The Biden administration originally promised that no American would be left behind in Afghanistan.
Later, they admitted Americans were left behind, but not to worry, we’d make sure they all got out. “We did not get out everybody we wanted to get out,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie conceded. But he said that “our Department of State is going to work very hard to allow any American citizens that are left” to leave the country.
But then the Biden administration flipped again, claiming that there’s nothing they can do about American hostages because “we do not control the airspace” and the Taliban are preventing planes holding Americans from leaving the country.
Except that apparently isn’t true.
According to a new report, it’s not the Taliban but the Biden administration that is preventing private planes with Americans on board from leaving Afghanistan. What could possibly be the reason for this? According to one source, they’re embarrassed that Americans are relying on private entities to rescue them. But do you know what’s more embarrassing than American hostages relying on private entities to get out of Afghanistan? The Biden administration preventing them from leaving because of the optics.
It’s hard to imagine that a commander-in-chief would be willing to let Americans remain hostages of the Taliban because he’s calculated that it’s the most politically expedient option. Has he already forgotten that his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan resulted in a terror attack that took the lives of thirteen U.S. service members? Of course, the White House disputes that any hostage situation exists, even though multiple reports from within the country suggest that the Taliban are preventing people from getting to the airport and are going door-to-door “hunting” for Americans.
While disturbing, this is hardly shocking, especially given a prior report that Biden didn’t even want to rescue Americans trapped in Kabul in the first place out of fear of a Black Hawk Down-like tragedy. But that hardly justifies Biden giving up on American hostages in Afghanistan.
Thankfully, members of Congress have been stepping up to fill the leadership gap left by the White House.
“Joe Biden abandoned Americans in Afghanistan,” Ted Cruz tweeted on Sunday. “Members of Congress, including me and my office, have been working around the clock to get them out — and for days Biden’s State Dept. couldn’t even get out of its own way. Now there are deeply disturbing reports of a hostage crisis.”
Unfortunately, if the report is true that Americans can’t leave Afghanistan because the State Department is preventing privately chartered planes from leaving, Americans in Afghanistan aren’t hostages of just the Taliban but of the Biden administration as well.
Related: Why Biden Has No Business Going to 9/11 Ceremonies
Whatever political capital Biden is hoping to salvage by blocking these flights can’t be worth the potential loss of innocent Americans who counted on their government to keep them safe only to be betrayed in the worst possible way just because Biden wanted to get credit for ending the war in Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.