Evacuation Progress: 88,000 out as ‘Red Line’ nears

During an interview with Sky News, Shaheen said, “If the U.S. or U.K. were to seek additional time to continue evacuations, the answer would be no, or there would be consequences.”

It appears that U.S. officials are heeding this warning, as plans continue to hinge on the original August 31 deadline. From the White House yesterday, President Joe Biden said, “The sooner we can finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops.”

Despite the President’s optimism, it is unsure whether the U.S. will put the Taliban’s warning first. The other option, which is equally persuasive, is placing a higher value on helping those who remain deadlocked in the country.

Evacuation Constraints

At a Pentagon press briefing earlier today, Army Major General Hank Taylor stated, “Today, approximately 88,000 have safely departed from Afghanistan.” Immediately afterwards, he bolstered that total with the claim that “Every 39 minutes yesterday, a plane departed Kabul airport.”

Despite the steadily-increasing throughput of the evacuation efforts, it appears that the “Red Line” marked by the Taliban will be taken seriously. So seriously, in fact, that Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby stated, “And when we are leaving the airport, the airport will not be the United States’ responsibility.”

With the deadline just over the horizon, U.S. officials are mindful of the need to appear as though they are no longer occupying Afghanistan. It is certainly possible that such a portrayal will fall short, considering the contingency plans that Kirby says are “on the shelf.”

When asked what remains to be done for the formal withdrawal, Kirby replied: “We’re focused on that date, but we’re also focused keenly on making sure we get as many people out as fast as we can, for as long as we can. And if there has to be alterations to that, then obviously, Secretary Austin is going to want to be a part of that conversation and to be able to issue his guidance and direction to the commanders on the ground.”

Impending Strife

The various outspoken commitments to the original time frame follow innumerable accounts detailing the severity of the situation on the ground.

On the same day as Shaheen’s interview, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore admonished that “An estimated 1 million children are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition over the course of this year and could die without treatment.” In addition to this estimate, Fore also said that “around 10 million children across Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance to survive.”

Despite the looming danger for these children, and their families, the U.S. will be cutting off the vast majority of its influence in the region following the withdrawal deadline.

In Kirby’s words, “How it gets managed going forward will be something that the Taliban, who are now in Kabul, will have to manage on their own, and, I assume, with the international community, but that won’t be an American responsibility.”

Misplaced faith

Faith can be useful at times. However, when faith is placed in the Taliban, it almost always turns out to be a mistake.

The Taliban have vastly improved their branding skills over the past two decades. The group is now outspoken about their newfound commitment to human rights, especially for the women in Afghanistan.

When asked about the freedoms of women and girls in the country, during the aforementioned interview, Shaheen stated, “They will lose nothing. Only if they have no hijab, they will have a hijab… women are required to have the same rights as you have in your country but with a hijab.”

As always, talk is cheap.

During the Taliban’s former rule in Afghanistan, women and girls were almost completely without individual liberties. Every aspect of life for the female sex was under the rigid control of religious leaders and their police force. The religious authorities controlled: clothing choices, access to education, freedom of movement, access to healthcare, employment, friendships, and publicly “immoral” acts, such as the overt intermingling of sexes.

Summarily, the Taliban of the past controlled everything under the sun when it came to micromanaging the lives of their female citizens.

History is not necessarily doomed to repeat, but in this case, it appears that it probably will. The only difference is that, this time, the theocratic culling of liberty in Afghanistan will be live-streamed straight to our cellphones.