We need straight answers
IT’S been almost three weeks since the catastrophic suicide attack at the Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members and about 170 innocent Afghan civilians. President Biden vowed to the American people that “we will not forgive” the attack, but can we really believe him?
Biden is wont to compare his administration — you know, all the “adults” back in the room — to the Trump administration. But during President Donald Trump’s tenure, three consecutive “emirs” of ISIS-K were hunted down and killed by US forces in targeted strikes — in April and July 2017, and August 2018. What’s being done to capture or eliminate the current leader of ISIS-K — Shahab al-Muhajir — who almost certainly approved the Kabul airport attack and is walking around alive and well?
Since the airport attack, Biden has done exactly two things to retaliate. First, on Aug. 27, he claims to have killed two “highprofile” ISIS-K operatives in a drone strike. But who were they? Were they involved in the airport attack, or were they two midlevel shlubs who were at the wrong place at the wrong time?
The lack of an official answer at this point in time suggests the latter.
The second thing Biden did was an Aug. 29 drone strike that didn’t kill the emir of ISIS-K (or any ISIS-K, for that matter), but reportedly 10 Afghan civilians, including several children. Biden has assured Americans that he’s developed counterterrorism “over-the-horizon” capabilities that will prevent terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan. Was the Aug. 29 drone strike the first example of such capabilities? Or was it a rush job to quell the horrific media coverage?
The death of those 10 civilians is a direct result of a lack of US “eyes and ears” on the ground to collect intelligence — an absence that will certainly lead to gaps in indications and warnings of terrorist operations. When Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked at a Senate hearing Tuesday whether the target of the Aug. 29 drone strike was an aid worker or an ISIS operative, Blinken’s answer was simply, “I don’t know.”
The American people deserve better answers than that, Mr. President. You care more about saving the political career of California Gov. Gavin Newsom than you do about the mess you’ve made in Afghanistan.
Steven Groves is the Margaret Thatcher Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
We need to know who is in charge and who is making the decisions. — Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho)
The execution of the US withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed. There has to be accountability.
— Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
You think you’d kind of know before you off somebody with a Predator drone whether he’s an aid worker or he’s ISIS-K.
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)