Where’d You Go, Joe? AWOL Biden Plans Getaway as Afghanistan Burns; Afghans in Taliban Crosshairs Plead For US to Stay; Americans and Afghans Brace for Siege of Kabul
By New York Post. Republican leaders are slamming President Biden for taking a long weekend out of the public eye as major cities fall to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Biden on Thursday sent 3,000 US troops to Kabul to evacuate embassy workers as the Taliban seized Herat and Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second- and third-largest cities — but he hasn’t commented publicly on the crisis since Tuesday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Friday that Biden “must immediately focus all efforts on making sure there is a plan to safely extract all American service members and civilians still remaining in Afghanistan.”
“He also owes the American public an answer on what he plans to do to make sure the region doesn’t turn into a breeding ground for more violent extremism that will lead to large-scale global attacks of terrorism,” McCarthy said.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) told The Post, “this strategy of putting your head in the sand and not taking questions is a way to not get associated with his military debacle.” (Read more from “Where’d You Go, Joe? AWOL Biden Plans Getaway as Afghanistan Burns” HERE)
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Afghans in Taliban Crosshairs Want US to Stay and Protect Them
By New York Post. . . As of Friday, the Afghan government only controlled two other major cities, Kabul and Jalalabad. . .
“The Taliban is all around Mazar,” said a shopkeeper named Shamsula who appeared far more weathered than his 35 years. . .
He added: “But if America stays here, life would be good.”
Asif, 23, echoed that sentiment.
“We want very much for the US to stay,” he said in soft, halting English. (Read more from “Afghans in Taliban Crosshairs Want US to Stay and Protect Them” HERE)
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Americans and Afghans Brace for Siege of Kabul
By TIME. As Taliban militants wrest control of Afghanistan by seizing one major city after another, Afghan leaders are scrambling to develop a strategy to defend the capital from the militants, while U.S. officials are taking steps to evacuate the sprawling U.S. Embassy in the center of the city, should Kabul fall.
Just as the U.S. deadline to withdraw from the country approaches on Aug. 31, Afghan forces have collapsed on nearly all fronts in the face of an eight-day blitz mounted by Taliban attacking cities in the north, east and south. The insurgents have captured more than a dozen provincial capitals, resulting in more than two-thirds of the country falling into their hands.
In a rare call on Thursday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sought guarantees from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that American warplanes would provide air strikes against the insurgents to protect Kabul, current and former Afghan officials tell TIME. The same day, the Pentagon announced plans to send about 3,000 U.S. troops back into the city to help evacuate the American embassy and Afghan civilians who helped with the U.S.-led war effort.
The Biden Administration has thus far only committed to a limited air campaign supporting Afghan forces battling the insurgency. But U.S. officials say there will be U.S. air cover in support of the thousands of newly announced American troops heading to Kabul to complete U.S. military withdrawal. (Read more from “Americans and Afghans Brace for Siege of Kabul” HERE)
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