The United States and its coalition partners have evacuated tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan, but a new report says that only 5% of those have been American citizens.
“More than 82,300 have been airlifted from Kabul since the government’s collapse nearly two weeks ago, but the Pentagon says that, as of Wednesday, only 4,400 Americans were rescued in those evacuation operations,” The Federalist reported. Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson confirmed Wednesday that about 4,400 Americans were evacuated from Afghanistan.
Although the evacuation has been a joint international effort, and the total evacuation figures include those on non-U.S. military flights, such as British military flights, The New York Times notes that the United States military has served a crucial role. “Without the protection of the 6,000 American troops in Kabul, the military airlift will end, and State Department charter flights will slow, and could altogether cease. Additionally, some other foreign governments have said they would have little choice but to also depart,” reported The Times.
“The State Department also confirmed that a majority of the people whisked away on flights from Kabul are not U.S. citizens,” The Federalist highlighted. “On Tuesday, Politico national security reporter Alex Ward reported leaked numbers indicating that in just 15 hours on Aug. 23, the United States evacuated approximately 6,916 people from Afghanistan. Only 483 of those were American citizens while the rest were Aghan nationals.”
It’s still unclear how many Americans are left stranded in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of Kabul — a takeover President Joe Biden repeatedly said would likely not happen.
As highlighted by The Daily Wire on Thursday, “An estimated quarter of a million Afghans eligible for evacuation from Afghanistan still remain in the country as the U.S. prepares to pull out troops and turn Kabul’s airport over to the Taliban.”
“The United States is making a frenzied push to evacuate as many Americans and Afghan allies as possible from Afghanistan before August 31, President Joe Biden’s self-imposed deadline to pull all U.S. troops from Afghanistan,” The Daily Wire’s Tim Pearce explained. “Potentially hundreds of thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military and their families, who are at high-risk for Taliban retribution, are all but assured to be left behind.”
The New York Times on Wednesday gave a dismal look at the prospect of U.S. forces evacuating the estimated 250,000 who worked with the U.S. by Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline:
Even if American forces continue their current pace of roughly 20,000 evacuations per day — a tall order — the estimates suggest the effort will not come close to rescuing the full group of Afghans who may be eligible to leave before President Biden’s deadline to depart, Aug. 31.
Many Afghan interpreters, advisers and others who worked with the U.S. government or American organizations over the past 20 years and their families are eligible for special visas. And many fear retribution from the Taliban and are desperate to leave.
Notably, POTUS has repeatedly refused to take questions from the press since the botched withdrawal, The Daily Wire noted:
After a Monday presser, POTUS was asked by a reporter, “Do you know how many Americans are left in Afghanistan?” The president hightailed it out of the room without even acknowledging the question. Similarly, following a Tuesday press conference, POTUS refused to take any questions from reporters.
Last week, Biden could not be bothered with questions from the media on the disastrous situation in Afghanistan, as reportedly thousands of Americans remain stranded.
Soon after Biden’s address last week, the president’s ABC News interview with Democrat ally George Stephanopoulos was widely panned as incoherent, if not dishonest.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that only 5% of people evacuated by the United States were American. It has been corrected to note that only 5% of people evacuated by the joint coalition are American.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.
Source: Dailywire
