Dan Crenshaw said that in the case of one American family in Kabul, “an 18-month-old was beaten to keep the parents back. Joe Biden has to take action,” he said. “Allow our forces to push out past the gates to assist the people with the right paperwork.”
The Telegraph UK reports the people close to the administration has managed to build a picture of a stubborn-headed and defensive president continuing to tout his foreign policy expertise, and staff too afraid to question him.
This doesn’t sound right and it’s hard to believe Biden has that kind of power. His handlers during the campaign kept him in his basement and controlled everything he did.
Just the same, this is the report in part:
“People are simply too afraid to tell Biden (and) Jake Sullivan (his National Security Adviser), they’re wrong. It’s one thing to crack down on leaks (as Mr. Biden has done), it’s another thing to allow a mistake like this,” they told The Telegraph.
“This White House is very disciplined, especially when it comes to leaks and such. But the downside of discipline is if you’re running things like an autocracy, and you broker no dissent internally, that’s not what the purpose of a White House staff is.”
Others told The Telegraph that they urged him, without success, to keep open Bagram Air Base, which has more runways than Hamid Karzai International Airport and has long been the beating heart of American operations in Afghanistan.
With nine days remaining until the US’s self-imposed August 31 deadline and a capacity to evacuate some 5,000 to 7,000 people a day, that would still leave tens of thousands of at-risk civilians trapped in Afghanistan.
It is understood the State Department is now pushing Mr. Biden to extend the deadline, even if it means striking a new deal with the Taliban.
Passing August with a large contingent of troops still in the country would be awkward for Mr. Biden given his insistence on ending the 20-year US war by that date.
Why does someone with a blatant mental acuity problem like Biden’s have any power? In any case, the perimeter is not being expanded, nothing is secured, and no ‘safe zones’ are set up.
More from @nytimes. Many Members of Congress —R and D— deeply involved w/ these desperate efforts. They report incoherence/indifference from State, confusion elsewhere, that expanding perimeter should be on table, securing, opening more “safe zones,” that U.S. troops incredible. pic.twitter.com/uoY2CdvhBs
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) August 22, 2021
AM @NYTImes: account after account of trapped Americans, allies, Afghan friends. Congressional offices working all night to assist those close-to-gates amid incoherence in State/DOD ability to find the interpreters and families among the vast crowd of panicked would-be refugees. pic.twitter.com/9p0QAPOTnv
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) August 22, 2021
Someone needs to take the reins fast and save the people.
Fire Jake Sullivan of the NSA
According to The New York Times, “On Capitol Hill, lawmakers announced congressional investigations into the administration’s handling of the withdrawal, as a handful of Democratic lawmakers weighed whether calling for the resignation of Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, would help the president “reset the narrative,” according to a Democratic House member, speaking on the condition of anonymity.”
According to Hugh Hewitt, Jake Sullivan is one of three competent people in the administration, but that’s hard to believe.
Jake Sullivan never sounds competent, but, in any case, it’s not likely that will work. What will work is saving the people.
The Betrayal
Everyone should take a minute or two to watch Rory Stewart, the Former Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, explain Biden’s extraordinary betrayal in #Afghanishtan
— CesarConda (@CesarConda) August 21, 2021
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