nein51 said:

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trey3216 said:

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nein51 said:

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Doc Holliday said:

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Lots of moves taking place.

Taliban takes over Afghanistan. China makes alliance with Taliban.

I foresee China taking over Taiwan very soon.

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Would love to see China try to take Afghanistan. They might as well have a crack at it. Get mired there for a long time like everyone else has.

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China doesn't care about the slaughtering or enslavement of innocents. It's part of their bag.

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I assure you Russia didn't care about that either. We know how that worked out

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The one aspect to this which could be intriguing, is that the PRC is very much not Muslim-friendly.

Shewt, we're talking about a regime which persecutes the Falun Gong, a slightly nutty sect but so non-violent they make the Mormons look like a biker gang. Our buddies in Beijing have been sending millions of Uighur Muslims to work camps, and there are credible reports that more than one hundred thousand of those people died in those camps.

I'm pretty sure the Taliban is working with China to get money and supplies, and they are not too worried about a nation whose military can't do things like drone strikes with anything like the effectiveness of the US. But I expect China will discover in a couple years, that the Taliban has no intention of dealing honestly with China, and Beijing will find promises from the Taliban will be worth about as much as promises from N Korea.

What a weird response, I didn't mention Trump or Biden. If anything, the lack of will to fight makes them both look prescient.

Thanks Obama

Today's cover: Taliban leader was freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2014 swap by Obama https://t.co/UNpMVMpGVO pic.twitter.com/IzSRd16cYz

— New York Post (@nypost) August 17, 2021

I'm just gonna drop this wiki link here for no reason. We removed this group Uyghur from our terror list last year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkistan_Islamic_Party

Their current top military commander and now Mullah was released in 2018, in exchange for a 3 month ceasefire...

whiterock said:

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GoldMind said:

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LIB,MR BEARS said:

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GoldMind said:

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whiterock said:

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HuMcK said:

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whiterock said:

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Canon said:

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HuMcK said:

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That's extra rich coming from him. Taliban was already violating the terms of their "deal" with offensives before Trunp left office. They wanted us gone months ago, Trump literally criticized Biden for pushing the date from May to September, if anything the withdrawal would have been more chaotic and unorganized back then if that's possible. Extra irony is someone that admin had released from prison in 2018 is the presumptive next Taloban leader of Afghanistan.

It's not an accident that the deal they struck scheduled the handover during the next admin's term, they knew how this was always going to end no matter who was in office, especially after the large prisoner release.

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Your relationship with reality is so tenuous, you might as well be posting about Hogwarts.

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Someone should remind him that Biden reversed Trump on international agreements (Climate Accords, Iran Nuke Deal) on day one.

Yet, he let a much narrower agreement with the Taliban remain in place.

So it's just fatuous to suggest that Biden doesn't own this disaster. Biden could have scrapped Trump's deal and reversed it for the long haul at any time after he was inaugurated until yesterday.

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You have an extremely limited understanding of how things work for a someone who claims to have worked in intel analysis. Those 5000 prisoners Trump let go probably constituted the bulk of the current Taliban officer corps. We already know their next President was released from jail in 2018, what a boon that must have been to get a chess piece of that stature back in exchange for nothing. There was no going back from an action like that, nor was it feasible to re-import all of the equipment and forces that left the country before Biden ever got in office.

So no, armchair general, he could not have simply reversed course on a dime to go back to status quo, and it is laughable that you think otherwise. If we had broken the deal, right after giving them back their most seasoned fighters and removing our forces, they would have started targeting US soldiers again and casualties would have spiked, then you would be here talking about how stupid that move was.

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What an unspeakably dumb argument, contradicted no less by the man you are trying to defend.

Biden could have, had he determined it necessary, surged 40k troops into the country and re-established the 20-year stalemate we maintained in the mountains.
Bush did that.
Biden did not do that.

He could have done another shock & awe campaign at any time.
He did not do that.

He could have prepared an orderly withdrawal, covered by shock & awe, that destroyed equipment rather than leaving full depots.
He did not do that.

He could have had assets in place to remove diplomats and citizens well in advance.
He did not do that.

A smart POTUS would have done at least a little of all that, in advance of departure.
He did not do that.

I mean, did he have the embassy on drawdown? They advertised for a FSN position THIS WEEK, so the answer is no. Key question: were there dependents at post? I don't know, but the answer will be telling.

Instead, just days ago, he stood in front of a microphone, as did his SecState separately back in July, and flatly refuted your assertions. He insisted that the Afghan Army would NOT collapse, that there would be no disorderly retreat. (so much for your assertions about Trump sealing our fate a year ago.) No serious observer of Afghan affairs ever thought Afghan Army could ever win a war against the Taliban. But it seems like Sleepy Joe the Foreign Policy Expert relied on exactly that calculation....that the Afghans could cover our retreat.

Seriously, Huck. The premise that this is Trump's fault is childishly silly. I'm certainly not suggesting vanquishing the Taliban was ever in the cards for anyone. My critique is about a botched retreat. And "botched" does not fully capture the essence of what happened.

In fairness to Biden and his predecessor, it was Obama who is most responsible. He could have pulled out of Afghanistan the day after we killed Bin Ladin, when the Taliban was not nearly as strong as it is today. Sure, over time, the same thing would have happened. But we would not be scrambling airlift assets which will not fully be on site for another 48 hours. By staying to craft the Afghani future, we mission-creeped ourselves from doing something only the USA could have done (find/kill BinLadin) to doing something our nation simply does not have the political will to do anymore - nationbuild.

And it's also not fair to really even solely blame Biden. The man is in an advanced stage of senescence. It's the Democrat foreign policy establishment, full of progressives these days, who are running the show. This is on them. They stood down the military to indoctrinate them in Critical Race Theory to prepare for what their worldview told them was the most imminent threat = white supremacy. Well, we're prepared for that paper tiger. It's the real tiger that got our ass. And until you knuckleheads wake up and joint the real world, you are going to keep making messes and getting people killed.

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So basically, just spend into infinity to fight an enemy that's never been defeated.

Ok.

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The first option would be spend into infinity. He gave several others, none of which you addressed. Kind of a dishonest approach by you, don't cha think?

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Lol no.

No amount of measure drawback, shock and awe, covered evac was going to stop the Taliban. Their membership is comprised of muslims from Bosnia to the Philippines not just Afghans, every death they suffer aids in the recruitment of 5 more.

A smart potus wouldnt have ****ed with Afghanistan to begin with.

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You guys need to get on message. Huck & B2B were just talking about how Americans conflate Taliban and AQ, implying we shouldn't have invaded Afghanistan at all. So which is it....a bunch of islamist groups all cooperating with one another in the same space toward the same objective, something we CAN and should have held the sponsoring state (in this case Afghanistan) responsible? or do we treat them all as discrete entities and not hold the ones who help accountable for the ones who engage?

You are also comically wrong about a shock & awe campaign buying us time for an orderly withdrawal. It would have kept them, at minimum, dozens of miles away from the capitol, if not bought months pf time for the new regime.

Guys, this is not about the Taliban returning to power. That was always the probable outcome. This is about HOW that happens. Trump put in place a template to accomplish that in an orderly fashion. Biden could have abandoned that template for his own, but he didn't. Worse, he counted on the Afghan Army to cover our retreat, when no serious person really thought that was in the cards. He didn't even worst-case prepare; look at all the materiel in depot, fer crissakes. I understand there are logistical challenges to returning vast weapons storehouses, but no plan for demolition?

Come on, man!

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The outcome would be the same, ultimately.

If it comes out that the joint chiefs insisted on covering an evacuation with that type of defense, and the president vetoed it and said fk it, that will go down with the bombing of yugoslavija as another one of Bidens completely ****ed foreign policy faubles, and just add to his body count.

His sense of justice is fkd, badly.

State Dept and DOD have two options: negotiate safe passage for American citizens with the Taliban, if possible, or send the military into the city to bring Americans back to the airport before the Taliban gangs find them. https://t.co/0DfEcbrPyt

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 16, 2021

The blame game can wait. Thousands of Americans could become hostages or worse. Every hour that goes by without action places them in greater danger. Rescuing them is the most important thing right now. https://t.co/0DfEcbrPyt

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 16, 2021

"An administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record told me that there are an estimated 10,000 U.S. citizens in the country, with the vast majority in or near Kabul. Some are residents, journalists or aid workers who may not want to leave," Josh Rogin wrote in the Washington Post.

Air operations have resumed at Kabul airport, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby says.

The US has flown about 700-800 individuals out of Kabul and 1,000 troops into the city over the last 24 hours, he adds.https://t.co/Bslxr1l5Py pic.twitter.com/pGciT8zzVK

— New Day (@NewDay) August 17, 2021

Per a WH official:
Hamid Karzai Airport is open, and flights are able to land and depart. 3,500 troops on the ground at HKAI. Flights are departing today with US citizens and Embassy personnel, 700 people, including 150 Americans were evacuated yesterday.

— Kellan Howell (@kellanhowell) August 17, 2021

Anyone know how many people need out of Afghanistan? what is the deadline to leave before the killing starts?

BornAgain said:

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Anyone know how many people need out of Afghanistan? what is the deadline to leave before the killing starts?

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"An administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record told me that there are an estimated 10,000 U.S. citizens in the country, with the vast majority in or near Kabul. Some are residents, journalists or aid workers who may not want to leave," Josh Rogin wrote in the Washington Post.

An administration official tells WaPo there's an estimated 10k U.S. citizens in Afghanistan, the majority in or near Kabul. Many are "hiding and hoping someone saves them before roaming Taliban gangs find them." via @joshrogin
https://t.co/DTigGrtaGV

— Melissa Nann Burke (@nannburke) August 17, 2021

My Take: This will get incredibly expen$ive or incredibly ugly and sad.

lip service is never good. Biden is full of crap. not a leader and surely not someone i want on my side. he wants to be president for the title only. he is a joke. his dr wife is a joke. his son is a well....joke. If anyone needs impeached its this guy and his VP and the Speaker

One of these is not true.

#BREAKING: #Taliban has started public executions. Two indviduals were executed in Cricket stadium of #Kandahar today. They also have started executing #Afghanistan Army commanders & high ranking officers despite they surrendered to Taliban! pic.twitter.com/Hf0IVMAJlm

— Babak Taghvaee - Μπάπακ Τακβαίε - بابک تقوایی (@BabakTaghvaee) August 15, 2021

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said the insurgents seek no revenge and insisted that everyone had been pardoned, even if they worked with the former government or with foreign forces. Many Afghans fear a return to brutal rule under the Taliban. https://t.co/1ZG2snLatH

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 17, 2021

midgett said:

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This proves the "value" (cough!) of political experience.

Biden has been in politics for nearly 50 YEARS. He has well more than TWICE the combined political experience of Bush, Obama and Trump. If anyone could get this done and get it done safely and wisely, it's Biden.

Amirite?

(We desperately need to clean house of lifetime politicians on both sides of the aisle.)

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To be fair, Reagan had been in politics for well over 20 years once he was elected.

BornAgain said:

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Anyone know how many people need out of Afghanistan? what is the deadline to leave before the killing starts?

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Depends on how you count who needs out. It's probably 80k or more but probably 10-20k westerners. Not everyone will leave.

Not sure anyone really knows... 10,000? 40,000?
It seems everyone agrees many are trapped behind Taliban checkpoints and are in hiding hoping they are not discovered.


Daily Mail: Defense officials say they'll save 5,000 a day from Kabul but 'up to 40,000' Americans remain stranded

• Defense officials say they'll save 5,000 a day from Kabul but 'up to 40,000' Americans remain stranded: Taliban fighters close in on airport after taking ALL access points which forces US troops to negotiate with them on who gets in.
• Defense officials claimed on Tuesday they'd remove between 5,000 and 9,000 people on US planes every day
• But only 1,400 have been removed in the three days since the Taliban claimed the city of Kabul on Sunday
• Overnight, only 700 people were removed - including 165 Americans - on seven C-17 jets
• Just one plane was used to ferry 640 people out of Kabul on Sunday so it's unclear who only 100 are being boarded at a time
• There are now grave concerns over how the remaining US citizens in various parts of the country will get out
• The Taliban has set up an entry point at the airport in Kabul and they now control all roads leading to it
• Former CIA Director and retired General David Petraeus called the race to evacuate 'a Dunkirk moment'
• Bush's Asst. Secretary of State Robert Charles said between 15,000 and 40,000 Americans are stranded
• John Kirby, the Pentagon's spokesman, said on CNN that between 5,000 and 10,000 US citizens are in Kabul alone
• Trump says Biden's shambolic effort makes Vietnam look 'like child's play'
• Biden spoke briefly on Monday but he didn't take questions and he has now gone back to Camp David
• ...there has been no answer for why only 700 were taken out overnight on seven C-17 jets when on Sunday, a single C-17 jet flew 640 Afghan nationals out of the region.

• The State Department is being deliberately vague on the true number of American citizens and Afghan allies waiting to be brought out by the US military but former administration officials say it may be as many as 40,000.

The capacity of a C17 for troop movement is around 130. There were 600+ because they were all standing which is a godsend to those 600 people but can be a hazard to the aircraft as shifting cargo is a significant problem.

Also, praise be to those people. The back of a C17 is unbearably loud, typically very warm or very cold and miserable even in a "seat". I can't imagine standing in one for any significant amount of time.

They typically issue ear plugs when you ride in them because the sound is so loud it can damage your hearing.

That's fairly common knowledge so I question the reporters integrity. They should know why that is.

Stars and Stripes: The latest on Afghanistan: Biden administration freezes billions of dollars in Afghan reserves

Quote:

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The Biden administration froze Afghan government reserves held in U.S. bank accounts, blocking the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars held in U.S. institutions, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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also...

82nd Airborne to take command of security operations at Kabul airport

Quote:

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"This is what the 82nd Airborne does really well," John Kirby, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, told reporters. "The task of securing and operating an airfield is a unique task the 82nd can do."

Taylor said nine Air Force C-17s had arrived at the airport delivering about 1,000 troops and their equipment in recent hours. Seven C-17s also departed the airport, known as HKIA, evacuating some 700 to 800 passengers, including 165 Americans, since early Tuesday morning, the general said.

Taylor said U.S officials estimated they could evacuate 5,000 to 9,000 people per day from the Kabul airport, if operations went smoothly. He said the Taliban had not interfered with airport operations as of Tuesday.

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American women can relate to the struggles with their Afghan counterparts...

why did a white woman write a cookbook about dumplings and noodles pic.twitter.com/RTtyyXdW66

— roslyn talusan (@roslyntalusan) August 16, 2021

nein51 said:

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The capacity of a C17 for troop movement is around 130. There were 600+ because they were all standing which is a godsend to those 600 people but can be a hazard to the aircraft as shifting cargo is a significant problem.

Also, praise be to those people. The back of a C17 is unbearably loud, typically very warm or very cold and miserable even in a "seat". I can't imagine standing in one for any significant amount of time.

They typically issue ear plugs when you ride in them because the sound is so loud it can damage your hearing.

That's fairly common knowledge so I question the reporters integrity. They should know why that is.

---

I think his question was "if you flew out 700 total and 640 were on one plane why few people on the other six planes?" Could be the airstrip they were returning to had no capability to receive people and process/feed/house people. Could be Biden administration told them not to answer any questions. Could be they don't want any operational aspect leaking. No telling but it seems like a decent question. JMHO.

“Asked Monday if the U.S. is taking any steps to ensure military equipment does not fall into the hands of the Taliban, Pentagon logistics specialist Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters: ‘I don't have the answer to that question.’” https://t.co/lB92ucMFiq

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) August 17, 2021

Jacques Strap said:

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nein51 said:

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The capacity of a C17 for troop movement is around 130. There were 600+ because they were all standing which is a godsend to those 600 people but can be a hazard to the aircraft as shifting cargo is a significant problem.

Also, praise be to those people. The back of a C17 is unbearably loud, typically very warm or very cold and miserable even in a "seat". I can't imagine standing in one for any significant amount of time.

They typically issue ear plugs when you ride in them because the sound is so loud it can damage your hearing.

That's fairly common knowledge so I question the reporters integrity. They should know why that is.

---

I think his question was "if you flew out 700 total and 640 were on one plane why few people on the other six planes?" Could be the airstrip they were returning to had no capability to receive people and process/feed/house people. Could be Biden administration told them not to answer any questions. Could be they don't want any operational aspect leaking. No telling but it seems like a decent question. JMHO.

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Gotcha. I believe they flew out 700 additional on 6 planes which is right in line with the capacity. He probably misunderstood which would be easy to do

Jacques Strap said:

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“Asked Monday if the U.S. is taking any steps to ensure military equipment does not fall into the hands of the Taliban, Pentagon logistics specialist Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters: ‘I don't have the answer to that question.’” https://t.co/lB92ucMFiq

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) August 17, 2021

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Just arming them for their fight against China. Playing the long game

whiterock said:

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GoldMind said:

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LIB,MR BEARS said:

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GoldMind said:

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whiterock said:

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HuMcK said:

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whiterock said:

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Canon said:

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HuMcK said:

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That's extra rich coming from him. Taliban was already violating the terms of their "deal" with offensives before Trunp left office. They wanted us gone months ago, Trump literally criticized Biden for pushing the date from May to September, if anything the withdrawal would have been more chaotic and unorganized back then if that's possible. Extra irony is someone that admin had released from prison in 2018 is the presumptive next Taloban leader of Afghanistan.

It's not an accident that the deal they struck scheduled the handover during the next admin's term, they knew how this was always going to end no matter who was in office, especially after the large prisoner release.

---

Your relationship with reality is so tenuous, you might as well be posting about Hogwarts.

---

Someone should remind him that Biden reversed Trump on international agreements (Climate Accords, Iran Nuke Deal) on day one.

Yet, he let a much narrower agreement with the Taliban remain in place.

So it's just fatuous to suggest that Biden doesn't own this disaster. Biden could have scrapped Trump's deal and reversed it for the long haul at any time after he was inaugurated until yesterday.

---

You have an extremely limited understanding of how things work for a someone who claims to have worked in intel analysis. Those 5000 prisoners Trump let go probably constituted the bulk of the current Taliban officer corps. We already know their next President was released from jail in 2018, what a boon that must have been to get a chess piece of that stature back in exchange for nothing. There was no going back from an action like that, nor was it feasible to re-import all of the equipment and forces that left the country before Biden ever got in office.

So no, armchair general, he could not have simply reversed course on a dime to go back to status quo, and it is laughable that you think otherwise. If we had broken the deal, right after giving them back their most seasoned fighters and removing our forces, they would have started targeting US soldiers again and casualties would have spiked, then you would be here talking about how stupid that move was.

---

What an unspeakably dumb argument, contradicted no less by the man you are trying to defend.

Biden could have, had he determined it necessary, surged 40k troops into the country and re-established the 20-year stalemate we maintained in the mountains.
Bush did that.
Biden did not do that.

He could have done another shock & awe campaign at any time.
He did not do that.

He could have prepared an orderly withdrawal, covered by shock & awe, that destroyed equipment rather than leaving full depots.
He did not do that.

He could have had assets in place to remove diplomats and citizens well in advance.
He did not do that.

A smart POTUS would have done at least a little of all that, in advance of departure.
He did not do that.

I mean, did he have the embassy on drawdown? They advertised for a FSN position THIS WEEK, so the answer is no. Key question: were there dependents at post? I don't know, but the answer will be telling.

Instead, just days ago, he stood in front of a microphone, as did his SecState separately back in July, and flatly refuted your assertions. He insisted that the Afghan Army would NOT collapse, that there would be no disorderly retreat. (so much for your assertions about Trump sealing our fate a year ago.) No serious observer of Afghan affairs ever thought Afghan Army could ever win a war against the Taliban. But it seems like Sleepy Joe the Foreign Policy Expert relied on exactly that calculation....that the Afghans could cover our retreat.

Seriously, Huck. The premise that this is Trump's fault is childishly silly. I'm certainly not suggesting vanquishing the Taliban was ever in the cards for anyone. My critique is about a botched retreat. And "botched" does not fully capture the essence of what happened.

In fairness to Biden and his predecessor, it was Obama who is most responsible. He could have pulled out of Afghanistan the day after we killed Bin Ladin, when the Taliban was not nearly as strong as it is today. Sure, over time, the same thing would have happened. But we would not be scrambling airlift assets which will not fully be on site for another 48 hours. By staying to craft the Afghani future, we mission-creeped ourselves from doing something only the USA could have done (find/kill BinLadin) to doing something our nation simply does not have the political will to do anymore - nationbuild.

And it's also not fair to really even solely blame Biden. The man is in an advanced stage of senescence. It's the Democrat foreign policy establishment, full of progressives these days, who are running the show. This is on them. They stood down the military to indoctrinate them in Critical Race Theory to prepare for what their worldview told them was the most imminent threat = white supremacy. Well, we're prepared for that paper tiger. It's the real tiger that got our ass. And until you knuckleheads wake up and joint the real world, you are going to keep making messes and getting people killed.

---

So basically, just spend into infinity to fight an enemy that's never been defeated.

Ok.

---

The first option would be spend into infinity. He gave several others, none of which you addressed. Kind of a dishonest approach by you, don't cha think?

---

Lol no.

No amount of measure drawback, shock and awe, covered evac was going to stop the Taliban. Their membership is comprised of muslims from Bosnia to the Philippines not just Afghans, every death they suffer aids in the recruitment of 5 more.

A smart potus wouldnt have ****ed with Afghanistan to begin with.

---

You guys need to get on message. Huck & B2B were just talking about how Americans conflate Taliban and AQ, implying we shouldn't have invaded Afghanistan at all. So which is it....a bunch of islamist groups all cooperating with one another in the same space toward the same objective, something we CAN and should have held the sponsoring state (in this case Afghanistan) responsible? or do we treat them all as discrete entities and not hold the ones who help accountable for the ones who engage?

You are also comically wrong about a shock & awe campaign buying us time for an orderly withdrawal. It would have kept them, at minimum, dozens of miles away from the capitol, if not bought months pf time for the new regime.

Guys, this is not about the Taliban returning to power. That was always the probable outcome. This is about HOW that happens. Trump put in place a template to accomplish that in an orderly fashion. Biden could have abandoned that template for his own, but he didn't. Worse, he counted on the Afghan Army to cover our retreat, when no serious person really thought that was in the cards. He didn't even worst-case prepare; look at all the materiel in depot, fer crissakes. I understand there are logistical challenges to returning vast weapons storehouses, but no plan for demolition?

Come on, man!

---

Puppet regimes don't work. Nation building doesn't work. Outside-in culture change doesn't work.

We've tried all of these things and failed time and time again. It's high time we learn from our mistakes. We can't "fix" the Middle East. All oour attempts to do so have done is further destabilize the region.

nein51 said:

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Jacques Strap said:

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nein51 said:

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The capacity of a C17 for troop movement is around 130. There were 600+ because they were all standing which is a godsend to those 600 people but can be a hazard to the aircraft as shifting cargo is a significant problem.

Also, praise be to those people. The back of a C17 is unbearably loud, typically very warm or very cold and miserable even in a "seat". I can't imagine standing in one for any significant amount of time.

They typically issue ear plugs when you ride in them because the sound is so loud it can damage your hearing.

That's fairly common knowledge so I question the reporters integrity. They should know why that is.

---

I think his question was "if you flew out 700 total and 640 were on one plane why few people on the other six planes?" Could be the airstrip they were returning to had no capability to receive people and process/feed/house people. Could be Biden administration told them not to answer any questions. Could be they don't want any operational aspect leaking. No telling but it seems like a decent question. JMHO.

---

Gotcha. I believe they flew out 700 additional on 6 planes which is right in line with the capacity. He probably misunderstood which would be easy to do

---

Yeah that makes sense.

If you do not have a WAPO account here are some excerpts from the Josh Rogan opinion piece. More at the link.

Not sure I would take the State Department's advice to try and to move through a Taliban checkpoint to get to the airport.


Biden Admin Admits It Does Not Know How Many Americans Are Trapped In Afghanistan, Could Be 10,000
"

Quote:

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An administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record told me that there are an estimated 10,000 U.S. citizens in the country, with the vast majority in or near Kabul," Rogin wrote. "Some are residents, journalists, or aid workers who may not want to leave. Most are scrambling to escape. Some are dual nationals or children of Americans who may not have the proper passport or visas, but the State Department has not told them how to fix their paperwork."

'The State Department is also dealing with more than 80,000 visa applications for Afghans who worked with the U.S. government or find themselves at risk," the official told Rogin.

They are in danger, according to staffers who spoke to the outlet.

"American citizens' houses have been ransacked, and they are in hiding because the Taliban are terrorizing and tormenting neighborhoods. That's happening all over Kabul," a "senior GOP congressional staffer" told Rogin, noting that their office had been "fielding calls" from desperate Americans left on the ground. "There are a lot of people who are falling through the cracks. [The administration] didn't have a plan to handle this on a mass scale. For the people in Kabul, they've basically said it's up to them to get to the airport."

The concern is now that these thousands of Americans could become Taliban hostages.

"Biden administration officials are very busy trying to spin the fall of Kabul away from a story about their own incompetence," Rogin noted. "They argue that the intelligence was wrong, that the Afghan government didn't stand firm, that the Taliban would have won eventually. Some officials are even claiming that they planned for this contingency. But the frantic calls of U.S. citizens begging for information render all those explanations and excuses irrelevant for the moment."

---

WATCH: There could be up to *10,000* Americans still stuck in #Afghanistan trying to get out, but DOD spokesman John Kirby admits the Biden administration doesn't really know.

Unconscionable that Biden pulled out so rapidly that it left thousands of Americans in this situation. pic.twitter.com/6DP354SSrC

— John Cooper (@thejcoop) August 17, 2021

HuMcK said:

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The Afghan air force was not as grounded by a lack of contractors as people made them out to be. Didn't fly any combat or support missions, but they sure were able to fly away out of country...

Afghan Airforce Black Hawk Carrying Afghan Airforce Pilots landed in Uzbekistan.

22 Fixed wing and 22 Helos landed in Uzbekistan..

— Maverick🇮🇳 (@MaverickBharat) August 17, 2021

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The fact that you are still trying proves you never graduated from Baylor.

HuMcK said:

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I'm just gonna drop this wiki link here for no reason. We removed this group Uyghur from our terror list last year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkistan_Islamic_Party

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Wow. Sic'Em!

HuMcK said:

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Doc Holliday said:

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Lots of moves taking place.

Taliban takes over Afghanistan. China makes alliance with Taliban.

I foresee China taking over Taiwan very soon.

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We shall see. Once we are actually out of Afghanistan, a lot of those air and naval resources are probably headed to the Pacific.

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Bear down you bears of old Baylor U?

Doc Holliday said:

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Lots of moves taking place.

Taliban takes over Afghanistan. China makes alliance with Taliban.

I foresee China taking over Taiwan very soon.

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JUST IN - China urges the U.S. to stop official contacts, arms sales to, and military ties with #Taiwan - Chinese MFA

— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) August 17, 2021

And is our government not threatening all out terror on the Taliban if our US citizens are hurt/ killed or threatened ? Before they get out ? Shame on our leaders if they can't be protected

Uh huh, sure.

HuMcK said:

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What a weird response, I didn't mention Trump or Biden. If anything, the lack of will to fight makes them both look prescient.

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We're all for you!?

Jacques Strap said:

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Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said the insurgents seek no revenge and insisted that everyone had been pardoned, even if they worked with the former government or with foreign forces. Many Afghans fear a return to brutal rule under the Taliban. https://t.co/1ZG2snLatH

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 17, 2021

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Key words here:

"BREAKING: Taliban spokesman asserts that women's rights will be honored under Islamic law. The militant group's earlier rule in Afghanistan saw women's lives and rights severely restricted."

They have ZERO rights under Islamic law. There are no rights to honor. They will be forced into sex slavery almost regardless of age.