Defenders of the Biden administration are already trying to rewrite history.
Defenders of the Biden administration are already trying to rewrite history.
‘I t’s amazing to watch in real time the fabrication of an Americans-left-behind stab-in-the-back myth,” writes The Atlantic’s David Frum.
Was General Frank McKenzie, the four-star commander of the U.S. Central Command, perpetuating the Americans-left-behind stab-in-the-back myth when he said there was “a lot of heartbreak” associated with our departure from Afghanistan, because we “did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out?”
Why would there be “heartbreak” if the administration had evacuated all willing Americans — and if the evacuation had been a huge success, as Biden partisans claim? Why is the U.S. State Department telling green-card holders in Afghanistan to “keep a low profile” if everyone who wanted to get out got out?
Yesterday, Clarissa Ward at CNN — certainly, no right-wing “infotainment” site — filed a report about a Texas family that was abandoned in Afghanistan by the administration. “They had been going to the airport for two weeks trying desperately to get out,” Ward reports. “They all have American passports. . . . They couldn’t get past the Taliban.” This isn’t the first report of militias stopping Americans at the airport. How many U.S. citizens, green-card holders, and former allies are too frightened to talk to reporters for fear of retribution? Are they all part of the Americans-left-behind stab-in-the-back myth as well?
The Wall Street Journal reports on a man named Mohammed who is in hiding with his four children:
Thirteen years ago, Afghan interpreter Mohammed helped rescue then-Sen. Joe Biden and two other senators stranded in a remote Afghanistan valley after their helicopter was forced to land in a snowstorm. Now, Mohammed is asking President Biden to save him.
“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” Mohammed, who asked not to use his full name while in hiding, told The Wall Street Journal as the last Americans flew out of Kabul on Monday. “Don’t forget me here.”
Is he part of the Americans-left-behind stab-in-the-back myth, as well? Or what about the refugee groups that say there are possibly thousands of green-card holders left behind?
Only this morning, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the press that “we have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time.” Stranded — as in left without the means to move from somewhere. The entire left-wing Twittersphere has been telling us that no one is “stranded” in Afghanistan. Only a few days ago, Jen Psaki reprimanded the media’s use of “stranded” as “irresponsible.”
Of course, contra Kirby, Americans don’t typically find themselves stranded in “nations” run by warlords, ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. Nor do they find themselves in this predicament because of the U.S. government’s ineptitude. It’s not the fault of those left behind that the Taliban were allowed to overrun the country in days, despite Biden’s assurances that they wouldn’t. It is not their fault that the administration allowed itself to get bottled up at the Kabul airport or that it handed security over to the Taliban. Nor is it their fault that Biden waived a mandate in June that would have provided Congress with more information about the risks Americans faced in a pullout from Afghanistan or that he ignored intelligence reports warning that Afghanistan could fall quickly.
Today, the Biden administration says the number left behind is in the “very low hundreds.” Administration officials brag about evacuating 6,000 Americans. Two weeks ago, however, numerous outlets reported that officials estimated as many as 15,000 U.S. citizens — not including green-card holders or Afghan partners — were still stuck in the country. How did 9,000 Americans suddenly become a number “in the low hundreds”? There has been no independent reporting or corroboration of these numbers. The media simply pass on whatever the administration tells them.
Why don’t they know? We had a year — years, really — to assemble a list of those using passports to enter the country. We have the technological ability to spy on millions around the world — and at home — so the notion that we are incapable of keeping a largely accurate count of American citizens in a war-torn country seems risible. More than that, we still had time to find those Americans by holding onto secure bases until we were convinced that we’d evacuated most of those wanting to leave, rather than abiding by the Taliban’s timelines or ensuring that Biden got his warped symbolism by ending the war before September 11.
There is, of course, a lot we don’t know about who has been left behind. Which brings me to all those U.S. citizens we keep hearing want to stay in Talibanistan: Where are they? Surely a smattering of Americans might have family in the nation, or perhaps they’re native to the land, or maybe they enjoy the Islamist lifestyle. Are there 6,000 or 250 of these people? I’ve yet to see a single interview with one American who contends they are happy to stay in Afghanistan.
Yet the David Frums of the world, wedded to defending the Biden administration at any cost, are impelled to try to rewrite history.