How many Afghans did Trump plan on evacuating?

[kentuck]

On January 15th, 2021, it was reported that he had cut the troop strength down to 2500 troops. It had been 11 months since he made his Doha Agreement with the Taliban. He did not want to make any commitment until the election was over. He would have had 3 1/2 months to complete his mission by May 1st.

There is no doubt but that Joe Biden will receive tons of criticism for not getting out more Afghanis but it appears now that Trump had no plan to evacuate any Afghanis? He had armed the "mighty" Afghani Army to the teeth with the most modern infantry weaponry. Now we see all those weapons in the hands of the Taliban. (He might have evacuated a few hundred Afghanis and he would have bragged about how he got out "almost a thousand" of the brave warriors who helped us in our war effort) The media would have accepted that as some great accomplishment.

The deadline of May 1st came and went. America was not focused on Afghanistan. They were focused on the pandemic and getting the economy back on track. Biden wanted to get the troops out by September 11th, the iconic date that led to the ill-fated adventure in Afghanistan.

But the Taliban did not wait for that date. They advised the Afghan President, Ghani, to leave the country. The Afghan army disintegrated and many joined the Taliban, with their new weapons. The Taliban took over the city of Kabul.

Biden had to send in more troops to help with the evacuation. The US took over the flight operations at the airport and set up their diplomatic HQ's in the airport, after they had to flee the US Embassy.

So far, the latest report is that 82,000 people have been evacuated thru the airport, despite being surrounded by Taliban soldiers and reported ISIS-K terrorists. It is one of the largest airlift evacuations in history. It is quite an accomplishment up to this moment.

However, there are still US helicopters and equipment that must be taken out or destroyed before the last remaining troops depart. The most dangerous part of the operation still remains. It is a volatile and dangerous situation.

[Treefrog]

1. There are certainly aspects of this that could have been handled better, but this is an historic

airlift. I think history will show President Biden did an incredible job under impossibly circumstances.

[kentuck]

2. It is historic.

I would agree.

[Lovie777]

3. Only the ones that could pay shithole lots of money . ..

he had no intention of rescuing Afghan allies.

[LaMouffette]

4. Not only did he not plan on evacuating Afghanis, he and Stephen Miller sabotaged the visa process.

Former insider blames Miller, allies for sabotaging refugee process

Among the questions the United States has confronted in Afghanistan is why, exactly, our allies have struggled to get their visa applications processed. At issue is a group of unique Afghans who played a special role working with, for, and alongside U.S. forces, qualifying them for a special visa category.

And yet, these same special allies have faced bureaucratic struggles for quite a while, and a newly offered explanation has jolted the larger conversation. The New York Times reported over the weekend:

A homeland security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence accused the Trump administration of distorting the truth about Afghan refugees, writing on Twitter that the former president and Stephen Miller, his top immigration adviser, sought to prevent the refugees from entering the United States.

At issue are revelations from Olivia Troye, a lifelong Republican who served as a counterterrorism and homeland security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence, and who ultimately came forward to expose wrongdoing in the Trump White House.

Late last week, she did so again, publishing a social-media thread on her efforts to advocate for refugees during her tenure, only to confront a system that wouldn't budge, even when then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis intervened.

As Rachel explained during Friday night's show, we dug in on that point, and corroborated the claim: Mattis did, in fact, send a memo in September 2018 advising the Trump administration not to limit entry to Iraqis and Afghans who provided essential mission support.

But the Trump administration dragged its feet anyway, not because of a non-responsive bureaucracy, but because of deliberate malice. As Troye wrote, "There were cabinet [meetings] about this during the Trump [administration] where Stephen Miller would peddle his racist hysteria about Iraq and Afghanistan. He and his enablers across [government] would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system" at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

Troye added that Miller and the former president had "watchdogs in place" in key agencies and departments, who in turn "made an already cumbersome SIV process even more challenging."

The allegations are striking in their significance. These are, after all, allies who played lifesaving roles. They're eligible for special immigration visas, for themselves and their families, which they earned. That process was going to be cumbersome anyway, but according to Troye, while Team Trump made overt plans to end the war in Afghanistan, it also chose to make the SIV process worse on purpose.

[link:https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/former-insider-blames-miller-allies-sabotaging-refugee-process-n1277438|

[underpants]

5. Rec'd your post but this is Clustertrump we're talking about. He never plans

He went from one flippant impulse ego driven tirade to the next. There was no planning and never ever any follow up or follow through.

[kentuck]

6. A most dangerous incompetent.

You are correct.

[unc70]

7. Largest evacuation was 1990 India out of Kuwait

Air India evacuated 170,000 Indian citizens from Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq. This happened in the fall of 1990. It is considered the largest airlift in history.

[kentuck]

8. Thanks.

edited

[dalton99a]

9. It took them 63 days.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. Zero