President Biden just prepared the public for the inevitability that there will be Americans left behind in Afghanistan.
In the midst of a jumbled and incoherent set of remarks and press conference, President Biden just prepared the public for the inevitability that there will be Americans left behind in Afghanistan.
In a low-energy speech, filled with long pauses and unconvincing vows to hunt down ISIS terrorists, Biden started off by saying “our mission will go on.” Presumably, he meant that the terrorist attacks would not deter the military from continuing to try to evacuate the Americans who are still stranded in Afghanistan. But it left an open question. What happens when the desire to have the evacuation mission continue conflicts with the desire to withdraw by next Tuesday, August 31?
In response to follow-up questions, we began to get a hint: Americans will simply be left behind.
When asked about the trust that his administration has given to the Taliban, he responded that it isn’t as though he trusts them, but that he trusts them to work in their self-interest. He explained, “It’s in their self-interest that we leave when we said and that we get as many people out as we can.”
Clearly, “as many people out as we can” is a climb down from evacuating all Americans.
In answer to another question, Biden emphasized, with regard to the withdrawal date, “I think what America says matters.”
And then he dismissed the idea that the military would be able to evacuate Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war.
“I know of no conflict, as a student of history, no conflict where when a war was ended, one side was able to guarantee that everyone that wanted to be extracted from that country would get out,” he said.
He added, “Getting every single person out can’t be guaranteed by anybody because it’s a determination all who wants to get out as well.”
This is clearly preparing for the inevitability that there will be people stranded in Afghanistan. He will claim that the remaining Americans did not want to leave and that it was simply impossible to extract all the Afghans.