CBS Presses Blinken on One of the Most Humiliating Aspects of Afghanistan Debacle

CBS’s Major Garrett pressed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday over the administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal and how difficult it is for Americans who want to flee to even get to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. They’re being harassed, beaten up, and having their passports seized at numerous Taliban checkpoints—and even if they do reach the airport, it is sheer pandemonium.

How is it possible that this is the best the U.S. can do for its people, even as our NATO allies have figured out much better ways of getting their citizens out? Why is the U.S. letting the Taliban dictate the terms of America's evacuation efforts? Garrett wanted to know.

“Someone in our audience might listen to you, Mr. Secretary, and say, ‘Oh, so we have to ask the Taliban for permission for American citizens to leave.’ True or not true?”

Blinken replied: “They are in control of Kabul. That is the reality. That’s the reality that we have to deal with.”

“How comfortable are you with that, Mr. Secretary?” the host followed up. 

“What-- I'm what I'm focused on, what we're all focused on is getting people out and making sure that we're doing everything possible to do that. And in this case, it is, I think, a requirement of the job to be in contact with-- with the Taliban, which controls Kabul,” he answered, touting the number of people the administration has gotten out so far. 

As The Wall Street Journal editorial board pointed out, it doesn't have to be this way.

Yes, but this isn’t the reality the U.S. has to accept. The U.S. military has more than enough force to dictate better terms to the Taliban, but the other reality is that Mr. Biden is too risk-averse to do it. Instead, the U.S. evacuates on the Taliban’s terms. Over the weekend the Taliban put the Haqqani network in charge of security in Kabul. In 2012 the U.S. designated the Haqqani network as a “foreign terrorist organization” because of its attacks on U.S. personnel and close ties to al Qaeda. (WSJ)

And what's also concerning, the editors point out, is that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby appeared to suggest that if the U.S. stays past the Aug. 31 deadline, we'd have to get the Taliban's permission to do that, too, or as he put it, it “would require additional conversations with the Taliban.”

Unreal.