They have been tearing President Joe Biden apart for how the extraction went. The Republicans, a number of Democrats, many veterans, and even many daytime supposedly liberal news outlets have taken to the airwaves to condemn how our president handled the withdrawal. But if they would step back from their emotions for a bit, they might see a more accurate picture.
President Biden has appeared defensive about criticism on the monumental ending of the 20-Year Afghan War. A majority of Americans support pulling troops out of Afghanistan and ending America’s longest war, according to a new poll released this week, by the Pew Research Center. It conducted a study immediately before the last troop left.
But people have not been attacking that issue. No, they condemn the last deadly two weeks. In the aftermath, this will be analyzed in-depth with a number of criticisms. But for now, know that our president extracted 124,000 people from Afghanistan during that time and placed them all in temporary and permanent locations.
Of course, there are many who still remain in the war-torn country. The New York Times addressed the major veterans’ groups’ tireless work to extract those who fought alongside of them. The veterans refer to the individuals left behind “like family.”
Representatives Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI) went into Afghanistan on a controversial trip to assess the rollout, the NPR reported. They returned with more acceptance.
According to The New York Intelligencer Representative Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) has gone dark, and we find he is in the country with his pockets filled full money to help those left behind:
‘Mullin called the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan on Monday, asking for help bringing in a tremendous amount of cash from Tblisi, Georgia, in order to travel to neighboring Afghanistan to rescue via helicopter an American citizen and her four children still in the Taliban-controlled nation. When U.S. officials said no, Mullin threatened Ambassador John Mark Pommersheim and embassy staff.’
Was he successful in getting people out.? We do not yet know. A double handful of Veteran’s groups have been working to extract people. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was flying in planes to extract women with targets on their backs such as teachers, lawyers, and those in government, among others.
But we need to understand that the CIA was made for the type of extraction we now have. President Biden cannot and would not comment on covert activities to get those remaining out of the country. We have Americans, translators, contractors, NGO workers, or women who held power such as judges or journalists remaining behind in Kabul and throughout Afghanistan.
Months ago, our president began warning Americans to leave the country, so that opportunity was available to them. Any end to war is complex and chaotic at times, to say the bare minimum. And we deeply mourn the 13 heroic military members and dozens upon dozens of Afghanis who died outside of the airport gates at the hand of an Isis-K suicide bomber.
The Pew Poll found that 54 percent of American adults believed withdrawing our troops was the right one. There were 42 percent who thought it was the wrong decision. A firm 69 percent of our nation’s adults believed that we did not meet our goals. However, just 26 percent thought that President Biden’s people did “an excellent or good job” of dealing with the extraction.
President Biden gave an address to the nation Tuesday defending his position:
‘We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refused to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.’
The public’s approval turned downward after the suicide bombing on August 26. Still, 70 percent of Democrats supported the president’s decision to end a currently fruitless war. And, of course, 64 percent of Republicans said it was the wrong choice. Keep in mind, the Republican “lawmakers” have been hitting the conservative media hot and heavy condemning President Biden.
The Pew poll interviewed 10,348 American adults from August 23 to 29. Its margin of error was a remarkably good +/- 1.6 percentage points.
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