If ever there was a time for “America First” policies to be applied, it’s the current situation with Afghanistan. The clock is ticking and there are tens of thousands of Americans stranded in Taliban-controlled territory living in fear and begging to be rescued.
The Pentagon told reporters that they have rescued 4,400 Americans so far.
Over 4,400 Americans have now been evacuated from Afghanistan: Pentagon
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) August 25, 2021
What they didn’t mention was that tens of thousands remain. They also didn’t mention that America’s efforts thus far have been focused on evacuating non-Americans. According to Jordan Davidson at The Federalist, that number is staggering:
More than 82,300 have been airlifted from Kabul since the government’s collapse nearly two weeks ago, but the Pentagon says that, as of Wednesday, only 4,400 Americans were rescued in those evacuation operations.
President Joe Biden previously promised to get out the Americans who are left in Afghanistan and subject to the Taliban’s rule, but so far, our own citizens do not appear to be the priority.
The State Department also confirmed that a majority of the people whisked away on flights from Kabul are not U.S. citizens. On Tuesday, Politico national security reporter Alex Ward reported leaked numbers indicating that in just 15 hours on Aug. 23, the United States evacuated approximately 6,916 people from Afghanistan. Only 483 of those were American citizens while the rest were Aghan nationals.
While estimates suggest that thousands are still stranded in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s swift takeover of the capital city, the Biden administration still refuses to disclose just how many Americans were left behind. The administration’s process for thoroughly vetting individuals coming into the United States from Afghanistan is also unclear.
The Biden regime has been as opaque as possible with their efforts to evacuate Americans. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was more offended by the word “stranded” earlier this week than the atrocities being committed against Americans by their new Taliban overlords. They are not acting like an administration with a mission. They’re acting like a political unit in PR damage-control mode.
Meanwhile, reports are coming out of Afghanistan of Americans and non-Americans alike in hiding, fearing for their lives. The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan has sent shockwaves across the world as nations scramble to retrieve their threatened citizens. It’s a situation that should be perfectly suited for American leadership. Instead, we’re displaying utter weakness in the face of a Taliban force the White House miserably underestimated.
As Mark Moore at the NY Post reported, journalists in particular do not know if they’ll survive:
A female journalist in Afghanistan said she is on the run from the Taliban and fears for her life and those hiding her if members of the extremist group discover her whereabouts. ​
“I don’t know what will happen to me, because if they find me, they will kill me,” the woman told Fox News in an interview published Wednesday.
The journalist, whose identity Fox News is concealing to protect her, said she was a vocal critic of the Taliban’s cruel treatment of women and lives in terror that the group will begin killing female journalists.
She said she “was one of the females to always talk against Taliban in the media because of what they did to the women, what they did to the innocent people in Afghanistan, what they did to the children in Afghanistan.”
“They burned them,” ​the 24-year-old told Fox News. “They killed them.”​
Shortly after the Taliban took over Kabul more than a week ago, ​they prohibited her from returning to her office, demanding that she cover her face.
The Biden regime has made their priorities clear. The Afghanistan debacle has exposed they aren’t just against “America First” policies. They’re determined to make America — and Americans — last.
