Afghan refugees at an airbase in Qatar. (Photo: Confidential Source/The Uprising)
The situation at the Kabul airport literally became explosive on Thursday as two suicide bombers and gunmen who have been linked to the militant group Islamic State staged attacks that killed at least 60 Afghans and 12 American troops. I just published a new piece for New York magazine on a controversial rogue congressional trip to the airport and have spent the past few days reporting on the situation in Kabul.
Please join me in the comments below to discuss this story and everything else I’ve heard about the chaotic Afghanistan exit including unofficial rescue operations, how the evacuation has led to a dangerous situation for refugees in Qatar, and the major issues with media coverage of the withdrawal.
This is a major moment in American history. I would love to answer your questions and hear your thoughts!
And, of course, if you want more original, independent politics news and analysis, please sign up!
Thank you for this reporting! There are so many issues to tease apart and examine after this evacuation is as complete as it can be. I'm sure that there will be Congressional review, mostly around the anticipation of the collapse and how we adjusted evacuation plans as events developed. Currently, though, I just hope that we'll do what needs to be done for the Afghans that we can help out of the country.
In the conversation with Moulton, he told me that he "absolutely" would like to be part of a congressional committee investigating problems with the evacuation. As you can see though, he's not exactly supported by Dem House leadership, so I don't know if that will happen.
The refugees getting out seem to be the lucky ones but there seem to be real questions of where they are going and the type of conditions they will face there.
There clearly was far little pre-planning and coordination with allies and non-adversaries, but Moulton seems eager to criticize while offering no solutions. Has he spoken with Matt Zeller or the hundreds of groups that are actually fundraising and collecting food, clothing, furniture, etc? Thus far, he's succeeded in promoting himself but little else. It's as disheartening as everything else about the withdrawal and the preceding 20 year debacle.
He told me he talked to Armed Services leadership about issues with food and water donations. Not sure what else he has done on this front.
Their main justifications for the trip seem to be that Congress is dubious of the info from the WH so Kabul needed oversight, it convinced them our forces should leave on 8/31 (which had not been their position), and that it alerted them to the situation in Qatar.
I will leave it to others to judge whether this justified the trip and taking any focus from the military at the airport!
An amazing story from the inside. It is so difficult to navigate the strategical and political agendas….so much suffering….so much bloodshed. Just a really sad set of circumstances. Thanks for this opportunity to hear what is happening on the ground.
Thanks for reading! This is all really politically complex. Frankly, I suspect part of the reason the withdrawal was so botched is that it essentially played out between administrations. That meant no one in congress had a clear incentive to be a watchdog on this process throughout. Despite bipartisan concerns about looming issues with the evacuation, I don't think this got the attention it would have if one party had a clear chance to jump on the other. A case of political drama actually likely leading to lives lost.
What's puzzling to me is the prioritization of the withdrawal over so many other immediate crises. Wouldn't the cash-strapped Taliban agreed to a 1-year pause? Or was the ISIS-K threat too significant to wait longer? There's too much that we don't know.
after reading your informative piece in NY Mag and imbibing other coverage, I’m sad. i appreciate the coverage, i appreciate your work, i just have not other comment besides being sad.
It really is awfully sad. There are no good or easy solutions and there were literally hundreds of thousands of deaths before we left. These are all things we ought to remember before the next war. At this point, I think the most productive thing to focus on is making sure we handle housing the refugees better than we did getting them out.
I think Matthew Yglesias said it best, but I'll paraphrase. The armchair quarterbacks (whether motivated by genuine concern or CYA for a botched 20-year failed mission) apparently want us to leave while ramping up and evacuate everyone while eliminating all risks. In other words, there is plenty of finger pointing with a complete absence of coherent tactical alternatives. There was a lack of planning to be sure, but Moulton and Meijer's trip was absurd and ineffective. Neither were on the forefront of developing solutions.Say what you will about Kinzinger, but he's raising funds to help the refugees. Organizing food and water shipments would be a hell of a lot more productive than flying into war-torn Kabul.
HW, You speak for me EXACTLY. The administration should have anticipated the visa situation, AND the fact that the Afghanis were capitulating. However, the speed of the Taliban takeover was truly dizzying, and we did get (and are still getting) out far more people than any other American withdrawal of this kind. Hunter Walker’s reporting is valuable and essential, and as usual, shows us i formation not readily covered by others. But, these two guys are politicians. They may have legitimate concerns and brood points to make, but they are also pursuing a personal agenda.
Well, I can tell you that folks working on the unofficial rescue operations, which include Hill staffers, military, and others coordinating on Slack and in encrypted chats say both Moulton and Meijer helped get people out. However, as you note, they didn't need to be in Kabul to do that.
I understand the critique this could have been dangerous and particularly that it's unavoidable some military would focus on, to paraphrase one source in my story, "babysitting" them.
Moulton's best defense to that would seem to be the observations from Qatar. You'll note he claims to have learned on the ground that the administration was essentially blocking food and water for refugees there. Obviously, I can't fully confirm or debunk his claim there. That being said, I did ask both the White House and the Dem HASC chair about his claim. Neither responded to shoot it down even though HASC did weigh in on other things here.
I am set to talk to Meijer this afternoon. What would you like me to ask him if I can?
Thank you for the context, but I still contend that there was little gained that could not have been determined by those who have been fighting for years for their allies and friends in Afghanistan. Please ask Meijer what specific steps he has taken to ensure that food and water are being provided and to what extent he is coordinating with ongoing efforts by other veterans.
I didn't see this in time! I do know Meijer has personally been involved in unofficial efforts led by veterans and others to get individuals out of Kabul. Both of them seem to be involved in pressing HASC leadership to raise the food and water issue with the administration. I am not clear what the resolution there has been or what happened in the first place at the moment. It is something I am doing more reporting on!
One major thing I would like to highlight from this story is the fact that a looming question here seems to be how we will treat the refugees who do manage to get flights out. The above photo is of packed conditions at an airbase in Qatar where refugees are being. Moulton and Meijer visited this airfield and Moulton told me, Afghans there are crowded “in 120-degree heat literally sheltering under aircraft wings, which is not safe, by the way.”
“They’re in hangars, some of them are just on the tarmac, and it’s crazy,” he said.
He further claimed they don't have adequate food and water. That wasn't exactly denied by the White House.
We've moved over 100,000 people out of Afghanistan. One of the major questions about what happens next is where we are going to put them and what type of conditions they will be held in.
I started the story. I can’t finish right now because I find seth’s comments irritating. What is it he thinks Biden shoukd have done. Do they expect the Taliban to line the streets and salute as we leave? We occupied a country for 20 years. We knew we couldn’t win an armed conflict there 10 years ago. The Taliban is resurgent. They want us out. Usa told folks not to go there and to get out. We’ve evacuated 100,000 people. What?! What more could be done?
Seth Moulton is probably more in line with you than you might think in terms of the Taliban. He told me that he realized it's a "diplomatic necessity" for us to get along with them so that we can ensure safe passage for those who need it.
The reality is that the Taliban has overtaken the country. We were defeated there. Any intelligent conversation about Afghanistan needs to grapple with that fact. Whether or not you support the withdrawal, it's the reality.
Moulton was — admittedly — someone who wanted us to remain in Afghanistan longer. He says going there helped him realize we need diplomacy with the Taliban and should meet the 8/31 deadline.
Where he is critical of Biden is mainly in the handling of the evacuation. He has been pushing for expanding or expediting the SIV program for years and particularly in the past few months. His work on this was a bit longer and more personal (including housing an interpreter in his family home) than most other members, but he's not the only one. There were months of people warning in Congress that the evacuations needed to start earlier. The folks criticizing Biden for this include people who want to withdraw and those who don't
Here on The Uprising, I have covered officials who critiqued the withdrawal when their end goal really seemed to be continuing the status quo.
I appreciate your reply HW, and your second para above is everything. I also appreciate the attempt to distinguish between using a messy pullout to justify a forever war versus more sincere critique of the process. I agree with you … (and read and appreciated the Cheney story when you published it). I’ll get back to this story soon and maybe Mr. Moulton will surprise me as I get deeper in … but based on what I read so far -
I want more specifics from critics. HOW, given reality, could usa do more, better? Just “better planning” doesn’t satisfy. What would a better plan have had us DO differently? Were we to send more troops? Cause I’m not sure that was even an operational possibility. Tried harder to negotiate -what?- with the Taliban?
Also, Seems to me any legitimate critique of the process must acknowledge things that deeply constrained operational choices:
Congress sat on the SIV program for years, and
the senate has been slow to allow key appointments in the admin, especially the state dept;
Biden was shut out from the transition process, limiting time to prepare (and, incidentally, I bet usa will learn someday of more nefarious booby traps set by previous admin)
I’m no Biden apologist-really! He’s not progressive enough for my taste, but here’s one issue I support him on. We had to get out; forces conspired to make it ever more difficult to do, but thankfully he’s ripped off the band aid. Yes, it hurts, but it hurts no matter what.
I’ll end with a stolen analogy from Twitter:
“And now, to find out why firefighters are struggling to contain this fire, we ask the construction crew, who installed faulty sprinklers and placed gas tanks on every floor”
In terms of specifics, I think there was a clear call to expand the number of SIVs and expedite the folks who were being processed from Moulton and many bipartisan members of Congress. The push to start moving people to Guam in April (which he was part of) stands out to me as a very clear, specific missed opportunity.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and this is all hindsight. I spoke to Rep. Meijer today and asked him about some of this. Don't want to spoil my own stories (you will see that reporting very soon!) but he sort of took the position that focusing on what we do next (including plans to get remaining people out once we leave) and ensuring there are safe conditions from refugees needs to be the top priority.
You are truly THE BEST! A very trusted source in a crazy world. I also am praying we can do more for those we’ve evacuated. Eg Situation in Qatar sounds bleak to be sure. I look forward to your future reporting!! Best of luck to you.
Thank you for this reporting! There are so many issues to tease apart and examine after this evacuation is as complete as it can be. I'm sure that there will be Congressional review, mostly around the anticipation of the collapse and how we adjusted evacuation plans as events developed. Currently, though, I just hope that we'll do what needs to be done for the Afghans that we can help out of the country.
In the conversation with Moulton, he told me that he "absolutely" would like to be part of a congressional committee investigating problems with the evacuation. As you can see though, he's not exactly supported by Dem House leadership, so I don't know if that will happen.
The refugees getting out seem to be the lucky ones but there seem to be real questions of where they are going and the type of conditions they will face there.
There clearly was far little pre-planning and coordination with allies and non-adversaries, but Moulton seems eager to criticize while offering no solutions. Has he spoken with Matt Zeller or the hundreds of groups that are actually fundraising and collecting food, clothing, furniture, etc? Thus far, he's succeeded in promoting himself but little else. It's as disheartening as everything else about the withdrawal and the preceding 20 year debacle.
He told me he talked to Armed Services leadership about issues with food and water donations. Not sure what else he has done on this front.
Their main justifications for the trip seem to be that Congress is dubious of the info from the WH so Kabul needed oversight, it convinced them our forces should leave on 8/31 (which had not been their position), and that it alerted them to the situation in Qatar.
I will leave it to others to judge whether this justified the trip and taking any focus from the military at the airport!
Thanks Hunter, I so appreciate your perspective.
An amazing story from the inside. It is so difficult to navigate the strategical and political agendas….so much suffering….so much bloodshed. Just a really sad set of circumstances. Thanks for this opportunity to hear what is happening on the ground.
Thanks for reading! This is all really politically complex. Frankly, I suspect part of the reason the withdrawal was so botched is that it essentially played out between administrations. That meant no one in congress had a clear incentive to be a watchdog on this process throughout. Despite bipartisan concerns about looming issues with the evacuation, I don't think this got the attention it would have if one party had a clear chance to jump on the other. A case of political drama actually likely leading to lives lost.
What's puzzling to me is the prioritization of the withdrawal over so many other immediate crises. Wouldn't the cash-strapped Taliban agreed to a 1-year pause? Or was the ISIS-K threat too significant to wait longer? There's too much that we don't know.
after reading your informative piece in NY Mag and imbibing other coverage, I’m sad. i appreciate the coverage, i appreciate your work, i just have not other comment besides being sad.
It really is awfully sad. There are no good or easy solutions and there were literally hundreds of thousands of deaths before we left. These are all things we ought to remember before the next war. At this point, I think the most productive thing to focus on is making sure we handle housing the refugees better than we did getting them out.
I think Matthew Yglesias said it best, but I'll paraphrase. The armchair quarterbacks (whether motivated by genuine concern or CYA for a botched 20-year failed mission) apparently want us to leave while ramping up and evacuate everyone while eliminating all risks. In other words, there is plenty of finger pointing with a complete absence of coherent tactical alternatives. There was a lack of planning to be sure, but Moulton and Meijer's trip was absurd and ineffective. Neither were on the forefront of developing solutions.Say what you will about Kinzinger, but he's raising funds to help the refugees. Organizing food and water shipments would be a hell of a lot more productive than flying into war-torn Kabul.
HW, You speak for me EXACTLY. The administration should have anticipated the visa situation, AND the fact that the Afghanis were capitulating. However, the speed of the Taliban takeover was truly dizzying, and we did get (and are still getting) out far more people than any other American withdrawal of this kind. Hunter Walker’s reporting is valuable and essential, and as usual, shows us i formation not readily covered by others. But, these two guys are politicians. They may have legitimate concerns and brood points to make, but they are also pursuing a personal agenda.
Well, I can tell you that folks working on the unofficial rescue operations, which include Hill staffers, military, and others coordinating on Slack and in encrypted chats say both Moulton and Meijer helped get people out. However, as you note, they didn't need to be in Kabul to do that.
I understand the critique this could have been dangerous and particularly that it's unavoidable some military would focus on, to paraphrase one source in my story, "babysitting" them.
Moulton's best defense to that would seem to be the observations from Qatar. You'll note he claims to have learned on the ground that the administration was essentially blocking food and water for refugees there. Obviously, I can't fully confirm or debunk his claim there. That being said, I did ask both the White House and the Dem HASC chair about his claim. Neither responded to shoot it down even though HASC did weigh in on other things here.
I am set to talk to Meijer this afternoon. What would you like me to ask him if I can?
Ask him for verifiable information about how the refugees were blocked by the United States from getting food and water.
Thank you for the context, but I still contend that there was little gained that could not have been determined by those who have been fighting for years for their allies and friends in Afghanistan. Please ask Meijer what specific steps he has taken to ensure that food and water are being provided and to what extent he is coordinating with ongoing efforts by other veterans.
I didn't see this in time! I do know Meijer has personally been involved in unofficial efforts led by veterans and others to get individuals out of Kabul. Both of them seem to be involved in pressing HASC leadership to raise the food and water issue with the administration. I am not clear what the resolution there has been or what happened in the first place at the moment. It is something I am doing more reporting on!
Many thanks! I was late in responding. Your reporting is invaluable on this topic.
One major thing I would like to highlight from this story is the fact that a looming question here seems to be how we will treat the refugees who do manage to get flights out. The above photo is of packed conditions at an airbase in Qatar where refugees are being. Moulton and Meijer visited this airfield and Moulton told me, Afghans there are crowded “in 120-degree heat literally sheltering under aircraft wings, which is not safe, by the way.”
“They’re in hangars, some of them are just on the tarmac, and it’s crazy,” he said.
He further claimed they don't have adequate food and water. That wasn't exactly denied by the White House.
We've moved over 100,000 people out of Afghanistan. One of the major questions about what happens next is where we are going to put them and what type of conditions they will be held in.
I started the story. I can’t finish right now because I find seth’s comments irritating. What is it he thinks Biden shoukd have done. Do they expect the Taliban to line the streets and salute as we leave? We occupied a country for 20 years. We knew we couldn’t win an armed conflict there 10 years ago. The Taliban is resurgent. They want us out. Usa told folks not to go there and to get out. We’ve evacuated 100,000 people. What?! What more could be done?
Seth Moulton is probably more in line with you than you might think in terms of the Taliban. He told me that he realized it's a "diplomatic necessity" for us to get along with them so that we can ensure safe passage for those who need it.
The reality is that the Taliban has overtaken the country. We were defeated there. Any intelligent conversation about Afghanistan needs to grapple with that fact. Whether or not you support the withdrawal, it's the reality.
Moulton was — admittedly — someone who wanted us to remain in Afghanistan longer. He says going there helped him realize we need diplomacy with the Taliban and should meet the 8/31 deadline.
Where he is critical of Biden is mainly in the handling of the evacuation. He has been pushing for expanding or expediting the SIV program for years and particularly in the past few months. His work on this was a bit longer and more personal (including housing an interpreter in his family home) than most other members, but he's not the only one. There were months of people warning in Congress that the evacuations needed to start earlier. The folks criticizing Biden for this include people who want to withdraw and those who don't
Here on The Uprising, I have covered officials who critiqued the withdrawal when their end goal really seemed to be continuing the status quo.
https://www.theuprising.info/p/liz-cheney-said-the-quiet-part-out
I am not sure that's true for everyone. It is possible to have standalone issues with how this process was conducted.
I appreciate your reply HW, and your second para above is everything. I also appreciate the attempt to distinguish between using a messy pullout to justify a forever war versus more sincere critique of the process. I agree with you … (and read and appreciated the Cheney story when you published it). I’ll get back to this story soon and maybe Mr. Moulton will surprise me as I get deeper in … but based on what I read so far -
I want more specifics from critics. HOW, given reality, could usa do more, better? Just “better planning” doesn’t satisfy. What would a better plan have had us DO differently? Were we to send more troops? Cause I’m not sure that was even an operational possibility. Tried harder to negotiate -what?- with the Taliban?
Also, Seems to me any legitimate critique of the process must acknowledge things that deeply constrained operational choices:
Congress sat on the SIV program for years, and
the senate has been slow to allow key appointments in the admin, especially the state dept;
Biden was shut out from the transition process, limiting time to prepare (and, incidentally, I bet usa will learn someday of more nefarious booby traps set by previous admin)
I’m no Biden apologist-really! He’s not progressive enough for my taste, but here’s one issue I support him on. We had to get out; forces conspired to make it ever more difficult to do, but thankfully he’s ripped off the band aid. Yes, it hurts, but it hurts no matter what.
I’ll end with a stolen analogy from Twitter:
“And now, to find out why firefighters are struggling to contain this fire, we ask the construction crew, who installed faulty sprinklers and placed gas tanks on every floor”
In terms of specifics, I think there was a clear call to expand the number of SIVs and expedite the folks who were being processed from Moulton and many bipartisan members of Congress. The push to start moving people to Guam in April (which he was part of) stands out to me as a very clear, specific missed opportunity.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and this is all hindsight. I spoke to Rep. Meijer today and asked him about some of this. Don't want to spoil my own stories (you will see that reporting very soon!) but he sort of took the position that focusing on what we do next (including plans to get remaining people out once we leave) and ensuring there are safe conditions from refugees needs to be the top priority.
You are truly THE BEST! A very trusted source in a crazy world. I also am praying we can do more for those we’ve evacuated. Eg Situation in Qatar sounds bleak to be sure. I look forward to your future reporting!! Best of luck to you.