IT’S THE END OF AN ERROR
US evac over – with thousands left behind
The last American evacuation flights left Kabul’s international airport on Monday, ending the longest US war weeks shy of its 20th anniversary — but with hundreds of US citizens and thousands more Afghan allies left behind.
Gen. Frank McKenzie Jr., head of US Central Command, told reporters that the last US C-17 plane departed Hamid Karzai International Airport at 11:59 p.m. Kabul time (3:29 p.m. EDT).
In a statement, President Biden — who initially set a deadline of Sept. 11 for all American forces to withdraw from Afghanistan, then moved it up to Aug. 31 — praised US service members for their “unmatched courage, professionalism, and resolve.”
The White House said Biden would address the nation at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday about why he did not extend the deadline despite the hundreds of US citizens still stranded.
The administration also has not said why it did not keep flying Americans and allies out until the end of that deadline day rather than cut off the evacuation at the stroke of midnight.
“For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” Biden said in the statement.
“Their view was that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops, and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead.”
Biden said the Taliban had “made commitments on safe passage.”
“The world will hold them to their commitments,” he added. “It will include ongoing diplomacy in Afghanistan and coordination with partners in the region to reopen the airport allowing for continued departure for those who want to leave and delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.”
The Associated Press reported that celebratory gunfire erupted across Afghanistan’s capital early Tuesday as the Taliban marked the departure of US forces.
“The last five aircraft have left, it’s over!” said one fighter, Hemad Sherzad. “I cannot express my happiness in words . . . Our 20 years of sacrifice worked.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared, “American soldiers left the Kabul airport, and our nation got its full independence.”
In total, McKenzie said, more than 79,000 civilians had been flown out of the Kabul airport on US military aircraft since Aug. 14 — including 6,000 Americans and 73,500 Afghans and third-country citizens. The number of evacuated civilians grew to more than 123,000 when accounting for those flown out by members of the US-led coalition.
“We did not get out everybody we had wanted to get out,” McKenzie acknowledged, saying diplomatic measures would now need to be employed to get out the estimated “low hundreds” of Americans left on the ground.
The general emphasized that while “every single US service member” is now out of the country, “not all Americans wanted to leave.”
“There are Americans for a variety of reasons who want to stay for a while,” McKenzie said, adding that efforts to rescue Americans from Taliban-controlled territory ended “about 12 hours” before the last flight departed.
In an interview on Sunday with ABC’s “This Week,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there were “about 300 American citizens left who have indicated to us that they want to leave.”
On the same day, a State Department spokesman told NBC the number of Americans wishing to leave the country was about 250, with another 280 self-identified Americans saying they were undecided on leaving or did not intend to do so.
In brief remarks Monday evening, Blinken estimated that “under 200, and likely closer to 100” Americans remained in Afghanistan who want to leave.
“We’re trying to determine exactly how many,” added Blinken, who delivered his 16-minute statement in a monotone and took no questions.
“Part of the challenge with fixing a precise number is that there are longtime residents of Afghanistan who have American passports and were trying to determine whether or not they wanted to leave,” Blinken said. “Many are dual citizen Americans with deep roots and extended families in Afghanistan who resided there for many years. For many, it’s a painful choice.”
Blinken did not say how many Afghans who assisted US-led NATO forces during the 20-year conflict with the Taliban — including those who applied for or had received Special Immigrant Visas or permanent residency in the US — were left to fend for themselves in territory controlled by men who want them dead.
McKenzie earlier acknowledged that the last five US flights to leave the airport Monday had no Americans on them.
Monday’s announcement capped a chaotic withdrawal process further marred by the ISIS-K suicide bombing that killed at least 182 people, including 13 US service members, outside the Kabul airport on Thursday.