Tag: afghanistan

As I reflect on the recent news of leaving Afghanistan, it reminds me of the evacuation I participated in as a junior enlisted marine in Beirut, Lebanon in 1984. Despite both the differences and similarities between these two operations, the main thing to remember is, as Marines, soldiers, or whatever branch of service, we receive our orders from the top. Our orders descend from the commander-in-chief to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, through the chain of command, all the way down through the lowly private standing next to you. We go and we accomplish the mission, trusting in the decisions of our superiors and absent of politics. Or so we thought!

The Americans trying to evacuate hundreds of Afghans and American citizens — including one Afghan who worked as a U.S. military translator and says he is anticipating his beheading by the Taliban — pleaded for action from the Biden administration to get the would-be evacuees aboard charter flights that are standing by to fly them from Afghanistan.

A defensive President Joe Biden called the U.S. airlift to extract more than 120,000 Americans, Afghans and other allies from Afghanistan to end a 20-year war an “extraordinary success," though more than 100 Americans and thousands of others were left behind.

More than 30 California children are stuck in Afghanistan after they traveled to the country to see their relatives weeks before the Taliban seized power and were unable to get out before U.S. forces left, according to school districts where the kids are enrolled.

Addressing the nation, a defensive President Joe Biden on Tuesday called the U.S. airlift to extract more than 120,000 Afghans, Americans and other allies to end a 20-year war an “extraordinary success,” though more than 100 Americans and thousands of Afghans remain behind.