As American forces finalized their withdrawal from Afghanistan, making way for a Taliban takeover of Kabul, the U.S., under the leadership of President Joe Biden, sought to evacuate from the region both Americans and Afghans who had provided aid to the U.S. military during its decades-long occupation of the country.
But while the White House had initially dismissed concerns that not everyone with ties to America would make it out of Kabul safely, new reports suggest those fears were well-founded. According to the Washington Examiner, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki revealed to reporters in a press conference on Wednesday that 77% — more than three-quarters — of those who were evacuated from Kabul were “Afghans at risk.”
“Mob” of allies outside Kabul airport
The spin from Psaki came just hours after the State Department admitted that a “majority” of Afghans who worked for the United States government had been left behind.
“Those crowds that were outside the access points were on the verge of flipping to a mob at any given moment of any given day,” one senior State Department official told reporters, according to the Examiner.
“And the more that we and other nations went out and tried to pull individuals out of that undifferentiated crowd and bring them in, the closer to mob violence we came, every time,” the official added.
“Don’t forget me here”
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that among those left behind by the Biden administration is an interpreter who helped rescue then-Sen. Joe Biden when the Delaware Democrat’s helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing.
“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” the man, who asked to be identified only as “Mohammed,” told the Journal. He added, “Don’t forget me here.”
“It didn’t have to be this way”
Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth served in Afghanistan, and he expressed outrage earlier this week over the way the interpreter was abandoned.
“Joe Biden says we’ll leave no one behind, U.S. citizens and allies, yet Joe Biden leaves the very ally that was there for him personally in 2008 in the mountains of Afghanistan when he was stranded on a helicopter,” Hegseth pointed out on Fox & Friends.
“And a unit had to go out and get him, and Mohammed, then 36 years old, volunteered to drive through the snow in Taliban country to go get three senators, one of which would be a future president,” he explained.
“When you read about what his fellow vets said about him, one vet said, ‘If you could only help one Afghan, choose Mohammed. He earned it,’” Hegseth added.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” the Fox star concluded. “Yes, we airlifted hundreds of thousands [out of Kabul], but we did so in a hasty manner, not vetting many of them, and we left guys like Mohammed behind.”
The post Biden admin admits most Afghan allies didn’t make it out during evacuations from Kabul first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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