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Lies? What Lies?
Nobody expects the US to keep its promises anymore. After all, the world has changed drastically, woke agendas must be pursued and commitments to others that don’t directly support that agenda are a waste of time. We’ve lost so much credibility on the world stage that few countries probably believe we can be trusted anymore. Trying to maintain truth, integrity, and honor are just foolish aspirations.
So when we left Afghanistan in August 2021, promises we had made to the Afghan translators simply became inconvenient. Joe Biden didn’t care about the promises we’d made to the translators to ensure that they would get passage to the United States; all he cared about was getting out, regardless of the lives lost and those at risk. Even losing 13 American Marines was barely acknowledged. As a result, a pathetic effort was made to get Afghans out with no effort to make sure that the Afghan translators were at the top of the list. Although a small number of Afghans and their families managed to escape on the designated military plane, or due to their own efforts and those of NGOs, such as No One Left Behind, many were killed by the Taliban; many still remain in hiding in fear for their lives. James Miervaldis tells the story:
He said U.S. military units contacted his group to obtain information on what is going on at the airport because they had been provided no on-the-ground intelligence. This is unforgivable, and the incompetence of the U.S. is stunning. ‘It is mind-blowing, the lack of preparation,’ Mr. Miervaldis said.
He added that only about 350 Afghan families, or about 1,200 people, with U.S. visas had been able to leave before the Taliban victory. That leaves hundreds of translators and their families who had already obtained visas stranded in Kabul. There are perhaps 50,000 or more who would qualify for visas but didn’t yet have them because of the slow U.S. bureaucracy.
The Biden Administration has used the incompetent bureaucracy to make the rescue of these Afghan soldiers difficult, if not impossible. Two brothers served in the Afghan special forces; one made it to the U.S. Recently, the other brother, Abdul Wasi Safi and his story, came to light:
As the threat of a Taliban takeover grew, Wasi said his commanding officer at Camp Mazar-al-Sharif told their unit they had a choice: Stay in Afghanistan and prepare to fight with local militia groups against the Taliban or flee on the last military flight to the U.S.
When he couldn’t get on that final flight, Wasi fled the country. Over the next year, he would cross two continents by plane, bus, car and taxi and walk countless miles, including a seven-day trek through Panama’s treacherous Darién Gap with a group of other migrants to reach the U.S.-Mexico border two months ago. Then he crossed the Rio Grande and was quickly charged with a federal crime for illegally entering the country.
Meanwhile, Wasi has been trapped in the bureaucratic chaos that is so typical of our government:
Two days later, after an interrogation by federal agents, Wasi was sent to the Val Verde Correctional Facility and charged with a federal misdemeanor for failing to present himself at a port of entry with paperwork proving he was allowed to be in the U.S.
In October, he was denied bond, to the shock of his brother, who had offered to shelter Wasi while his case was pending. The following month, he was transferred to an immigration detention center in Eden, just over 40 miles east of San Angelo. . .
Denise Gilman, the director of the immigration clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, said it’s likely that after his criminal charges are sorted out, Wasi will be able to receive an asylum hearing. But it’s possible that he could also be deported back to Afghanistan or kept in immigration detention indefinitely.
Nothing seems to be able to work through the bureaucracy. Even Sheila Jackson Lee has tried to break through these barriers:
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is demanding the release of a former Afghan soldier seeking asylum in the U.S. who is being held at a Texas detention center after he attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border to reunite with his brother:
And to ensure Abdul Wasi Safi begins his life in the U.S. without a criminal record, Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, has sent a letter to the White House asking the Biden administration to pardon the Afghan veteran for any crimes related to his crossing the border seeking asylum.
Now that we’ve proven our disloyalty to allies and our incompetency abroad, we are telling the world we are liars, too.
Wasi’s status is in limbo. The treatment of these Afghan soldiers who fought next to our own military is a travesty.
Published in Military
Thank goodness that we didn’t let 50,000 Afghans into the country, if you’re correct about the figures.
I don’t know what promises were made. Who made them? Were they legal? Because I don’t like the idea of some government official binding the entire country with some promise that he has no authority to make.
I really, really don’t like the idea of getting involved in wars in foreign countries, with alien cultures, especially in areas in which we have little or no practical interest like Afghanistan — and then burdening our country with some obligation to take in those who side with us. No, thank you. Better to just stay out.
If you’re right about the US being a country of “liars,” well, I’m almost inclined to say “good.” So people should know full well that they can’t trust our assurances, right? That should help keep us out of foreign situations that aren’t our concern.
Minor quibble: 13 Marines were killed in Kabul; not soldiers.
Good post.
This is the kind of graceless comment that hinders what could be legitimate concerns.
As for the substance of your comment, it is a fact that our military fought a war of varying degrees of heat for a long time in Afghanistan. In so doing, we used Afghan “assets” for intel, translation, etc. Our military and civilian leaders knew that if the Taliban ever took over the government, then those assets would be at great risk of harm.
You apparently disagree with the US being involved in the war in Afghanistan. However, the war is a historical fact. In light of the war, you have no problem with our military leaving those who assisted us high and dry?
The withdrawal from Afghanistan was a shameful exercise in incompetence and, yes, lies. Lies to the Afghans and lies to Americans, both in Afghanistan and back home.
Sorry, Annefy. Will correct. I know your son was in Kabul.
If the Democrats and Joe Biden wanted to destroy American credibility at home and abroad would they be doing anything differently than what they have done so far?
But standard operating procedure for Joe Biden- he also was more than happy to let the “boat people” from Vietnam drown or remain in “re-education centers”. His shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan is the major precipitant to Vladimir deciding it was the right time to invade Ukraine.
“As a freshman senator in 1975, Joe Biden joined Sen. Robert Byrd (D., W.Va.) in opposing legislation allowing 130,000 Vietnam War refugees asylum in the United States, including thousands of children….Sen. Byrd cited fear of admitting “undesirables” such as “barmaids, prostitutes, and criminals” to the country.”
https://freebeacon.com/elections/biden-partnered-with-robert-byrd-to-keep-vietnam-war-refugees-out-of-america/
“[Biden] was adamant that the U.S. had “no obligation, moral or otherwise, to evacuate foreign nationals,” dismissing concerns for their safety as the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong swept south toward Saigon in 1975.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/the-us-has-no-obligation-biden-fought-to-keep-vietnamese-refugees-out-of-the-us
The truth will set one free.
Joe is so far gone and his administration is so filled with incompetents that I have a hard time knowing what actions are taken because of ignorance and what are deliberate choices.
They act with malice, in ignorance.
”Travesty” is too soft a word.
We have a legal structure for alliances and declaring war that keeps getting bypassed to protect congressional seats.
If things don’t follow those steps, we have no obligations.
Although I would prefer a more detailed declaration of war, the war in Afghanistan was explicitly authorized by Congress.
Hey, maybe we could get out of paying combat pay to American soldiers that way. “Sorry fellas, I know it felt like you were fighting a war, but Congress never declared a war so no extra pay for you.”
re-read your catechism- our word is our bond.
Having this go through congress is a bigger guarantee than having it go through the presidency. Congress is not supposed to shift so wildly with majorities (though the way our majority leaders run things is creating its own instability).
The presidency can change every 4-8 years in severely drastic fashion. Regulating and declaring war and creating peace treaties from EO creates an environment where one president makes promises that another refused to keep. Congress ratifying treaties and formally declaring war puts MORE stability on it. Maybe some will lose their seats, but to rescind would require a lot of seat change by the American people. If a president violates the promises made, they should be impeached.
If our integrity matters so much, you should be demanding the proper constitutional functioning of congress. Not getting mad because someone on the internet is pointing out we have no formal agreement here.
That is unacceptable cheating of the system. Putting the power to declare war in the executive’s hands is a recipe for disaster.
What is your deal? The only United States Catechism is the constitution. Get your head out of the dark places.
They weren’t helping us. We were supposedly helping them, remember?
So we can never change our minds? We can never decide that we’re fed up with a foreign conflict? And if they’re at great risk of harm, too bad for them. I don’t have to let them into our country.
I don’t like Afghan culture. This goes for the cultures of many other countries, though Afghanistan seems to be among the worst. I think that we ought to leave them alone. I’m sick and tired of bringing the problems of the Third World to our country.
I reject this sentimental, emotional idea that we ought to have some love for co-belligerents. We’ve been co-belligerents with some horrid people, including Stalin and his Soviet Commies.
Some Afghans found it to be in their interest to fight on our side. Frankly, the forces on our side were pretty weak.
I have given up trying to figure out how much is malice and how much is incompetence. It is equally likely it could all be malice, all incompetence, or a mixture of the too. The point is that it doesn’t matter if it is one or the other the effect is the same. That having been said, I think Biden would sell out the country for a few good pieces of foreign gold.
I guess that I should add that an unkept promise is not a lie. A lie is a statement that is false when made, and usually knowingly false — an innocent error is better termed a mistake.
It may be a bad idea to break a promise. If it was a bad or foolish promise, though, it may be wiser to break it than to keep it.
Further, no one has answered my question about who exactly — supposedly — told these Afghans that they could have refuge in our country. For that promise to be remotely binding, I think that it would have to be made by someone with authority to do so.
Even then, it could be changed, right? If one President adopts a certain policy, the next one can change it.
Finally, I don’t know why so many of you keep insisting that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was some sort of failure or fiasco. It was a tremendous success. Our losses were minimal, though sad, and we finally got out, thank goodness.
Biden hasn’t done much right, but Afghanistan is one of his rare successes. I also credit him for keeping us out of the war in Ukraine.
Mainly, I was addressing your tone, which is rather off-putting. As for the substance, we did not go into Afghanistan to help the Afghan people. We went in to kill a bunch of terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. So, yes, some Afghans very much did help us. Later, when the Taliban was defeated, Afghans generally were helped and our continued presence gave a season of stability there. For the US forces to then just leave without regard to the consequences of the withdrawal was cruel to those who helped us and counterproductive in the extreme.
I profoundly disagree with both sides of this. He weakened our deterrence, we have only begun to pay the price for that. He also left billions of dollars in US hardware in the hands of a terrorist state. We haven’t paid for that yet but we will. He gave up a important logistics hub in Central Asia and strengthened Russia, China, and Iran. That leaves off the total humanitarian crisis that is current day Afghanistan. I am not sure he has keep us out of the war in Ukraine either. I am sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause, but Russia has nuclear weapons and has been doing a tremendous amount of sabre rattling. It may be the impotent rage of a dictator losing it a war, or it may not. I don’t think it is impossible that Biden could draw us into a conflict with Russia.
no room there- you already occupy the dark spaces-literally & figuratively, by trying to weasel out of commitments (ie lying). The foreign nationals we owe do not come under the purview of the US Constitution-for them our word was our bond-as it should be. You can Clintonesque your way around promises, but they were made….
So you have no argument at all.
not for the willfully blind & deaf…..
I’ve just caught up with the comments. (I had a serious reaction to a medication and I didn’t keep up the way I usually do. I’m okay now.) Thanks for having a great discussion, and beware of being triggered by others’ comments. I go offline for the Sabbath, but I’ll be back.
@cm and @mimac, I would advise you to both walk away from this conversation, since you are not dealing with one another in good faith. If you persist, there may be consequences.
deleted by self.
Oh no! I’m relieved to hear you’re ok, Susan.
We will never be able to measure how many Americans are alive because of the work of those translators.
But we can measure how many translators are dead because of the ‘work’ of Joe Biden.
Next time there won’t be translators because those who would consider doing it will know our track record. “Harmless as an enemy, treacherous as
an enemya friend” has consequences, but they won’t be evenly borne.