WASHINGTON (AFP) – The corridors of the Pentagon were gloomy on Monday, with US military personnel helplessly watching chaos at Kabul airport and privately evacuating US-allied Afghans fearing Taliban retaliation for Joe Biden. Criticized the slow pace of the administration.
Some criticized the State Department, which has sole authority to grant visas to former interpreters and other US military support staff and their families, who, fearing for their lives, took more than two months to begin the process for Afghans. waited.
Videos posted to social networks show scenes of panic and fear in Kabul, including a crowd rushing next to a US military transport plane as it accompanies taxis to take off, some on its side. I’m trying to be tough.
“We warned them for months, months, that the situation was urgent,” one military official said on condition of anonymity.
Another officer commented, “I’m not angry, I’m disappointed.” “The process could have been handled so differently.”
Biden decided in mid-April that all US troops should be out of Afghanistan by September 11, although he later extended that date to August 21.
Taliban fighters stand guard by a roadside near Zambak Square in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after Afghanistan’s 20-year war ended surprisingly fast, thousands crowd the city’s airport , which was the group’s radical brand trying to flee Islamic rule. . (Lawyer Kohsar / AFP)
The State Department, however, waited months to set up an ad-hoc structure to provide security to US allies.
Another Pentagon official interviewed by AFP said diplomats had tried to expedite the visa process – but the process was too long and complicated under the circumstances.
He said the Biden administration had agreed that the US embassy in Kabul would remain open and that the Afghan government would maintain control of the country for months after the US withdrawal.
it’s private’
As soon as Biden announced the withdrawal, the Pentagon said it was preparing for a mass evacuation.
But until mid-June the administration did not consider the evacuation necessary and favored the granting of special visas – a process that could take up to two years.
It was only in late June that the White House raised the possibility of evacuating Afghan interpreters before the end of the military withdrawal and sought the help of the Pentagon.
A crisis cell was then set up to organize the reception of Afghan refugees at US bases as they waited for their visas to be issued.
US President Joe Biden speaks about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House on August 16, 2021 in Washington. (AP Photo/Ivan Vucci)
Asked during a press briefing on Monday about the more than two-month delay between the withdrawal announcement and the creation of the crisis cell, its director Gary Reid insisted the Pentagon was acting only “in support of the State Department.” could.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said that, when the administration realized that the situation was “evolving quickly,” it launched Operation Allied Refuge, which they called “a huge effort to simply process, decide, and grant visas.” American effort”. Called special immigrants but to actually bring them to the United States with a massive airlift operation.”
He said that so far 2,000 Afghans have been brought to America by airlift.
The action group, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, stood up in July.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, “But you can go back to the spring and hear the Secretary of Defense (Lloyd Austin) talking about the interpreters and translators themselves and the sacred obligation that we know we have. “
Taliban fighters stand guard in front of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. August 16, 2021. (AP Photo / Rahmat Gul)
“What you see in the last 48-72 hours is personal to everyone here at the Pentagon,” Kirby said in photos coming from Afghanistan.
“Many of us have spent time in Afghanistan over the years and feel connected to current events,” General Hank Taylor, the US military’s chief of logistics, said at the same news briefing.
But, he added, “we are focused on the safe evacuation of Americans and Afghans.”
