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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
No, you can’t.
How many are dead because of Joe Biden? You have no idea. I have no idea.
Your final sentence is simply false. You need to learn, and grow up about this.
How many groups have we “betrayed”? The Poles in WWII? The Vietnamese? The Kurds? The list goes on and on. And yet . . .
People keep taking our side, when it is in their interest to do so.
I don’t think the kind of growing you refer to can be considered ‘up’.
Under a different President of a different party we did about the same thing to the Kurds. Plus ca change plus ca meme chose….
My understanding is we did the same to a lot of South Vietnamese.
@mimac
@cmsmrt
Not sure why someone who is aware that a war is supposed to be declared by Congress would be considered a pariah for defending that viewpoint.
Because the spirit of this world is the Accuser, whose purpose is to convict and isolate. To cancel, if you prefer, and ostracize.
And here i assumed that ricochet was a snowflake free zone!
Susan, this was so well done, on a subject the Mainstream Media only offered up a few faint whispers. I am glad that people are keeping the horrendous memory of what our Afghanistan retreat cost us, in terms of the 80 billions of weaponry we abandoned there.
But especially the cost in terms of so many human lives..
Thanks, CarolJoy.