PANICKED AFGHANS FLEE THE TALIBAN TAKEOVER OF KABUL

 

                  …Inside the giant U.S. Air Force C-17 with 800 fleeing Afghans

 

The scene in Kabul was reminiscent of the 1975 retreat from Saigon, Vietnam

 

 

Chaos unfolded across Afghanistan after the Taliban’s rapid returned to power. Seven people were reported dead at Kabul’s international airport as panicked crowds fleeing the abrupt Taliban takeover forced their way onto the runway. U.S. forces suspended air operations amid the rapidly deteriorating security.  Many Afghans were running along the side of the giant cargo aircraft when it left the Kabul airport.  In fact, human remains were later found in the wheel well of the U.S. Air Force C-17 plane that departed Kabul airport on Monday.

The Pentagon is expected to deploy another 1,000 troops to Afghanistan from a brigade combat team.  This is according to defense officials familiar with the plans to assist with the evacuation of U.S. personnel.  With the additional deployment of up to 6,000 U.S. troops.  They could soon be on the ground at Kabul International Airport.

In an address to the nation Monday afternoon, President Biden defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, blaming the Taliban’s takeover on the unwillingness of the Afghan army to fight the militant Taliban group and arguing that remaining in the country was not in the U.S. national interest.

The C-17 craft, based in Dover, Delaware, was among the several that carried hundreds of pre-cleared Afghans out of the country.

The pilots initially said 800 passengers were on board, according to an apparent audio clip from the flight, in a plane that can carry up to 164,900 pounds. “How many people are on your jet,” an unidentified person ask from the flight tower.   The individual asking the question responded with: “800 people on your jet? Holy cow.

Two defense officials told The Washington Post that there were in excess of 600 people aboard the flight out of Afghanistan. “Instead of trying to force those refugees off the aircraft, ‘the crew made the decision to go,’ ” a defense official told The Post.

Unfortunately, regardless of President Biden’s comment to the opposite, the incident was very reminiscent of the similarly tragic and rushed American retreat in Saigon, Vietnam in 1975.  That was when U.S. troops made room for terrified civilians fleeing an incoming regime that the United States had fought.

The plane’s crew on Monday declared an emergency while leaving the capital’s airport after its landing gear wouldn’t go up.  That was when they found the human remains in the plane’s wheel well. The discovery came after the plane diverted to another location and landed.  (Two officials said this, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.)

It was not immediately clear whether the plane involved was the same one depicted in viral videos that appeared to show two people falling from a departing C-17 that was climbing from the airfield.  A fourth official said that it is believed that “absolutely, people fell from that plane and that the video was real.”

The U.S. military closed the airport on Monday after that incident, as it struggled to deal with thousands of Afghans who ran onto the runway seeking flights to flee the Taliban. At least the seven people died in the chaos at the airport, according to the Associated Press (AP).

U.S. troops reopened the runway just before midnight in Kabul, said a senior official at the Pentagon.

The U.S. Air Force has stated that thousands of Afghans will be flown out of the Kabul Airport on C-17 airplanes “every day of the evacuation.”

President Biden has said that the Afghan government, and their Army folded much sooner than expected.  But it was obvious that little planning was done as to who and how the Afghan people were identified and made available to be properly evacuated from the country.

Copyright G. Ater 2021