OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
If you take both House Intelligence Committee Chairman and California Rep. Adam Schiff along with Joe Biden at their word then we are not getting every American out of Afghanistan.
Not only that, we are not even focused on getting American citizens out first as a priority before getting everyone else.
Kowtowing to the Taliban who are now in control of Afghanistan, Biden will not extend the August 31 deadline that the Taliban set as a red line, even after being asked by fellow G7 leaders to extend the deadline, The Daily Mail reported.
Joe Biden today shrugged off pleas from Boris Johnson and other allies to extend the Kabul evacuation after the Taliban warned it will not tolerate delay to the August 31 deadline for troops leaving.
Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel used a G7 meeting to urge the president to keep the operation going longer, but the entreaties appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
White House sources said Mr Biden had instead agreed with the Pentagon that there would be no change to the timeline of the mission.
“We believe that we have time between now and the 31st to get out any American who wants to get out,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said during a White House press briefing on Tuesday.
But that is not what Rep. Schiff said when speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
“Given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, the number of SIVs, the number of others who are members of the Afghan press, civil society leaders women leaders. It's hard for me to imagine all of that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month,”
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 24, 2021
“Given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, the number of SIVs, the number of others who are members of the Afghan press, civil society leaders women leaders. It’s hard for me to imagine all of that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month,” he said.
His not putting American citizens first coincides with what Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said to Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich last week.
“Once we get more airlift out of Kabul, we’re going to put as many people on those planes as we can,” he said. “There will be a mix not just American citizens, but perhaps some Afghan SIV 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,” he said.
… not just American citizens, but perhaps some Afghan SIV 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," Kirby tells me.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 16, 2021
As for Schiff, he also said he had concerns about the security of the Kabul airport.
“I think the threat to the airport is very real and very substantial and this has been a concern of mine for, for some days now that this would make a very attractive target for ISIS, Schiff said, contradicting Biden’s assertion from last week that the airport was safe.
He also said that “the intelligence agencies assessments of the Afghan government’s ability to maintain itself became increasingly pessimistic,” which contradicts Biden’s stance that they had know way of knowing that the Taliban would retake Afghanistan as quickly as it did.
“Over the course of the last six months. And there were any number of warnings that the Taliban might take over, and some that included a potential of a very rapid, the Afghan government enforces,” he said.
Fellow Democrat Rep. Jason Crow agreed with Schiff that the failure did not come from the intelligence community.
“I do not believe at this point, sitting here today, that I have any evidence of a intelligence failure,” he said.
Schiff does not believe we can get every American out of Afghanistan by August 31 and Joe Biden will not extend the deadline past August 31. This comes a day after the Taliban issued a warning to the United States and its allies that there would be consequences if they extended the mission past that date.
“It’s a red line. President Biden announced that on 31 August 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,” Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said in an interview with Sky News.
“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences,” he said.
“It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction,” he said.
