How bad was Biden’s retreat from Afghanistan?

While we mostly stopped talking about it, every week or so there’s a new revelation that shows that the administration lied about how many Americans it left behind and that the actual abandonment was worse than what was previously reported.

The Pentagon is stepping up efforts to get family members of U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, creating a database of the dozens who are trapped there.

Family members of U.S. troops

If you thought that the Biden administration’s lies about a full and complete evacuation running on schedule were bad, they manage to get worse every week.

On Thursday, more than two months after the U.S. military withdrew completely from Afghanistan, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl issued a memo asking any U.S. military personnel and DOD civilians with immediate family members who need help leaving Afghanistan to email his office.

I’m glad that the DOD finally found time to tackle this a few months later in between its commitment to telling servicemembers they’re racists who need to read Ibram X. Kendi and confess their white privilege.

There are still several dozen immediate family members of U.S. service members in Afghanistan, according to defense officials. Those include children, sisters and brothers, and parents. There are well over 100 extended family members still in Afghanistan, but it’s not clear how many of them want to leave the country, the officials said.

The Biden administration has been pushing this “not clear how many want to leave the country” talking point since Day 1. And yet it keeps turning out that all the people that Joe left behind enemy lines want to leave.

The official said there is real momentum to help get immediate family members out. “There is an increased desire to make sure that as we make this push that we have every situation accounted for,” the official said, adding that they are trying to “expand the reach” to make sure DOD personnel and their families are getting help.

In November. There’s “increased desire” after leaving them behind. I don’t even have the words.

The official said once the information is consolidated, the Pentagon will work with the State Department to extract family members who want to leave. The U.S. military will not have a role in actually getting the people out of the country, the official said.

Of course not. And, as usual, it’s not the whole list.

The Pentagon does not have a good accounting of how many DOD civilians still have immediate family members in Afghanistan, the officials said.

Back to more Diversity Equity and Inclusion training then!