During an interview with News Channel 9 on September 3, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed “the Americans, all of whom wanted to come out [of Afghanistan], have come out.”
Schumer’s comments came just a few days after President Joe Biden said 100 to 200 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan remained stranded in the country. More recently, on September 7 White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said there were “just under” 100 Americans who still had to be evacuated from Afghanistan. Veteran groups have suggested that the number of stranded Americans is likely even higher.
Chartered flights were planned to evacuate the remaining Americans, but on September 8, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the Taliban was not allowing such flights to leave Afghanistan. On September 9, the White House issued a statement saying “Today, the United States government facilitated the departure of U.S citizens and lawful permanent residents on a chartered Qatar Airways flight from Hamid Karzai International Airport.”
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It unfortunate but human, that there was so much jumping to conclusions about who all wanted to leave Afghanistan.
Probably a very unpopular opinion, and I genuinely hope everyone who wants out gets out, but hasn't the US been asking, warning and telling people to leave for months? And those that tried to get out in May, June, July...they all got out. I'm just mystified that when the government says "if you want to be certain you get out, you need to leave now" and they all say "nah...I don't think so" then they're upset they didn't get out it seems a little disingenuous?
The really hard ones are the Afghans who helped the Americans and weren't allowed to leave because we couldn't manage to take care of them.