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SecDef Austin and Gen. Milley Defend Operational Decisions That Led to Chaos in the Fall of Afghanistan

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered their first briefing on Afghanistan since Kabul fell on Sunday. The two both delivered statements indicating that the situation in Afghanistan is “personal” to them because they served on the ground in Afghanistan during the 20-year war, as Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said during her briefing shortly before theirs.

Austin was stumped by a reporter’s question outlining the options facing the U.S. forces deployed to Afghanistan over the weekend.

Gen. Milley twice scolded Americans that now is not the time to criticize the decisions made or their consequences, saying there will be time for “AAR” — “after-action reports” — later. . .

Another reporter asked why the military command chose to abandon Bagram Air Base in the month prior to the fall. Austin demurred as if he did not understand or didn’t want to answer the question, and Milley took up answering.

Milley said that based on the number of forces needed to secure both Bagram Air Base and the embassy in the heart of Kabul, the in-country command made the decision to “collapse Bagram” and move forces to concentrate on securing the embassy and that decision was briefed up the chain all the way to the White House. Securing both would have required more forces than the 2,500 that were in country at the time. (Read more from “Secdef Austin and Gen. Milley Defend Operational Decisions That Led to Chaos in the Fall of Afghanistan” HERE)

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Is the US Ambassador to the UN Serious About This Statement to Taliban? (VIDEO)

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Even a casual observer of the United Nations knows the international body is a joke. So U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield boasting about her sternly-worded letter to the Taliban—yes, Islamic jihadists—can’t possibly come as a surprise, can it?

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, Thomas-Greenfield said the Taliban is being closely watched.

“We are hearing from people in Afghanistan that they are getting threats from the Taliban, and we have expressed in no uncertain terms here at the United Nations through a very strongly worded press statement from the Security Council that we expect the Taliban to respect human rights, including the rights of women and girls,” she said.

(Read more from “Is the US Ambassador to the UN Serious About This Statement to Taliban? (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Mike Pompeo Outlines How Trump Admin Planned to Handle Afghanistan, Taliban

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the Trump administration had a better approach to dealing with Taliban “butchers” and their plan would have led to a more successful withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Pompeo spoke to the Fox Business Network on Monday about U.S. troop drawdown from the country following chaotic scenes in Kabul as the Taliban took the capital city on Sunday. . .

“We had a model where we’d made clear what our red lines were,” Pompeo went on. “We’d made clear the things we were prepared to do to defend them. We could have executed a plan in a way that would have led to the orderly withdrawal.”

“We would have demanded that the Taliban actually deliver on the conditions that we laid out in the agreement – including the agreement to engage in meaningful power sharing agreement – something that we struggled to get them to do but made clear it was going to be a requirement before we completed our requirement to fully withdraw,” he said.

(Read more from “Mike Pompeo Outlines How Trump Admin Planned to Handle Afghanistan, Taliban” HERE)

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WATCH: Pentagon Spokesman Admits There’s No Plan to Help Americans Trapped in Afghanistan

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Army veteran Matt Zeller issued a strong rebuke Monday night on MSNBC to President Biden’s Afghanistan speech, saying he was “appalled” by the lies the commander in chief told the American people about having planed for every contingency. Zeller, a Biden supporter, said the administration completely ignored his organization’s actual plan for how to evacuate America’s Afghan allies safely. Even worse than that, however, it looks like the Biden administration still has no plan for how to evacuate American citizens safely.

Speaking to CNN, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby admitted he didn’t even know the number of Americans currently trapped inside Afghanistan due to Taliban checkpoints—only giving his “best guess” of between 5,000 and 10,000 near Kabul. He then acknowledged there’s no plan for getting those Americans to the airport safely.

“What is the plan to get these people to the airport?” CNN’s John Berman asked.

“From a military perspective our focus is at the airport,” Kirby said. “Right now though I don’t want to set the expectation that we are equipped and able to go out into the countryside and physically move people into Kabul. Our focus right now, the troops that we have there, are at the airport. The idea is that we can get the air operations, not only have they resumed, but to keep them in place for as long as possible.”

(Read more from “WATCH: Pentagon Spokesman Admits There’s No Plan to Help Americans Trapped in Afghanistan” HERE)

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Man Films Himself as He Faces Certain Death While Clinging to US Plane as It Leaves Afghanistan (VIDEO)

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Dramatic video shows a man recording himself and other Afghans clinging to a US Air Force plane taxiing for takeoff at Kabul’s airport in a desperate attempt to flee from the Taliban-controlled country.

The footage, which was taken Monday, shows the smiling man waving to a crowd of people lining the tarmac a day after the insurgents toppled the government — sparking a mad scramble to find outgoing flights.

At least two people were seen plunging to their deaths after the giant C-17 Globemaster jet gained altitude over the fallen capital.

US officials said seven people were killed, including two shot by US troops, after the crowds stormed the international airport and swarmed the tarmac.

(Read more from “Man Films Himself as He Faces Certain Death While Clinging to US Plane as It Leaves Afghanistan (VIDEO)” HERE)

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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

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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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It Sure Looks Like Biden Was Going to Leave an American Behind in Afghanistan

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So, with Afghanistan now back in the hands of the Taliban, we’re rushing to get the hell out of there. For all the talk of standing by our Afghan allies, Joe Biden decided to say ‘see ya later.’ Look, I’m no longer persuaded by the neoconservative argument anymore. Frankly, most of the country is sick of it. We’re done nation-building. We’ve seen how trying to transport democracy into regions that have zero historical ties to such ideals is a failure. American troops don’t facilitate its growth either. It’s too much blood and treasure. I think we should have left Afghanistan, but there’s a right way to do it. Like making sure we don’t leave key allies behind and their families—since these people would certainly be killed, valuable military equipment, arms, and hostages. Apparently, these items didn’t cross the Biden administration’s mind. It’s why you see Taliban fighters perusing through weapons caches we left behind. Being photographed near Humvees and MRAP we left behind. An F-16 flight simulator is in the hands of the Taliban, as are attack helicopters. And now, as the chinooks are flying into Kabul to get our people out, we apparently forgot about Mark Frerichs.

Frerichs disappeared in Afghanistan in early 2020. He’s a civil engineer and a US Navy veteran.

(Read more from “It Sure Looks Like Biden Was Going to Leave an American Behind in Afghanistan” HERE)

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US Troops Fatally Shoot Two Armed Men at Kabul Airport

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U.S. troops have fatally shot two armed men at Kabul’s airport, while images of Afghan civilians frantically trying to leave the country now under Taliban rule have dominated news coverage.

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the two shootings Monday, but said it was not clear if the two men killed were affiliated with the Taliban.

“There have been security incidents at the field involving armed individuals shooting at U.S. forces. I want to reiterate that while our mission is not offensive, our forces have the inherent right of self defense, and they will respond accordingly to threats and attacks,” the Pentagon spokesperson told reporters Monday. “So in two separate incidents, U.S. forces did respond to hostile threats that resulted in the death of two armed individuals.”

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the two armed men approached the troops at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul who were stationed there to help with the evacuation process.

A Pentagon official also told the Journal that at least three Afghan civilians were killed after being run over by a military jet carrying staff members, according to the Journal.

(Read more from “US Troops Fatally Shoot Two Armed Men at Kabul Airport” HERE)

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DOD to House Up to 30,000 Afghan Refugees on US Military Bases

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The Department of Defense is set to house up to 30,000 Afghan refugees on U.S. military bases in the coming days as the Taliban have swept through the nation following President Joe Biden’s near-total troop withdrawal.

The individuals will be recipients of the SIV program, short for Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans, which grants asylum to residents of the country who worked for the U.S. government in some capacity, according to DOD documents obtained by Fox News on Sunday. Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin are among the military installations that will be accommodating the Afghans.

“The situation in Afghanistan may lead to DoS [Department of State] allowing Afghan SIV applicants to be moved to temporary housing locations while still being vetted for parolee status,” the document read.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the United States can house “several thousand” refugees “immediately,” though more could flood in the future. (Read more from “DOD to House Up to 30,000 Afghan Refugees on US Military Bases” HERE)

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Iran Celebrates US ‘Defeat’ in Afghanistan

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Top Iranian officials are celebrating the United States’ “defeat” in Afghanistan as the Taliban seizes the capital of Kabul and the Biden administration scrambles to evacuate remaining U.S. forces.

President Ebrahim Raisi—the newly elected Iranian leader known for his hardline views and mass murder of regime opponents​​—applauded the American “defeat” in Afghanistan as an opportunity to “revive life, security, and lasting peace” in the region.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the reign of the will of the wronged people of Afghanistan has always created security and stability,” Raisi said. “While consciously monitoring developments in the country, Iran is committed to neighborly relations.”

Tehran also dispatched Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif to meet with China’s Afghanistan czar, Yue Xiaoyong, on Monday. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China is prepared to pursue “friendly and cooperative” relations with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Both countries maintained friendly ties with the Taliban as the terrorist group combated American troops over the past decade. China opened up a secret backchannel with Taliban officials in 2015, and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has called the group a “crucial military and political force” in the country. Iran has received multiple diplomatic delegations from the Taliban in 2021 alone. (Read more from “Iran Celebrates US ‘Defeat’ in Afghanistan” HERE)

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