Pentagon Says No Idea How Many Americans Need Help
A spokesperson for the Taliban in Afghanistan has warned Joe Biden and U.S. military officials not to extend the August 31st withdrawal deadline in an interview with Sky News.
According to the statement from Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen:
“It’s a red line. President Biden announced that on Aug. 31 they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it, that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that. If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences,” Shaheen said, adding that extending the deadline would “create mistrust between us.” Prolonging the “occupation will provoke a reaction.”
Yesterday Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby oddly refused to give an estimate on the number of American citizens still in Afghanistan. Keep in mind there are scattered Americans all over the country, not just assembled in the area around the capitol city of Kabul. WATCH this intentional effort at purposeful ambiguity:
A very worrisome picture of the Biden approach to this August 31st deadline issue is emerging.
As long as the Biden administration refuses to put a number on the Americans that need to be rescued; and considering the Taliban have affirmed a deadline date of August 31st with those Biden officials; it becomes possible for the Biden administration to pick an arbitrary number of rescued Americans at the deadline date and then say “mission accomplished.”
It is silly for the administration to continue claiming they have no idea how many Americans are stuck in Afghanistan or in/around the Kabul airport. They have multiple ways to identify our citizens including those who have reached out to the U.S. Embassy.
Additionally, with the technology available to the military in the region, even identifying the location of the Americans reaching out for help is a simple process of geolocation of their cell phone data. Go to point “A” at 15:30 and a U.S. retrieval unit will pick you up. This is not a complex situation. We have the processes in place to do exactly what is being discussed. This is not a new challenge being witnessed for the first time.
All of this claimed complexity is transparently false and seemingly designed to obfuscate common sense with a purpose.
The response from Kamala Harris to this exact issue today shows the administration is singularly focused on the political consequences to the Afghanistan crisis.
During a press conference in Singapore with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Kamala Harris was challenged on the U.S. response. Watch how unprepared Harris is to talk about this issue. Deflect, distract, deflect.