lightning blitz and condemned the attack. Western officials had warned of a major attack, urging people to leave the airport, but that advice went largely unheeded by Afghans desperate to escape the country in the last few days of an American-led evacuation before the U.S. officially ends its 20-year presence on Aug. 31. Emergency, an Italian charity that operates hospitals in Afghanistan, said it had received at least 60 patients wounded in the airport attack, in addition to 10 who were dead when they arrived. “Surgeons will be working into the night,” said Marco Puntin, the charity’s manager in Afghanistan. The wounded overflowed the triage zone into the physiotherapy area, and more beds were being added, he said. The Afghan official who confirmed the overall Afghan toll spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said one explosion was near an airport entrance and another was a short distance away by a hotel. McKenzie said clearly some failure at the airport allowed a suicide bomber to get so close to the gate. He said the Taliban has been screening people outside the gates, though there was no indication that the Taliban deliberately allowed Thursday’s attacks to happen. He said the U.S. has asked Taliban commanders to tighten security around the airport’s perimeter. Adam Khan was waiting nearby when he saw the first explosion outside what’s known as the Abbey gate. He said several people appeared to have been killed or wounded, including some who were maimed. The second blast was at or near Baron Hotel, where many people, including Afghans, Britons, and Americans, were told to gather in recent days before heading to the airport for evacuation. Additional explosions could be heard later, but Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said some blasts were carried out by U.S. forces to destroy their equipment. A former Royal Marine who runs an animal shelter in Afghanistan says he and his staff were caught up in the aftermath of the blast near the airport. “All of a sudden we heard gunshots and our vehicle was targeted, had our driver not turned around, he would have been shot in the head by a man with an AK-47,” Paul “Pen” Farthing told Britain’s Press Association news agency. Farthing is trying to get staff of his Nowzad charity out of Afghanistan, along with the group’s rescued animals. He is among thousands trying to flee. Over the last week, the airport has been the scene of some of the most searing images of the chaotic end of America’s longest war and the Taliban’s takeover, as flight after flight took off carrying those who fear a return to the militants’ brutal rule. When the Taliban were last in power, they confined women largely to their homes and widely imposed draconian restrictions. Already, some countries have ended their evacuations and begun to withdraw their soldiers and diplomats, signaling the beginning of the end of one of history’s largest airlifts. The Taliban have insisted foreign troops must be out by America’s self-imposed deadline of Aug. 31 — and the evacuations must end then, too. In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden spent much of the morning in the secure White House Situation Room, where he was briefed on the explosions and conferred with his national security team and commanders on the ground in Kabul. Overnight, warnings emerged from Western capitals about a threat from IS, which has seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban’s freeing of prisoners during its advance through Afghanistan. Shortly before the attack, the acting U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Ross Wilson, said the security threat at the Kabul airport overnight was “clearly regarded as credible, as imminent, as compelling.” But in an interview with ABC News, he would not give details. Late Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy warned citizens at three airport gates to leave immediately due to an unspecified security threat. Australia, Britain, and New Zealand also advised their citizens Thursday not to go to the airport. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that any attack was imminent at the airport, where the group’s fighters have deployed and occasionally used heavy-handed tactics to control the crowds. After the attack, he appeared to shirk blame, noting the airport is controlled
U.S. troops surge evacuations out of Kabul but threats persist
The U.S. military reported its biggest day of evacuation flights out of Afghanistan by far on Monday, but deadly violence that has blocked many desperate evacuees from entering Kabul’s airport persisted, and the Taliban signaled they might soon seek to shut down the airlifts. Twenty-eight U.S. military flights ferried about 10,400 people to safety out of Taliban-held Afghanistan over 24 hours that ended early Monday morning, and 15 C-17 flights over the next 12 hours brought out another 6,660, White House officials said. The chief Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, said the faster pace of evacuation was due in part to coordination with Taliban commanders on getting evacuees into the airport. “Thus far, and going forward, it does require constant coordination and deconfliction with the Taliban,” Kirby said. “What we’ve seen is, this deconfliction has worked well in terms of allowing access and flow as well as reducing the overall size of the crowds just outside the airport.” With access still difficult, the U.S. military went beyond the airport to carry out another helicopter retrieval of Americans. U.S. officials said a military helicopter picked up 16 American citizens Monday and brought them onto the airfield for evacuation. This was at least the second such rescue mission beyond the airport; Kirby said that last Thursday, three Army helicopters picked up 169 Americans near a hotel just beyond the airport gate and flew them onto the airfield. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said at the White House that talks with the Taliban are continuing as the administration looks for additional ways to safely move more Americans and others into the Kabul airport. “We are in talks with the Taliban on a daily basis through both political and security channels,” he said, adding that ultimately it will be Biden’s decision alone whether to continue military-led evacuation operations beyond Aug. 31. In a reminder of the urgency felt amid a dizzying array of security threats to the evacuation effort, the Pentagon posted a video of a laser near the airport targeting a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft and apparently attempting to disrupt the pilot during landing. After more than a week of evacuations plagued by major obstacles, including Taliban forces and crushing crowds that are making approaching the airport difficult and dangerous, the number of people flown out met — and exceeded — U.S. projections for the first time. The count was more than twice the 3,900 flown out in the previous 24 hours on U.S. military planes. Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command, which manages the military aircraft that are executing the Kabul airlift, told a Pentagon news conference that more than 200 planes are involved, including aerial refueling planes, and that arriving planes are spending less than an hour on the tarmac at Kabul before loading and taking off. He said the nonstop mission is taking a toll on aircrews. “They’re tired,” Lyons said of the crews. “They’re probably exhausted in some cases.” On a more positive note, Lyons said that in addition to the widely reported case of an Afghan woman giving birth aboard a U.S. evacuation aircraft, two other babies have been born in similar circumstances. He did not provide details. The Pentagon said it has added a fourth U.S. military base, in New Jersey, to three others — in Virginia, Texas, and Wisconsin — that are prepared to temporarily house arriving Afghans. Maj. Gen. Hank Williams, the Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, told reporters there are now about 1,200 Afghans at those military bases. The four bases combined are capable of housing up to 25,000 evacuees, Kirby said. Afghan evacuees continued to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington. A bus carried some of the latest arrivals from Dulles airport to another site for what would be one of many processing stops before they reach new homes in the United States. Exhaustion clouded the faces of many of the adults. How does it feel to be here, a journalist asked one man. “We are safe,” he answered. An older woman sank with relief into an offered wheelchair, and a little girl carried by an older boy shaded her eyes to look curiously around. It was an interim stop for what had been a grueling struggle over days for many to get flights out of what is now Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The scramble to evacuate left many arrivals carrying only a book bag or purse or a plastic shopping bag of belongings. Some arrived for their new lives entirely empty-handed. Biden said Sunday he would not rule out extending the evacuation beyond Aug. 31, the date he had set for completing the withdrawal of troops. And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to press Biden for an extension to get out the maximum number of foreigners and Afghan allies possible. Biden is to face the U.S.’s G-7 allies in a virtual summit on Afghanistan Tuesday. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, in an interview with Sky News, said that Aug. 31 is a “red line” the U.S. must not cross and that extending the American presence would “provoke a reaction.” Since the Taliban seized the capital on August 15, completing a stunning rout of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and military, the U.S. has been carrying out the evacuation in coordination with the Taliban, who have held off on attacking under a 2020 withdrawal deal with the Trump administration. Monday’s warning signaled the Taliban could insist on shutting down the airlifts out of the Kabul airport in just over a week. Lawmakers, refugee groups, veterans’ organizations, and U.S. allies have said ending the evacuation then could strand countless Afghans and foreigners still hoping for flights out. Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 37,000 people. A firefight just outside the airport killed at least one Afghan soldier early Monday, German officials said. It was the latest in days of often-lethal turmoil outside the airport. People coming in hopes of escaping Taliban
Katie Britt: Leaving people behind in afghanistan is un-american
The Biden Administration has created a hotbed of national security and humanitarian disasters. I’m sure, like me, you’ve seen the horrific photos, videos, and reports from Afghanistan. The helicopter on the roof of our retreating embassy. Those desperately seeking refuge clinging onto a plane for dear life… and then falling from the sky. These tragic images are a direct result of the Biden Administration’s lack of a plan and a president who has demonstrated weakness to our enemy, the Taliban. It’s a sad day for the country we know and love. I’m embarrassed. I’m angry. And I’m hurting thinking about America’s military families, like the ones I grew up with near Fort Rucker, who are now questioning whether their sacrifice was in vain. I cannot emphasize this enough: the sacrifice and service of our brave men and women in uniform mattered. It saved lives. It helped keep us safe and free. And we will never forget it. Today, my heart is with our Gold Star families and our service members who came back from Afghanistan wounded, whether visible or invisible. I think of the old saying, “Wars begin where they may, but they do not end as you please.” I pray that there is peace and healing brought to every single soul that left a piece of who they were in foreign lands, surrendering their youth for the greater good. The failure here is one of career politicians and bureaucrats, not of our incredible military. According to Obama’s own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of seemingly every memorable foreign policy decision for the past half-century. And what we’re seeing now is no different. Why? Simply because he is a weak president, and we know strength deters war, and weakness invites it. We all wanted our servicemen and women to come home. But this was not the way to go about it. Make no mistake: the Biden Administration has created a hotbed of national security and humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. The American flag has been evacuated from Kabul, while the Taliban’s flag will fly high on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Our weapons, vehicles, and military technology have now fallen into the hands of our enemy. This was entirely avoidable and foreseeable. At the end of the day, Joe Biden’s feckless foreign policy has put the lives of Americans still trapped in Afghanistan at great risk and the safety and security of every American in danger in the place where the plot to kill thousands of Americans on 9/11 was hatched. The Trump administration had embarked on a strategic, conditions-based withdrawal and made clear to the Taliban that if they attacked, they would pay a heavy price. Biden’s precipitous exit is not what the previous administration had planned or set in motion. Now, the people of Afghanistan have gone from the hope of freedom back to the oppression of the Taliban in the blink of an eye. Before we ran them out of power last time, the Taliban routinely stoned and executed women in the streets. And for what? Because these women wanted freedom. The Taliban doesn’t allow women to get a meaningful education, work, drive, or vote. Likewise, thousands of Christians in Afghanistan are now faced with the very real possibility of death at the hands of the Taliban simply because of their faith. The Biden Administration has failed them, just as they’ve failed all of the civilians left behind in Afghanistan who aided our military in the country. From interpreters to vendors to missionaries spreading the gospel, there are thousands of our allies and their families abandoned on the battlefield right now. Leaving people behind is the most un-American thing we could do, and it’s a stain on everything we stand for as a nation. We must end Biden’s weakness before it causes great harm to many more Americans. Please join me in continuing to pray for the Americans remaining in Afghanistan; for the people of Afghanistan, especially those who aided our fight against terror; and for our incredible veterans and military families. God Bless them, and God Bless the United States of America. Veterans in crisis can call 1-800-273-TALK, (1-800-273-8255) press option #1, and be linked to the Veterans Crisis Line and a crisis intervention professional. Veterans can also send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the Veterans Crisis Li Katie Britt is a Republican candidate to serve as the next U.S. Senator for Alabama. An Enterprise native, Katie resides in Montgomery with her husband, Wesley, and their two children, Bennett and Ridgeway.
U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, legislators react
Alabama legislators are reacting to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. After nearly two decades of presence in Afghanistan, the images of the withdrawal shocked the world. Although President Joe Biden isn’t the president that started this war, he announced in April that he would be the one to end it, deciding he would stick with the deal that former President Donald Trump had made in February 2020. It was Trump who negotiated the deal with the Taliban for U.S. troop withdrawal by May 1, 2021, saying at the time, “It’s time after all these years to bring our people back home.” Biden said he had to choose between sticking the previously negotiated agreement to withdraw U.S. troops or sending thousands more service members back into Afghanistan to fight a “third decade” of war. “I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden stated. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.” Rep. Mike Rogers, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, released a statement. “It is gut-wrenching to watch what has happened in Afghanistan over the past few days. What we are witnessing today is a catastrophic and historic failure of leadership by the Biden-Harris administration. The administration has been warned for months what would happen but President Biden and Vice President Harris ignored experts and a plan was never crafted to avoid the very situation that is currently unfolding,” Rogers said. Ranking Member @RepMikeRogersAL: "The Biden-Harris administration needs to be held accountable for the utter failure that has unfolded in Afghanistan. Mr. President: Why wasn’t there a plan?"https://t.co/2EKfysy0jb pic.twitter.com/HDMHhXWOx1 — Armed Services GOP (@HASCRepublicans) August 15, 2021 Rep. Robert Aderholt commented on Twitter, “President Biden says the “buck stops with him” on the situation in Afghanistan, but in the same remarks blamed President Trump for what is happening. You’ve been the Commander in Chief since January 20th. No one is to blame for this colossal lack of planning other than you sir.” President Biden says the "buck stops with him" on the situation in Afghanistan, but in the same remarks blamed President Trump for what his happening. You've been the Commander in Chief since January 20th. No one is to blame for this colossal lack of planning other than you sir — Robert Aderholt (@Robert_Aderholt) August 16, 2021 Rep Jerry Carl stated on Twitter, “President Biden’s speech on #Afghanistan was a horrible disappointment and demonstrates his inability to lead. The men and women who risked their lives serving our nation in Afghanistan deserve better than this.” President Biden’s speech on #Aghanistan was a horrible disappointment and demonstrates his inability to lead. The men and women who risked their lives serving our nation in Afghanistan deserve better than this. — Rep. Jerry Carl (@RepJerryCarl) August 16, 2021 In a press release, Rep. Barry Moore stated, “The Biden administration’s botched retreat that has triggered the shocking and total collapse of the Afghanistan government is a painful betrayal of our Afghan allies, an unforgivable insult to the thousands of Americans who spilled their blood on Afghan soil, and an inconceivable abandonment of the many Americans who at this moment await rescue from the escalating warzone. I join my fellow freshman Republican Congressmen in demanding President Biden provide a briefing to Congress on his plan to salvage the situation on the ground before our nation suffers even more irreversible damage to our global reputation among allies and foes alike.” The U.S. will continue to process visas for Afghans and their families who aided U.S. troops. Roughly 100 U.S. embassy staffers remain at the airport, reported CBS News.
Joe Biden says he stands ‘squarely behind’ Afghanistan decision
Striking a defiant tone, President Joe Biden said Monday that he stands “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan as he acknowledged the “gut-wrenching” images coming out of the country after the swift Taliban takeover of the government. Biden said he had to choose between sticking to a previously negotiated agreement to withdraw U.S. troops this year or sending thousands more service members back into Afghanistan to fight a “third decade” of war. Biden, sounding resolute in the face of withering criticism of his handling of the situation, said he chose the first option so as not to repeat past mistakes. He reiterated that he had no regrets. “I stand squarely behind my decision,” the president told the nation in a televised address from the White House East Room after he flew back from the Camp David presidential retreat. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.” Many disagree with Biden’s decision, angered by the chaos the world witnessed over the weekend as the Taliban ultimately captured Kabul, the capital, and Afghanistan’s president left the country. Biden said he’d rather take the criticism over the fallout than pass the decision of how and when to withdraw to a fifth U.S. president. He said the decision to leave Afghanistan is “the right one for America” because keeping a U.S. presence, there was no longer a U.S. national security interest. Biden described the images coming out of Afghanistan — especially at the airport in Kabul, where Afghans descended in hopes of fleeing the country — as “gut-wrenching.” Video of Afghans clinging to a U.S. Air Force plane and running alongside it as prepared to take off had circulated widely on the internet. But he did not admit any U.S. fault in how the drawdown was executed. And after batting away the notion of a rapid Taliban takeover when questioned a little over a month ago, Biden acknowledged Monday that “the truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.” He pledged that the U.S. will continue to support the Afghan people, push for regional diplomacy and speak out for the rights of Afghans. Senior U.S. military officials said the chaos at the airport in Kabul left seven people dead Monday, including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss ongoing operations. Afghans rushed onto the tarmac as thousands tried to escape after the Taliban seized power. Some clung to the side of a U.S. military plane before takeoff, in a widely shared video that captured the desperation as America’s 20-year war comes to a chaotic end. Another video showed the Afghans falling as the plane gained altitude over Kabul. U.S. troops resorted to firing warning shots and using helicopters to clear a path for transport aircraft. The Pentagon confirmed Monday that U.S. forces shot and killed two individuals it said were armed, as Biden ordered another battalion of troops — about 1,000 — to secure the airfield, which was closed to arrivals and departures for hours Monday because of civilians on the runway. The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test yet of Biden as commander in chief, and he came under intense criticism from Republicans who said he had failed. Yet the president said the rapid end of the Afghan government only vindicated his decision, noting how the Afghan army surrendered to the Taliban. “American troops cannot and should not be fighting the war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden said. Biden, who is viewed as an experienced foreign policy hand dating to his decades-long career in the Senate, including as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, expressed confidence in his decision and said he was prepared to take the heat. He said he was “deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision.” Biden is the fourth U.S. president to confront challenges in Afghanistan and had insisted he wouldn’t hand America’s longest war to his successor. But he is under pressure to explain how security in Afghanistan unraveled so quickly, especially since he and others in the administration had insisted it wouldn’t happen. “The jury is still out, but the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden said on July 8. Just last week, though, administration officials warned privately that the military was crumbling, prompting Biden on Thursday to order thousands of American troops into the region to speed up evacuation plans. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump also yearned to leave Afghanistan but ultimately stood down in the face of resistance from military leaders and other political concerns. Biden, on the other hand, has been steadfast in his refusal to change the Aug. 31 deadline, in part because of his belief that the American public is on his side. A late July ABC News/Ipsos poll, for instance, showed 55% of Americans approving of Biden’s handling of the troop withdrawal. Most Republicans have not pushed Biden to keep troops in Afghanistan over the long term, and they also supported Trump’s own push to exit the country. Still, some in the GOP stepped up their critique of Biden’s withdrawal strategy, and said images from Sunday of American helicopters circling the U.S. Embassy in Kabul evoked the humiliating departure of U.S. personnel from Vietnam. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell deemed the scenes of withdrawal as “the embarrassment of a superpower laid low.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Martha Roby: An update on progress for afghan women
Throughout my time in Congress, I have had the privilege to serve on several committees that directly influence our country’s defense and foreign policy initiatives, namely the House Armed Services Committee and the House Appropriations Committee. Most recently, this Congress, I was asked to serve on the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee. In this role, I have been part of many negotiations regarding funding levels for the many important programs we have overseas. Over the years, I have also used Congress’ constitutional oversight to question members of the Executive Branch about our country’s strategy abroad. I believe that this process is deeply important, and we must remain committed to upholding our country’s system of checks and balances when making critical military and foreign policy decisions. On top of my committee-specific duties related to foreign policy, for the past eight years, my colleague, Congresswoman Susan Davis, and I have led an all-female Mother’s Day trip to Afghanistan. During these trips, we have been given the opportunity to meet with our servicemen and women who are away from their families on Mother’s Day. I believe it is so incredibly important for members of Congress to see firsthand how our policy decisions impact the lives of Americans at home and abroad. I have been able to use what I’ve learned during these trips to make more informed decisions about military spending and defense policy. Also, importantly, these trips have afforded me the opportunity to reaffirm my commitment to improving circumstances for those in Afghanistan, especially Afghan women. While gains have undoubtedly been made since 2001, it remains critical that American leaders stay engaged to ensure continued forward momentum for these women. I recently addressed a group at the United States Institute of Peace, and I told them that it is my belief that a peace deal – a true, lasting peace in Afghanistan – will not be reached until all facets of the Afghan community have a seat at the negotiating table. This means Afghan society must continue to see an increased number of women serving in all societal roles – in the military, police force, as educators, and more. During this time when the future of Afghanistan is uncertain, these conversations I have participated in are so vitally important, and I have been honored to be a part of them. We have made great strides towards improving life for Afghan women over the years, but we must keep moving the ball down the field. The country simply cannot truly move forward until all its citizens have a bettered quality of life, and I will remain engaged in this fight. Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama, with her husband Riley and their two children.
Martha Roby returns from seventh troop visit in Afghanistan
Alabama 2nd District U.S. Rep. Martha Roby returned from a bipartisan female Congressional Delegation (CODEL) Mother’s Day trip to Afghanistan on Tuesday. This was the seventh time she’s made the trip. While there, Roby visited with U.S. service members, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Afghan women, military commanders, and Afghan leaders. “It is a great privilege to travel to Afghanistan each year around Mother’s Day to spend time with our brave military men and women who are on the ground there,” said Roby. “This annual visit is very special to me, and it always serves as an important reminder that those who wear the uniform sacrifice so much, including being away from their families in harm’s way for months at a time, for the security of our nation.” Roby has maintained her commitment to improving life for Afghanistan, and the women there, praising President Donald Trump‘s plan, announced in August of 2017, to increase troops in the country. “I’ve said for years that the “canary in the coal mine” for our success in Afghanistan going forward will be the preservation of the gains by women and girls to attain human rights,” Roby wrote in an Op-ed. “In recent years, Afghan women have experienced marked progress toward securing basic human rights, and they are also playing an increased role in the Afghan National Defense Security Forces,” Roby said. “I am always proud to be engaged in these issues to ensure that the people I represent are aware of the progress that has been made as well as the work that remains. We know that the success of Afghan women is an indication of the country’s success.”
Ala. National Guard logistics team called to active duty, to deploy to Afghanistan
Roughly 20 Alabama National Guard (ANG) soldiers have been called to active duty. The members of the ANG’s Joint Force Headquarters Forward Logistics Team Six, out of Montgomery, Ala. will deploy to various locations across Afghanistan to teach, assist and advise the Afghan National Security Forces on logistics as it relates to sustaining a force. They will work with the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior levels of the Afghan government. Each member of the team is highly specialized in their functional area. Before heading overseas, the team will conduct additional training at a mobilization station stateside. They will also have a departure ceremony in Montgomery at the Alabama National Guard headquarters building on Thursday, Dec. 7. Civilian officials, as well as senior Alabama National Guardsmen, will attend the ceremony to send off the Soldiers of the logistics team. The general public is invited and encouraged to attend the event to show their support for the soldiers and their families. It takes place at 1720 Congressman Dickinson Drive, at 10:30 a.m. Anyone planning to attend should RSVP by 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 7, as the headquarters is a controlled facility. Since 9/11, the ANG has called more than 24,000 personnel to active duty and remains a top contributor among the nation’s National Guard organizations.
Ala. National Guard logistics team called to active duty, to deploy to Afghanistan
The Alabama Army National Guard’s (ANG) Joint Force Headquarters Forward Logistics Team Six based out of Montgomery, Ala. has been called to active duty. 20 ANG soldiers will be deployed to various locations across Afghanistan to teach, assist and advise the Afghan National Security Forces on logistics as it relates to sustaining a force. Each member of the Forward Logistics Team Six team is highly specialized in their functional area and will work with the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior levels of the Afghan government The general public is invited and encouraged to attend the departure ceremony at the Alabama National Guard headquarters building located at 1720 Congressman Dickinson Drive, at 10:30 a.m. on Thurs., Dec. 7. More than 24,000 Alabama National Guard personnel have been called active duty since 9/11. The ANG remains a top contributor among the nation’s National Guard organizations.
