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

Biden's 'Most Misused': Isaiah 6:8 | Ep 479

Biden's 'Most Misused': Isaiah 6:8 | Ep 479

While US confines its evacuations to the airport, British, German, and French forces are reportedly rescuing their citizens in Kabul



The U.S. Department of Defense has restricted its evacuation of American personnel and Afghan civilians who worked for U.S. forces to Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. There is a report that the U.S. government is "counting on the Taliban to help Americans and Afghans get access to the airport." At the same time, British, German, and French special forces are going into the city of Kabul to rescue their citizens.

There have been some chaotic scenes at the Hamid Karzai International Airport ever since the Taliban captured Kabul. The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has instructed American citizens to go to the Kabul airport to evacuate the country. However, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has also warned that the "United States government cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport."

A Fox News report stated the 6,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan are "under strict orders" not to leave the Kabul airport to rescue Americans in the city.

"The U.S. government is counting on the Taliban to help Americans and Afghans get access to the airport," the report added.

Fox News host Brett Baier asked Pentagon spokesman John Kirby if there was a deal with the Taliban that restricts U.S. forces from extracting Americans from the city of Kabul.

"No. There's no deal that restricts forces to the airport but Bret, that's where the mission is," Kirby responded. "The troops are there for really two things. One, to keep that airport safe and secure for people and for flight operations and two, to make sure that those flight operations can go as unimpeded as possible with few delays."

Baier pointed out that other nations, such as the U.K., reportedly used their forces to rescue their citizens.

"We have not seen any great impediments to the safe passage that the Taliban have agreed to facilitate," Kirby replied. "Americans are getting through those checkpoints, and they are getting onto the base on the airfield, and they are being flown out of Kabul. I won't speak to potential, future operations that may or may not be conducted. What I can tell you is that the operation that we're conducting now, and that is to keep that airfield open and running and Americans are getting through the lines and they are getting onto planes."


.@BretBaier: "Is there a deal with the Taliban that restricts US forces to the airport?"@PentagonPresSec: "No..."… https://t.co/QenWnv9q7n

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) 1629412256.0

However, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a Wednesday news conference that the U.S. does not have "the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people."

During his news conference Friday, President Biden was asked about sending U.S. troops into Kabul to evacuate Americans who couldn't get to the airport.

"We have no indication that they haven't been able to get in Kabul through the airport," Biden replied. "We've made an agreement with the Taliban thus far, they've allowed them to go through and they're interested in them to go through. So we know of no circumstance where American citizens are carrying an American passport are trying to get through to the airport, but we will do whatever needs to be done to see to that they get to the airport."

Another reporter questioned Biden about the "chaos and violence" around the airport, and asked, "Are you saying unequivocally that any American who wants to get to the airport is getting there and getting past the security barrier and to the planes where they want to go?"

Biden responded, "And the answer is to the best of our knowledge, the Taliban checkpoints, they are letting through people showing American passports. Now, that's a different question when they get into the rush and crowd of all the folks just outside the wall, near the airport."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, "My office has received numerous reports of American citizens and Afghan allies being harassed, beaten, and abused by Taliban thugs. These reports are in addition to the televised scenes of chaos at the airport perimeter."

There are reports that Afghans who worked for the U.S. are fearful of Taliban checkpoints because their previous work with Westerners makes them a prime target for retribution.

While the U.S. says it can't or doesn't need to go into Kabul to rescue Americans, other countries have purportedly accomplished successful missions to extract their citizens.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the U.K. government deployed paratroopers to the streets of Kabul to rescue 200 British nationals.

Germany announced it will send two light helicopters with special forces to Kabul to evacuate Germans at risk or situated in remote regions, according to the Jerusalem Post.

France 24 reported that its military helped more than 200 French nationals, foreign nationals, and Afghans get to the airport.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted, "To our armies, police and diplomatic teams who organize these sensitive operations, thank you. We continue."

Près de 200 Afghans qui ont travaillé pour la France ou qui sont menacés viennent d’être évacués de Kaboul. Ainsi q… https://t.co/vSdyVBPACU

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) 1629274300.0

CBS News reported, "U.S. military transport planes have air-lifted around 5,000 people, mostly U.S. citizens and Afghans who once worked for the U.S., out of the country. But there are around 60 to 80,000 left to get out, by President Biden's count, and that includes more than 10,000 Americans."

The Biden administration has made Aug. 31 the deadline to evacuate Americans out of Afghanistan, but on Wednesday, President Biden said the deadline could be extended to "get them all out."

Lindsey Graham says Biden must be impeached if he cannot get Americans and Afghan allies out of Kabul



U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Friday that if President Joe Biden fails to evacuate every American citizen who wants to leave Afghanistan from the country, or if he leaves behind the thousands of Afghans who assisted U.S. forces for decades and are now being hunted down by the Taliban, he should be impeached by the United States Congress.

"The French and the British are willing to send their forces inside of Afghanistan to extract the people who helped them and their citizens. We're duty-bound to get every American citizen out. We're honor-bound to get those Afghans who fought along our side out," Graham said on "Fox & Friends" Friday morning.

"If we leave any Americans behind, if we leave thousands of those Afghans who fought along our side behind, bravely, Joe Biden deserves to be impeached for a high crime and misdemeanor of dereliction of duty," he continued.

"If we leave one American behind, if we don't get all those Afghans who stepped up to the plate and helped us out, then Joe Biden in my view has committed a high crime and misdemeanor under the Constitution and should be impeached," he emphasized.

Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens, residents, their families, and even more Afghans who helped the United States in the decades-long war against the Taliban were trapped in Afghanistan when the Islamist militants caught the Biden administration by surprise and seized the capital city Kabul on Sunday. U.S. forces had been in the middle of withdrawing from the country on Biden's orders, with full withdrawal expected to be completed by Aug. 31.

Desperate crowds of people rushed to the international airport in Kabul seeking to flee the country, causing chaos as the Biden administration was unprepared to evacuate everyone safely. Horrific videos emerged of Afghans clinging to departing U.S. evacuation flights and falling to their deaths after they could not secure passage on board.

The Biden administration is attempting to conduct evacuation flights out of Kabul, but was forced to pause flights Friday because a facility in Qatar where the U.S. is taking refugees to be processed had reached capacity. According to CBS News, the Biden administration is seeking to open a new flight option to a base in Bahrain where refugees can be taken to be processed.

Witnesses at the air base on Friday described the situation as a "full-blown humanitarian crisis."

U.S. forces have evacuated an estimated 12,700 people from Kabul's airport since Saturday, but President Biden said there were as many as 80,000 American citizens and Afghans still awaiting evacuation.

Complicating the matter is the fact that an unknown number of American citizens are stranded in Kabul without means to travel to the airport for evacuation. The Biden administration is claiming it does not have the capability to send U.S. troops into the city to extract Americans and their families and has advised would-be evacuees that the U.S. government cannot guarantee their safe passage to the airport.

The Taliban has established checkpoints throughout the city, and despite promises to guarantee safe passage for Americans to the airport, reports indicate that soldiers have used gunfire to disperse the crowds seeking entrance to the airport.