What a nightmare. Tens of thousands of Americans and their allies are trapped in Afghanistan, desperate to get to the airport. And though President Joe Biden claims he’s doing “everything” possible to help them escape, he’s confined the military to inside the facility — telling would-be evacuees they’re on their own trying to get there.
It’s cowardly and wrong. Getting to the airport, through crowds of people and Taliban checkpoints, is the problem for many of these people. And it’s becoming increasingly clear some may never make it out without more help from US forces.
“I will mobilize every resource necessary,” Biden promised Friday. “We’re focused” on seeing that “every American can get to the airport. . . . We will do whatever needs to be done to see” that they get there.
Uh, apparently not “whatever” needs to be done: The military isn’t being deployed outside Hamid Karzai International to offer help.
It’s outrageous. America is supposed to be a superpower. It’s not supposed to leave people behind. Biden must order the military to go out and help Americans and their allies make their way to the facility.
Biden says Taliban leaders have promised safe passage to people headed out of the country and claims he has “no indication” they’re stopping people. Yet that contradicts reports that say Taliban fighters are trying to confiscate US passports to stop people and are even going door-to-door hunting for those who aided America.
Whatever the case, if the Taliban want us to honor our pledge to withdraw and truly believe we won’t leave Americans stranded, they shouldn’t mind if the United States provides escorts — or at the very least a corridor to the airport.
Yet on Friday, Biden nixed the idea of extending the perimeter around the site — which he says is the main obstacle due to “the rush and crowd of all the folks just outside the wall.”
Why not extend it? “It’s likely to draw an awful lot of unintended consequences in terms of people who, in fact, are not part of the Taliban.”
Again, America can’t let anything stop it from getting its people home. That should be worth truly “whatever” it takes, including extending our forces outside the facility. Other nations are doing that, providing escorts from Kabul.
Setting up a corridor (or perhaps even a few) could help bring order to the evacuation process. One American on Thursday told The Post he got within 10 feet of US Marines with his 3-year-old son but couldn’t make it all the way and has now given up hope of getting out.
America does not let that kind of thing happen. Biden needs to live up to his words and do everything — and that means everything — to get these people home.
He caused this problem. He needs to fix it. Quickly.