Marine Who Guarded Kabul Airport: ‘Somebody Should Have Held Somebody Accountable’
Cpl. Greg Whalen said he did not know who made the decisions, but someone along the line 'completely failed in the planning process.'Cpl. Greg Whalen said he did not know who made the decisions, but someone along the line 'completely failed in the planning process.'9,000 Americans remain stranded in Afghanistan, according to a new Senate report
A little over half a year ago, President Biden withdrew American forces from Afghanistan. The American withdrawal resulted in complete and utter embarrassment for the United States abroad as we abandoned our allies in Afghanistan, caused the unnecessary loss of life, and stranded American citizens in a country now controlled by our enemies.
At the time, officials in the Biden administration told the public that just over 100 American citizens were left in Afghanistan. In October of 2021, the State Department said that there were 363 Americans stranded under the Taliban. Now, according to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it appears that the United States government left as many as 9,000 Americans in Afghanistan following America’s August withdrawal.
Despite having information that large groups of Americans continued to leave Afghanistan — without support from the federal government — the Biden administration maintained that only 100-150 Americans remained in Afghanistan who had contacted the United States government and expressed a desire to leave.
The report detailing the updated number of stranded Americans indicates that as late as August 17 — nine days before the Kabul airport bombing that claimed the lives of the 13 service members — the State Department knew that there were between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans in Afghanistan. Between August 17 and August 31, only about 6,000 Americans were able to escape before the Taliban fully took control of the country.
Officials like Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and U.S. Central Command leader General Kenneth McKenzie frequently said they were in touch with small numbers of Americans who remained in Afghanistan but sought to leave. Thus, if arrived at in good faith, their estimation would have been calculated using these small sample sizes.
In the report, Sen. James Risch (R – Idaho), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, “Despite countless warnings that the Taliban had the ability to take the country swiftly, the Biden Administration failed to properly plan a coordinated evacuation of U.S. citizens, Afghans, and allied partners.”
“The administration waited until less than a day before Kabul fell to make senior leadership decisions on organizing and executing a withdrawal, which proved to be too little too late,” Sen. Risch continued, “While the Department of Defense and Department of State pulled off a major feat in the number of people evacuated, more of our partners could have been saved if proper planning had been conducted.”
Shortly after the American withdrawal was complete, President Biden made a speech where among other misleading claims, he said, “The bottom line: 90% of Americans who wanted to leave were able to leave.”
It just so happens that there are thousands of Americans who were unable to leave, unaccounted for in the remaining 10%. As more information comes to light, it becomes increasingly evident that the Biden administration was not prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan.
The White House rushing the withdrawal process cost many lives and stranded thousands of Americans under enemy rule.
Marine's raw and shocking video of Afghanistan withdrawal exposes just how insanely chaotic Kabul evacuation was
Raw and shocking footage of the U.S. evacuation from Kabul shows much more chaotic scenes than many were led to believe happened during the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Real-life, behind-the-scenes video clips were released last week by Marine Cpl. Mike Markland. The Marine, who was at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, captured the grittiness and desperation of the hurried evacuation of the Afghan capital as the Taliban marched toward power.
Markland stitched together video clips from a GoPro camera attached to his helmet to show exactly how tumultuous and unorganized the evacuation at the Kabul airport was. The firsthand footage reveals "two straight weeks of worsening conditions" on the ground as seen from the viewpoint of the Marine from 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.
Markland posted the video on his Instagram, but it has since been deleted. Task & Purpose published the video, as well as Markland's commentary from social media, which has also been removed.
"I hope this answers questions but also provokes you to ask more," Markland captioned the since-deleted Instagram video. "To my brothers and sisters who were there I made this for you and your family. When you have the lack of ability to explain all that happened in those two weeks, show them this. Stand tall and wear the last two weeks on your chest."
"I haven't found a way to explain it with any words I know," the Marine admitted.
"Many of us joined because we liked fighting and were good with adversity and conflict," Markland reportedly wrote. "Two weeks in Kabul at HKIA put all of that to the test. I can't say enough how proud I am of the Marines I serve with."
"Odds were stacked against us. Circumstances undeniably out of our control, but we never let it deter our tenacious approach towards our mission at hand. Adversity and challenges happened 24/7," Markland said.
The Marine noted that "almost all had no predesignated plan."
"We did our absolute best and remained stoic through the sleepless nights and round-the-clock work with minimal food and water," he continued. "Staying up for two or more days straight at a time grinding but remaining intensely vigilant."
The at-times tough-to-watch video shows Afghans in utter despair to leave their country as their fate with the Taliban in control would be crushing at best.
The Afghans are densely packed into small areas with barbed wire fences at the borders of the holding area outside the Kabul airport. Marines shoot crowd munitions to attempt to calm the frantic masses. When crowd munitions aren't effective, Marines are seen firing off warning shots from their firearms in an attempt to control the large crowds.
Babies are seen being handed to the Marines for safety. Lacking medical equipment, wounded people are taken to get treatment on a ladder. Men and women are seen bursting into tears. In one clip, a man in civilian clothes bashes another person with the stock of his AK-47.
Despite the sheer inhumanity of the bedlam, there are moments of hopeful humanity as Marines give fist bumps to smiling Afghans.
Marines bond in a circle as the song "Halftime" by Nas blares in the background. They pass around the camera, make silly faces, throw a pineapple at each other, and enjoy friendly bicycle races.
In the middle of the 7-minute video, U.S. service members are seen disabling American military equipment and vehicles. The video shows stacks of AK-47s, PK machine guns, M-16s, and other weapons likely abandoned by the Afghan military after the country collapsed.
The end of the video pays tribute to the 13 U.S. service members who died in the suicide bombing in Kabul.
Markland's video paints a far more shambolic Kabul exit than the sanitized photos and videos provided by the Department of Defense.
U.S. Marine footage from Kabul 08/21 www.youtube.com
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