The answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how you ask it. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it’s irresponsible to use the term “stranded” to describe Americans currently seeking an exit from the worn-torn country, but how else should we characterize their situation?
Stranded: “left without the means to move from somewhere.”
These Americans have no means to move by themselves, they must wait for help or for sheer luck to avoid death or torture on the way to the Kabul airport. In fact, even for the Americans who made it to the airport, the U.S. Embassy is now telling them to leave and go back to … where ever they came from:
The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan is urging Americans outside the gates of the Kabul airport to leave immediately, citing security threats. Officials also cautioned U.S. citizens against travel to the airport.
“Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” the embassy said in the Wednesday evening security alert.
If the Kabul airport is the only way out, and Americans are now being advised to leave the airport due to threats of terrorism, then “stranded” seems like the best way to describe what’s going on. The exit from Afghanistan has been so mishandled that America now faces a deadline of August 31 to completely withdraw or risk conflict with the Taliban and, apparently, ISIS, which is now cropping up in the region.
A few days ago the estimate of Americans stranded in Afghanistan from the White House was still in the thousands:
The White House estimates “several thousand Americans” still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning.
Sullivan said the true number of Americans on the ground is unclear because Americans in Afghanistan were encouraged but not required to register with the American Embassy in Kabul. Therefore, the US government could not track some American travelers who entered or left the country prior to the Taliban takeover.
How much is “several thousand?” Are we talking about 2,000 or 5,000? Maybe split that and say 3,500 Americans still stranded with no means to exit the country?
On Wednesday, the State Department revised the number down to less than 1,000:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that he believes less than 1,000 American citizens are still in Afghanistan and attempting to leave.
Blinken said that there were 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan on August 14 and 4,500 of them have been evacuated within the last 10 days. He added that 500 of the remaining number have been instructed on how to leave within the last 24 hours. That leaves roughly 1,000 Americans left in the country, but Blinken said the actual number is lower for a variety of reasons, including situations where Americans want to stay or have already left and not notified the government.
Perhaps it’s just 1,000 Americans, give or take, who are still stranded in Afghanistan according to the Secretary of State.
Hours later that number seemed to change to 1,500 Americans left in the country, though not all of them are trying to leave:
The U.S. knows of about 1,500 Americans who are still in Afghanistan but doesn’t believe all of them are seeking to leave the country, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
U.S. diplomats have spoken to about 500 of those people and are “aggressively” trying to reach the others, Blinken said at the State Department on Wednesday. “We continue to be relentless in our outreach,” he said.
Perhaps the number is actually 1,500? Or higher? We don’t know precisely, and neither does the Biden administration at this point.
The situation on the ground, based on reports from journalists and Americans trying to exit the country, is abysmal. One woman trapped in the country attempted to reach the airport on several occasions but was turned back due to threats of violence:
An American mother trapped in Afghanistan made an emotional plea to Joe Biden on Tuesday, urging the president to help her get back to her children in the United States as the Taliban becomes increasingly violent.
The woman said that she had made multiple attempts to reach the Kabul airport, but people were quickly beaten, whipped, and turned away in fear for their lives.
The woman, who goes by the pseudonym “Fatima” for her own safety, has two children back in America. She said her daughter calls her, asking if the Taliban will behead her and why.
She said that family members of U.S. citizens have contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United States, only hearing back that the government would likely “escalate” the situation on the ground.
The evacuation is set to end by the Aug. 31 deadline:
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1430838249673613312
The Biden administration has repeatedly claimed that Americans trapped in the country will not be forgotten or left behind.
“We will use every diplomatic, economic, assistance tool at our disposal working hand-in-hand with the international community first and foremost to ensure that those who want to leave Afghanistan after the 31st are able to do so,” according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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