The news out of Kabul is tragic. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby tweeted Thursday: “We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate.” According to CNN’s Frida Ghitis, “Initial reports suggest four or more U.S. service personnel may have been injured or killed in the explosion.” This need not have happened: the Biden administration, which has been bragging about the success of its airlifts out of Kabul, made the decision not to prioritize getting Americans out of Afghanistan first. As of early afternoon, the American death toll was 13 and likely to rise.
The administration was much more concerned with bringing Afghans to the United States than rescuing Americans in Kabul. Kirby said on August 15: “Once we get more airlift out of Kabul, we’re going to put as many people on those planes as we can. There will be a mix…not just American citizens, but perhaps some Afghan SIV [Special Immigrant Visa] applicants as well. We’re going to focus on getting people out of the country, then sorting it out at the next stop. It’s not going to be just Americans first, then SIV applicants.”
And at a Defense Department briefing Monday, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor boasted: “In the past 24 hours, uh, five flights landed at Dulles International Airport, with approximately 1,300 passengers. At this time, four military installations, as well as Dulles International, are receiving Afghans as they, uh, come into the United States. These installations include Fort McCoy, Wisconsin; Fort Lee, Virginia; Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey; and Fort Bliss, Texas. The total number currently at these installations is approximately 1,200, and NORTHCOM continues to build out capacity, uh, to ensure they are prepared to receive more flights that will come in the next few days.”
Those 2,500 Afghans were just a small percentage of Biden’s handlers’ plans to bring 30,000 Afghans to the United States. It’s unclear exactly how many have already arrived. Taylor was asked Monday: “You mentioned that 42,000 have been evacuated since July….Do you have any breakdown of the number of U.S. citizens in that 42,000 who have gotten out?” Perhaps aware of how much of a hot-button issue this is, he refused to reply, answering only: “I do, but I don’t have that right now.”
The Americans killed in Kabul on Thursday could have been among those who got out, but Taylor and company were more concerned with bringing over Afghans. After all, immigrants have formed a reliable voting bloc for the Democratic Party, and what’s really important here? The Biden administration capped off its manifest indifference to the plight of the Americans stranded in Afghanistan on Thursday after the bombings at the Kabul airport, when Kirby issued a statement saying: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the loved ones and teammates of all those killed and injured.”
Thoughts and prayers. The employment of a shallow cliché at a time like this is indicative of the administration’s blithe indifference to the well-being not just of Americans in Afghanistan, but everywhere. This is a regime that cares only for the benefit of its cronies and accomplices, and they don’t include most of the citizens of the United States.
We can’t say we weren’t warned. Back in February, the Associated Press reported happily that “collective sighs of relief could be heard from many European capitals Saturday after U.S. President Joe Biden made clear in his first major foreign policy address since taking office that he rejected the ‘America First’ and transactional approach of his predecessor and urged cooperation among Western allies.” Germany’s Der Spiegel was just as relieved: “Biden gave exactly the speech that many Europeans wanted to hear – an America that pats you on the shoulders, that doesn’t criticize or demand.”
In Kabul Thursday, we saw what an “America Last” administration in Washington looks like. Thousands of Afghans are here, getting flown in on military aircraft and plunked down on military bases for resettlement in the United States. Meanwhile, thousands of Americans are trapped in Afghanistan, abandoned by an inept and self-serving administration that knows the establishment media will cover for it, as it has so many times before, and not let the citizens of this country know just how bad it is. But Biden’s handlers are mishandling everything so comprehensively that it may soon prove impossible even for the media to cover for them.
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