Klain: Afghanistan Evacuation ‘a Tremendous Humanitarian Achievement’ Despite ‘Horrible Price’ of 13 Dead Americans

During an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” outgoing White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain stated that the evacuation from Afghanistan “was a tremendous humanitarian achievement for the many lives that were saved” despite the “horrible, horrible price” of the 13 Americans killed in the attack on the Kabul airport.

Klain said the day of the bombing “was just clearly our saddest day, our hardest day, our most horrific day.”

He added, “Look — but I think it’s also important for people to remember that we did airlift 180,000 people out of Kabul, in the largest airlift this country ever achieved. There are 180,000 people who have new lives because of the heroism and the courage of the men and women who flew those planes, who protected those gates, who guarded that airport, who loaded those planes. That entire multi-thousand-person unit in Kabul really changed and saved 180,000 lives. And look, I know we’ve been criticized for the president’s policy decision there, but we ended America’s longest war. Lawrence, 2022, the year we just finished, is the first year this century where no American died in combat in Afghanistan. So, it was time for that war to end. It’s always hard to end a war. Those 13 brave people who lost their lives, the others who were injured at the Abbey Gate in Kabul, that was a horrible, horrible price to pay. But I do think that the evacuation was a tremendous humanitarian achievement for the many lives that were saved. And I think ending the war in Afghanistan was the right decision.”

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