Former President Donald Trump explained in a statement Thursday the order in which President Joe Biden should have conducted the Afghan withdrawal: get all Americans out first.
“First you bring out all of the American citizens. Then you bring out ALL equipment. Then you bomb the bases into smithereens,” Trump’s statement said. “AND THEN YOU BRING OUT THE MILITARY.”
“You don’t do it in reverse order like Biden and our woke Generals did. No chaos, no death—they wouldn’t even know we left!” said Trump.
Trump’s critique of Biden’s withdrawal underpins the unknown amount of Americans still trapped in the collapsed country since Sunday. Estimates have ranged from 10,000 to 40,000, with the Associated Press reporting Thursday 15,000 Americans are stranded. The United States has evacuated only about 2,900 Americans since Sunday. Russia has offered to evacuate Afghans.
Breitbart News reported Wednesday the U.S. embassy in Kabul announced a “first come, first serve basis” for flights out of the country at the airport surrounded by the Taliban. “Please be advised that a significant number of individuals have registered and space on these flights is available on a first come, first serve basis,” the notice reads. “You may be required to wait at the airport for a significant amount of time until space is available.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has stated nearly 4,500 American troops are protecting the airport, while the State Department evacuates those trapped amid the chaos and increased brutalization by the Taliban within the country:
The New York Times reported Thursday Taliban terrorists are “intensifying” their searches for individuals “they believe worked with U.S. and NATO forces, including among the crowds of Afghans at Kabul’s airport.” The Taliban has said it will “kill or arrest their family members if they cannot find them”
Meanwhile, a Washington Post columnist tweeted that Biden left so much military equipment behind in the country that he gave the Taliban an air force:
From 2003-2019, the American taxpayer sent the following to Afghanistan:
- 75,898 vehicles
- 599,690 weapons
- 162,643 pieces of communications equipment
- 208 aircraft
- 6,191 pieces of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance equipment
- 7,035 machine guns
- 4,702 Humvees
- 20,040 hand grenades
- 2,520 bombs
- 1,394 grenade launchers.