Our Best Stuff on Afghanistan, Hong Kong, and the Speech Police

There are developments on efforts to help Afghans who aided our war efforts.

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Happy Sunday! I hope you’re having a good weekend. And if you live in the Pacific Northwest, you have my sympathies about the weather. Back when my husband and I lived there, we always wished summer would start before July 5, but 93 in the shade seems a bit much. 

It was a good-news, bad-news kind of news week. On Thursday, we detailed some encouraging developments regarding the effort to bring the families of Afghan citizens—interpreters, drivers, engineers—who assisted our war effort to the United States.  

The Biden administration took some heat back in April, when he announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing all its remaining troops but made no provisions for the thousands of Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government. The Taliban had threatened anyone who aided the U.S., and this ABC News story from the time of the announcement shares heartbreaking stories of men who’ve been killed by the Taliban while waiting for a visa, or others who’ve fled with their families to other countries but still live in fear.

“What we don’t want to see is a scene like Vietnam, people trying to hang on to the helicopters [as American troops fly away]. … I don’t know of anyone against it,” Ohio GOP Rep. Brad Wenstrup told The Dispatch.

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  1. Avatar photo
    David Chen

    We elected two draft dodgers back to back, why is anyone surprised?

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    JohnM.

    Thomas Joscelyn's work for TD has been worth the subscription price alone (but don't tell him that!). Thanks, Rachel.

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  3. Ben Bobbitt

    Our leaders are acting disgracefully on a number of fronts. The “compromise” was never real, it was only a farcical way to pretend that the democrats weren’t going to force through the larger bill by reconciliation. Biden simply made the mistake of saying that out loud making it impossible for the other players to continue the farce.
    The Afghanistan withdrawal is another exercise in denial of the obvious. Like with the Iran deal, the administration (and Trump’s before in the case of Afghanistan) has decided they want a particular result and all evidence that would conflict with the desired outcome is simply denied.
    The Taliban wants peace as much as the Mullahs in Iran want peace. Maybe we can drop off some pallets of cash for them on the way out to be sure they don't do mean things again when we’re gone.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    I just assumed that maybe He said "Vito", instead of veto, as if to suggest the compromise was a deal the Republicans can't refuse?

    That or Biden's staff hadn't agreed on the message for the teleprompter before he made his remarks.

    It's one or the other.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Stephanie

      Very likely there will be nothing accomplished if Biden waits for something Republicans approve of. Republicans and Democrats have diametrically opposed ideas of the benefits of spending money for the average person.

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    2. GregS

      He said the quiet part out loud. Something you'd think we'd all have gotten very used to since 2016.

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