Where This Ranks on White House Military Failures

Following the massive explosion yesterday, President Biden addressed the Nation over the status of Afghanistan. The President’s speech projected fear and weakness into the American people as the Taliban’s deadline is approaching and Americans are still stuck in Afghanistan.

In President Biden’s address to the Nation, he was asked why there has not been a U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan since February of 2020. President Biden answered by continuing to blame President Trump:

"The reason why – whether my friend will acknowledge it and was – reported it – the reason why there were no attacks on Americans, as you said, from the date until I came into office, was because the commitment was made by President Trump: “I will be out by May 1st. In the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans.” That was the deal. That’s why no American was attacked."

That sounds like a better deal than U.S. troops being killed and the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. A former Special Forces Officer who served in Afghanistan, Dr. Omar Hamada, joined Sekulow to discuss the Afghanistan situation. Dr. Hamada takes us inside of his time when he served in Afghanistan near the beginning of the engagement:

"It was scary at the time because there weren’t very many troops, we didn’t know what to expect. We knew that it was a very hostile situation. Our orders were to hunt and kill essentially. So, we had CIA, Special Forces, Navy Seals, Army Rangers, a few other troops, but there weren’t many people."

President Biden’s exit strategy not only included reducing our military presence, but also our medical presence in Afghanistan. So, when our troops are being attacked, we are limited in what we can do. Dr. Hamada explained the role of the medical officer in a situation like we saw yesterday:

"I was attached to a smaller unit but basically, mass casualties. So, a triage of who’s going to survive and who’s going to die and then paying attention to those people we can save. The problem is we’re standing down, Bagram’s closed. We don’t have the large mass unit style hospitals, the surgical suites etc., so our capabilities are significantly reduced."

Dr. Hamada is still communicating with people on the ground in Afghanistan. He gave his opinion on if he thinks they can get everyone out by the Taliban’s August 31st deadline:

"No, impossible. Logistically, impossible. Because some of these people are in areas all over the country. The State Department has told them to stand firm and not approach the airport and that we will somehow send teams out. And most of the people that I know that are actually rescuing people are not governmentally affiliated."

Our enemies are watching. The Chinese government is now willing to invest 1 trillion dollars into Afghanistan and potentially get rid of sanctions on the Taliban. China is seeing this weakness displayed by U.S. leadership and they are taking advantage of our mistakes.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and the Biden Administration are relying on our “leverage” we have with the Taliban to evacuate Americans. Immediately following President Biden’s speech, Sec. Psaki was asked about if the U.S. can trust the Taliban, she replied:

"But – so, one more thing I would say is that we have enormous amount of leverage – this is our view – overtime. That includes economic leverage, that includes leverage that we will make clear to the Taliban as it relates to coordination to continue to get American citizens and our partners out."

With a trillion dollars from China, the Taliban doesn’t care about our economic relief. It has also been reported that U.S. officials willingly gave the Taliban American information, such as their names and address to coordinate evacuating. When asked if the President was aware of that, he answered:

"With regard to – there are certain circumstances where we’ve gotten information – and quite frankly, sometimes from some of you – saying, “You know of such and such a group of people who are trying to get out and they’re on a bus, they’re moving…” – from other people – “and this is their location.” And there have been occasions when our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said, “This…” – for example, “This bus is coming through with X number of people on it, made up of the following group of people. We want you to let that bus or that group through.” So, yes there have been occasions like that."

Why would we give a terrorist organization this information? And why are we referring to the Taliban as our partners or our military counterparts? American citizens died yesterday at the hands of ISIS, when the Taliban was supposedly securing the area, all under President Biden’s watch.

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst and retired Colonel Wes Smith summed it up best:

"This is not a withdrawal, this is a surrender."

We need our Commander-in-Chief to not surrender, but to stand up. Here at the ACLJ in the meantime, we are working with families to get children out of Afghanistan. Also, we will be launching through our Government Accountability Project a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Department, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Secretary of Defense to figure out who decided that this was the right policy.