Congress to Biden: Get the Afghan Refugees Out

"It’s a shameful, historic embarrassment. A black eye on the United States."

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It’s Tuesday, but not a particularly happy one. Let’s get to the news.

Lawmakers Slam Biden Over Afghanistan Refugee Crisis

Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban. It happened faster than the Biden administration thought it would, although many (including The Dispatch’s Thomas Joscelyn) have warned for months that the situation in the country was worse than the administration’s public posture indicated.

In April, Biden decided to follow in former President Donald Trump’s footsteps and commit to the withdrawal of American forces from the country. Biden pushed back the final withdrawal date from May 1 to  September 11, but later accelerated the process to ensure that the U.S. would be out by summer’s end. That announcement sparked concern among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who urged the administration to prioritize a safe and timely evacuation of the thousands of Afghan allies who have assisted the United States and American forces since 2001.

As the dust settles from the Taliban’s breathtaking conquest of the country, it’s clear that the administration has failed to deliver on that task.

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Comments (36)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Tmcke

    I get tired of those who think our leaving was a debacle. No - given the circumstances, it went rather well.

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    Jason Gibson

    Paul Mitchell was my representative. He did good work replacing Candice Miller. RIP

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    David Chen

    Only the stupid and desperate would and should help American soldiers given our track record. Its not the soldier's fault the promises were broken, but it will be paid for in their blood.

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    John Robert

    When I hear reports of Taliban's assurances of safety to American citizens, women, and Afghanis who assisted the U.S. and allies, I'm reminded of the defection of Saddam Hussein's son in law. Saddam proclaimed, "come home! All is forgiven!" Of course, as soon as the sap's plane landed, he was murdered. Remember what the scorpion said to the frog ferrying him across the Jordan and whom he'd just stung, "You forget, brother frog, this is the Middle East."

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  5. ROBERT

    How is it we took our military out before getting our citizens and partners out? Why were our citizens at least not evacuated? Does any have information on this?
    It sounds horrible!

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  6. Shaybult

    I'd like to have a better understanding of Congress's role vs the executive branch's role in all this - what is each branch supposed to be responsible for when it comes to something like the visa program for Afghans who helped us, or a decision to start evacuating people we newly classify as needing to be evacuated (e.g., female Afghan judges)?

    The headline and much of the content here imply that the current problem with vulnerable Afghans being stuck in Afghanistan is all the administration's fault - but what role is Congress supposed to play? The working group's April letter to Biden said "your administration AND CONGRESS must move swiftly..." (emphasis mine) implying that Congress should have been doing... something. Two weeks ago Congress appropriated the $1B intended to speed up that visa process - what held that up for so long?

    I'm not trying to excuse Biden or his administration - I have no doubt they deserve a large share of the blame. I'm just genuinely confused about their role vs the role of the administration.

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  7. cb76

    Sure. Because who would object to thousands of new permanent residents relocating to the US from the middle east with a vastly curtailed vetting process that amounts to a rubber stamp. I'm sure everybody in Congress and the media would be just fine with that.

    Sometimes you really can't have it both ways.

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    1. Shaybult

      This is why waiting so damn long to do anything about this is such a huge problem. Now we either incur huge risks by taking people without vetting them, or we leave behind the people who put their lives on the line to help us. Those are both terrible options.

      And I think the press is doing a terrible job of acknowledging that. For example, in this article: "...the Biden administration at last took action to broaden the pathway out of the country for U.S.-affiliated Afghans who did not qualify for the SIV program. But as Politico noted, this new program still required significant legwork on the part of the Afghans themselves..." Well, yeah. Because we can't just say "everyone who wants to come, come!" If we did that, and even a single terrorist or terrorist-adjacent person slipped through, imagine the outcry - "They didn't even make those Afghans do any legwork to get into the US!"

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  8. anonvet

    Congress has been...doing something? Huh. Good for them. At least I don't have to be ashamed of my *entire* government today.

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    Earl King

    If the Taliban leave Americans alone and other foreign nationals alone to go to the Airport to be evacuated good on them. Will they allow fellow Afghani's to go?
    If however the Taliban want to press their advantage, capturing the Americans and other foreign nationals could bring them perhaps a Trillion dollars. What would Biden pay to release 10,000 Americans? Were I the Taliban I would repeat the Iranian Hostage situation...except I would make a deal....for pallets of cash....That is something Biden knows how to do. The specter of thousands of civilians killed while the Army left town in the middle of the night will doom the Democrats for decades. Biden has no idea how precarious his situation is.

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      Pat Riot

      No matter how much you hope, Biden isn't going to be politically damaged by this week's events. All people care about is that we're out of Afghanistan.

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        Earl King

        The last thing I want is for the Chinese or Russians to use this to harm our interests. The sad fact is they will. This is one of the worst self inflictive wounds to our national interests in decades. You sir are either naive or ignorant to the damage this visuals will be used to harm us. If the Taliban decide to hold hostage the 10,000 Americans that are not at the Airport you are looking at Iran Hostage 2.0....It will devastate Biden.

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          JohnM.

          I agree. To say that Biden isn't going to be politically damaged by these events is wishful thinking, especially as the situation is ongoing and changing rapidly.

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            David Chen

            Hostages or not, Biden should be a one term president after this if the American electorate has any sense.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Bill B

    It doesn't appear so far that the Taliban are interfering with the evacuation of Afghan personnel. Apparently civilian flights have resumed at the airport. Anyone know for certain what's happening?

    Is it possible this may turn out better than we had expected?

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