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Aug. 24, 2021 - Epoch Times
27:07
Black Hawk Helicopters, Airplanes, Rockets Captured by Taliban; Refugees Coming | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
There are currently about 11,000 Americans who are still stuck over in Afghanistan.
However, fortunately, it appears that they are being left alone and allowed to evacuate safely.
Meanwhile, after taking over the provincial capitals, as well as the capital city of Kabul, the Taliban was able to seize billions of dollars worth of American military equipment.
This includes guns, ammunition, rocket launchers as well as Black Hawk helicopters.
And lastly, as thousands of Afghans are fleeing the country, the United States government is opening our borders and setting up temporary housing in Texas and in Wisconsin.
Let's go through it all together.
This is your daily Facts Matter Update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
And now let's begin today's discussion by talking about what's happening over in Afghanistan.
As I'm sure you've already seen, this past Sunday, the Taliban took over Afghanistan when they marched into the city of Kabul, and without resistance, pretty much took it over within a few hours.
They entered the presidential palace in Kabul.
The Afghan president fled to another country.
And again, within hours, the capital takeover was complete.
And after this happened, the American troops who were still stationed in Kabul, they shifted their focus to keeping the airport secure so that people can flee the country.
And I do say people, not necessarily American citizens, because Afghans, special visa recipients, as well as American citizens are all currently fleeing the country.
Here's in fact what Jen Psaki said in this point.
Our focus right now is on doing the work at hand and on the task at hand, and that is, day by day, getting as many American citizens, as many special immigration visa applicants, as many members of vulnerable populations who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and on a plane.
Now, fortunately, the Taliban has agreed to allow for safe passage to civilians who are fleeing the country.
And I do say fortunately, because given how everybody was unprepared by this sudden bleatskrieg, there could have been a lot of casualties.
So the fact that they are allowing people to leave without any incident...
Although, frankly, it's also in the Taliban's best interest to do it this way.
After a meeting with senior Taliban leaders, here's what a statement from General Frank McKenzie, who is the commander of US Central Command, here's what he said: "I cautioned them, meaning the Taliban, against interference in our evacuation, and made it clear to them that any attack would be met with overwhelming force in the defense of our forces." And so, instead of poking the American sleeping giant, it appears that the Taliban is allowing for a peaceful evacuation, after which they can focus on consolidating their control over the country.
Here's what the White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, here's what he told reporters on that front.
"The Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment." And when he was asked by a reporter whether he believes them, he simply answered, yes.
And so, what is happening right now at this very moment?
So, to start with, as we're filming this video, there are currently about 11,000 Americans who are still stuck in what is now Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
This figure came from a statement that was made by Jen Psaki, and here's specifically what she said on that front.
However, it's not exactly clear whether that is the official number.
In fact, earlier in the day, there was an official from the Pentagon who said that the number could actually be significantly lower.
Here's what he said.
By the way, this man's name is John Kirby.
He is the Pentagon spokesman, and here's what he said during an interview with CNN. We think there are certainly thousands of Americans.
We don't have an exact count.
I would say somewhere, best guess, between 5,000 and 10,000 that are near Kabul.
And to be frank, I was a bit surprised to learn that the government has such a hard time pinning the number down.
I just assumed that when you're traveling overseas, since you're using your passport, all that stuff is kept on record.
Regardless, the American government, rather the American government officials, are urging the Americans who are still in Afghanistan to travel to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in order to leave the country.
And I'm sure you've seen some of the footage that has been coming out of that airport over the last few days.
Take a look at it here.
It's pretty much bedlam at the airport.
People are trying to leave.
People are stuffing themselves into the airplane, chasing the airplane.
People have sadly even tried to hang onto the airplane as it's taking off and tragically fallen to the ground as they were trying to escape Afghanistan.
At the moment, there are both military flights as well as some commercial flights that are ferrying people out of the country and into America.
And they are evacuating both American citizens as well as Afghans who are wishing to leave the country.
At the moment, members of the Taliban are positioned on the outskirts of the airport, but according to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, he said that the Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment.
However, this armed takeover was not without incident.
There are currently 2,500 American troops who are stationed at this airport, and two days ago they were shot at.
They returned fire, and they killed two armed individuals, although at the moment, no official statement has come out about who these armed individuals were.
No statement has been made whether they were Taliban or not.
However, since then, things have actually not escalated.
In fact, the situation seems to be much like how a CNN correspondent described it while reporting from Kabul.
They are chanting death to America, but they seem friendly.
And along that line, Pentagon officials have said that there are no indications that the Taliban has attacked either the airport or Now, in terms of the evacuations, between August 14th and August 17th, so between Sunday and Tuesday, about 1,500 people have been evacuated.
However, Pentagon officials are saying that they are ramping up this evacuation effort and hoping to reach a capacity of being able to evacuate 9,000 people per day, which would approximately be one aircraft leaving per hour.
According to a US official, the goal is to complete all evacuations by August 31st, which is about a week and a half from now.
And you might be asking yourself, once the Afghans, not the Americans, but the Afghans are evacuated, where exactly are they going to go?
Well, that's a great question, and I'll tell you about that right after I introduce our sponsor for today's episode, which I'll do from the sound booth.
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Again, you can go over to amac.us forward slash facts matter, or just click in the link in the description box below. And AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring our episode. Now Roman in the studio, back to you. Now again, you might be asking yourself, once the Afghans are evacuated, not the American citizens, but the Afghans, where are they exactly going to go? Well, Well, according to the Pentagon, the US is preparing to accommodate thousands, actually tens of thousands of Afghan refugees on American military installations right here at home.
Here's what the Pentagon press secretary said just three days ago.
We want to have the capacity to get up to several thousand immediately and want to be prepared for the potential of tens of thousands.
For your reference, by the way, Fort Bliss is a military base over in El Paso, Texas, and Fort McCoy is over in Wisconsin.
And furthermore, the Pentagon press secretary also implied that American citizens will not always be prioritized above the Afghans who are applying for special immigrant visas.
Here's what he said on that front.
"Once we get more airlift out of Kabul, we're going to put as many people on those planes as we can.
There will be a mix, not just American citizens, but perhaps some Afghan special immigrant visa applicants as well.
It's not just going to be Americans first.
It's not going to be just Americans first, then special immigrant visa applicants.
We're going to focus on getting as many folks out as we can.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the Defense Department for comment, and they clarified to us what their plans actually are.
They told us that Lloyd Austin, who is the Defense Secretary, he has approved two requests regarding these people who are fleeing Afghanistan.
Here's what they said in an email to us.
Under the first request, the Defense Department will provide temporary housing, sustainment, and support inside the United States For up to 22,000 Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, their families, and other at-risk individuals.
Under the second request, the department will provide protection, air transportation, and processing for up to 30,000 at-risk individuals from Kabul.
This total includes embassy personnel, U.S. citizens, Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, and other at-risk individuals.
And so what it looks like will happen is that 30,000 individuals will be airlifted by the military, 8,000 of them will be sent to a third country, and 22,000 of them will be transported by the military into the United States.
And once they are inside of our country, they will be relinquished from the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense, and the Department of State will then be responsible for any travel, transport, or anything else related to them afterwards.
In fact, here's a joint statement from these two departments, from the State and the Defense Department.
Here's what they said.
And we will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. special immigrant visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks.
For all categories, Afghans who have cleared security screening will continue to be transferred directly to the United States, and we will find additional locations for those yet to be screened.
Now, besides these civilians, over in Kabul, there are currently over 4,000 American soldiers who are on the ground, with at least another 2,000 soldiers expected to arrive as backup in the next few days.
Now, it's unclear right now as to whether these soldiers will remain there on the ground after August 31st.
In fact, U.S. officials declined to comment about it when they were asked.
However, the Taliban were more vocal on this point.
During an interview with Sky News, a spokesperson for the Taliban said that all American troops must leave the country by September 11th.
Here's what he said.
Get your troops out of Afghanistan.
They have already violated the time frame that was enshrined in the Doher agreement.
We are committed not to attack them, and we have not attacked them.
Now, while the Taliban are pushing to have Americans leave the country as fast as possible, they are not so keen on America's military equipment leaving the country.
In fact, videos which were uploaded to social media show the Taliban confiscating what appears to be huge stockpiles of American military equipment.
Equipment that we gave to the Afghan military, but which is now in the hands of the Taliban.
This includes large arsenals of guns, ammunition, grenade launchers, even Black Hawk helicopters.
Millions upon millions of dollars, perhaps even billions of dollars of American military equipment is now in the hands of the Taliban.
And don't forget, when I say billions of dollars, that's billions of American tax dollars gone to the Taliban.
Now, when he was asked about these Black Hawk helicopters, as well as other equipment that was left behind, Jake Sullivan, who is again the White House National Security Advisor, here's what he told a reporter.
Those Black Hawks were not given to the Taliban.
They were given to the Afghan National Security Forces to be able to defend themselves.
So, the president had a choice.
We could not give it to them with the risk that it would fall into the Taliban's hands eventually, or give it to them with the hope that they could deploy it in service of defending their country.
Both of those options had risks.
He had to choose, and he made a choice.
However, when Jake Sullivan was pressed a bit further on this point, here's what he said.
And so, within the course of about a week, America's $83 billion investment into the Afghan army fell into the hands of the Taliban.
And of course, it's not all just about the weaponry.
Here are some videos of Taliban militants playing on bumper cars.
And here's another video of them trying to use exercise equipment.
It looks like perhaps they are using it for the first time.
That is fascinating and an excellent use of our hard-earned tax dollars at work.
And so, you might be asking yourself, what does the future hold for Afghanistan?
Well, at the very least, we can look at the past as a reference.
If you remember, back in the 90s when the Taliban ruled over Afghanistan between the years of 1996 and 2001, they guided their administration according to Sharia law.
Back then, the Taliban stopped women from working, they administered punishments like public stoning, girls were not allowed to go to school, and women had to wear full burqas when they were out in public.
Now, it's not clear whether they will actually go back to that.
However, we do have a few statements from a Taliban spokesman to get a glimpse into what they're actually thinking.
According to Mr.
Mujahid, who is the Taliban spokesman, he said that the Taliban will not seek retribution against either former soldiers or against members of the Western-backed Afghan government.
Instead, he said that they are granting amnesty to former Afghan soldiers, contractors, and translators who worked with international as well as American forces.
Second of all he made another reassuring statement.
He said that no groups will be allowed to use Afghanistan to launch terrorist attacks.
Now if you remember back during the 90s when the Taliban were in control of the country, they did in fact harbor terrorist networks like Al-Qaeda.
However, this spokesman said that that was a thing of the past.
Here's specifically what he said on that front.
I would like to ensure, I would like to assure the international community, including the United States, that nobody will be harmed.
In Afghanistan, I would like to assure our neighbors, our original countries, we are not going to allow our territory to be used against anybody or any country in the world.
Now, this assurance that the Taliban won't attack other countries was actually part of the peace deal which was brokered between the Taliban and the Trump administration last year in 2020.
However, we'll have to wait and see whether that actually holds.
There are already some indications that it might not.
For instance, on Sunday, when the Taliban took over Kabul, other terror groups celebrated their victory on social media.
Furthermore, the Taliban actually shares a similar worldview to Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabib, ISIS, as well as other Sunni Islamist groups.
And in fact, there were several reports which show that last week, both ISIS and Al-Qaeda terrorists who were jailed in Afghanistan, they were freed from jail by the Taliban when they were taking over different provinces.
And so we'll just have to wait and see what actually happens, whether they'll hold up any of these promises.
Although, some people are already sounding the alarm.
For instance, Charles Lister, who is a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute, He wrote this in a post-time medium.
This is without a doubt the most significant day for Al-Qaeda since 9-11.
For the first time in years, not only does Al-Qaeda finally have some breathing space, it's being gifted an enormously significant safe haven in which to rebuild.
Likewise, the Pentagon, they issued a warning of a worsening terror threat, with an official from the Pentagon making this statement.
The Secretary of Defense certainly believes that, in light of recent events, that a reassessment of the possibilities for reconstitution of terrorist networks inside Afghanistan is warranted.
Now, it might be worth mentioning that besides these actual terrorists, the Taliban, which hold a threat to America, last Friday, right before the fall of Afghanistan, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new national terrorism bulletin, which included this statement here.
There are also continued non-specific calls for violence on multiple online platforms, which are associated with domestic violent extremist ideologies or conspiracy theories on perceived election fraud and alleged reinstatement of President Trump, and responses to anticipated restrictions relating to the increasing COVID cases.
And so let me just reiterate, on the eve of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Homeland Security in this country issues a terror alert.
And they say this terror advisory is not based on any actual threats or plots.
However, they say that there is a rise in anti-government rhetoric, some of it being in opposition to mask mandates, vaccine mandates, while other people are griping about election fraud.
Now lastly, what I really wanted to know was how American veterans felt about these developments.
And so we here at the Epoch Times, we got a chance to interview several vets, and for the most part, they expressed a combination of anger and sadness over these developments.
Tony Brooks, who is a former member of the Army Rangers and who served in Afghanistan, he told us that he's now questioning whether any of it was worth it.
Here's what he said.
I know what this means.
I know where this is going.
I went over there to fight.
I don't know what it was for at this point.
It feels very much like a complete failure.
Vietnam 2.0.
Now, in terms of the lives and money that were lost, he said that he is appalled that nearly 2,450 American service members have died and about $2 trillion have been spent in the 20-year-long campaign.
Here's what he said on that front.
Now, the Taliban is taking those rights and enslaving them.
Now, we also spoke with a man named Bill Vaughn, who lives down in Florida and who lost a son who was a Navy SEAL.
And here's what he said.
I've never seen such a tragedy unfold in my lifetime.
It's really inexplicable to describe in my mind how badly the Biden administration has handled the crisis.
There is no reason for us to flee like dogs with our tails between our legs.
He, meaning Biden, is full of insults for everybody else.
You just can't hardly believe that people are that stupid.
It makes you wonder if it wasn't done on purpose.
Another man, a former U.S. Marine corporal who served overseas and who lost friends in Afghanistan, he questioned the leadership that led to this humiliating takeover of the country by the Taliban.
Here's what he told us.
I don't know if the war was worth it.
Honestly, I really don't know.
They told me it was a waste of time, all my buddies that are over there.
My biggest thing is the families that have lost a father, a son, or daughter.
Furthermore, I sat down with Joe Kent, who was formerly in the Army Special Forces, and he served under the administrations of Clinton, Trump, Obama, and Bush.
And here's what he said, although granted, this interview was before the fall of Kabul.
I served in the U.S. military and the Army and Special Forces for a little bit over 20 years.
Did 11 combat deployments.
Had the opportunity to serve this country downrange, overseas, fighting our enemies.
Greatest honor of my life.
In that time, you know, I also saw the establishment really keep us at war for no gain.
I was pretty disenfranchised with the way that the Bush administration, the Obama administration, used our troops in these endless wars.
That was until President Trump came on the scene and really started putting America first, implementing America first foreign policy, and going about fighting our wars in a different capacity.
He gave us the authorities that we needed to go out and crush the Islamic Caliphate.
I intended to stay in that capacity serving our country in the national security realm until about two years ago when my wife, Shannon Kent, was killed fighting ISIS in Syria.
She was also in the military.
She was killed about A month after Trump attempted to get our troops out of Syria the first time.
So she'd be alive had the deep state, the permanent ruling class, not turned against President Trump to keep our troops in Syria.
So that was obviously the most traumatic thing that's ever happened to me in my life.
I quit working for the government at that time to take care of my two young sons.
But I also started speaking out in support of President Trump's foreign policy.
I took my children back to the Pacific Northwest, Washington State, where I'm from, To get them closer to my family.
And then 2020 happened.
We were ravaged with lockdowns.
And then a series of riots by Antifa and BLM. Our district was assaulted.
And our elected officials essentially did nothing to stop that.
So then the election happened.
The election was, you know, wrought with fraud.
My representative, Jamie Herrera Butler, went along with certifying the election results without contesting them.
And then she voted for the impeachment of President Trump.
And I saw that as a absolute crisis moment that if I sat on the sidelines, Our country would continue to be sold down the river by the far radical left, and we would essentially lose the nation that I grew up in that I fought for.
I have two young sons who lost their mother when they were very young, and I have to look them in the eyes very soon and explain to them this is the country that their mother gave her life for, and I can't do that right now.
So I want to go to Washington, D.C. to restore the will of the people back to Congress.
Definitely sorry about your loss.
Thank you.
What branch of the military did you serve in?
I was in the Army.
My wife was in the Navy.
Oh, so you're an Army Ranger.
Ranger and then a Green Beret.
Yeah.
So you served actually under Bush, Obama, and then Trump?
That's right.
So I went in Clinton for the first two years.
Yeah, so two years Clinton, and then eight years Bush, eight years Obama, and two years Trump.
Can you give any, for the viewers who might have not served, who might have only had some peripheral understanding of what was happening on the ground, can you give us some concrete examples of the differences in styles and administration, between those administrations?
You know, right after 9-11, we went to war for the right reasons.
George Bush knew that we had just been attacked.
Bill Clinton had let Al-Qaeda fester.
We were attacked by Al-Qaeda under Bill Clinton as well, and he did nothing about it.
So really, 9-11 was a direct result of Bill Clinton being completely and totally complacent and incompetent.
So when we were attacked, Bush sent us to war for all the right reasons.
We had to go to Afghanistan to take out Al-Qaeda and the Taliban that harbored them.
But then we immediately switched directions, without the consent of the American people, to nation-building and wars of regime change.
And this is where you really see the military-industrial complex kind of take over, because Bush wanted to go after just al-Qaeda, then he wanted to do nation building, and then we sold the Iraq war based on lies, which was another experiment in regime toppling, and then nation building.
And because so many people on the left as well went along with the right, this became this bipartisan institutional effort to continue nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq.
So despite the rhetoric that Obama used as a candidate, he was unable and unwilling to get us out of both those wars.
He attempted to get us out of Iraq the first time, but then we ended up going back because it was such a mess because of a bunch of other different reasons.
Some of that is Bush's fault, but we ended up going back nonetheless.
And then Obama continued the policy of regime change.
He executed that in Libya.
We have another geostrategic mess there in Libya.
And so really, I didn't see any difference until President Trump came on the scene.
The first thing he did was he went after the Republican Party's neoconservative ideology.
So he gutted the entire foreign policy establishment of the Republican Party and started saying, hey, we don't need to be in these wars forever.
We can use decisive military action and the strength of our economy to get most of what we need.
We don't need to be in these places.
So Trump was really the first break that I saw from the uniparties' desire to keep us deployed and bleeding everywhere.
Wow.
What do you make of the response by the media and also by many members of Congress when Soleimani was taken out?
Because that seems like an example of what you're saying, decisive action.
Exactly.
But what do you make of the pushback that he received?
So people need to understand that Iran has been at war with America since 1979 when they overran our embassy and took hostages.
They conducted multiple bombings in Beirut.
They killed our Marines.
They killed the U.S. head of the CIA in Beirut in the 80s.
Countless other actions.
They killed hundreds of American troops in Iraq.
Iran's been at war with us.
George Bush, every president since the Islamic Revolution refused to deal with that.
President Trump drew a hard line, said, I don't want to be at war with Iran.
However, if you kill an American, you will feel the pain.
Qasem Soleimani and his deputies, they were highly emboldened because no American had ever threatened them before.
So they were emboldened to go and kill an American under President Trump's watch, and the first thing he did, he immediately took them off the battlefield.
He killed Soleimani and his deputy Abu Mahondas without getting us into a new war.
It was a great use of military power, and it showed us that the Iranians, they're not invincible, and they can be checked.
Yeah, wow.
But what do you make of the response that he received?
Absolutely.
So the response was just partisan.
It was very partisan.
And I think a lot of people that had been in Washington for a really long time, they felt very insulted because they had been selling this false bill of goods that the Iranians were...
Somehow this thing that we just couldn't mess with.
We had to tolerate the Iranians being a state sponsor of terror.
We had to tolerate their support for Hamas.
We had to tolerate their support for Hezbollah because if we dare mess with him, that all of our forces in the region would be attacked.
So Trump went and he checked that conventional wisdom by taking the guy that they said was untouchable off the battlefield.
So I think a lot of people were just embarrassed.
A lot of human nature.
And then just a lot of straight Now, if you'd like to go deeper into anything that we've discussed in today's episode, I'll throw all those links into the description box below this video for you to check them out for yourself.
And of course, this is an unfolding story and it's unfolding by the minute, and so we'll keep you abreast of any developments as they're coming about.
And now lastly, I'd like to make a small announcement similar to what I said in an earlier episode.
If you still watch television, I mean like over-the-air, cable, satellite, sitting with your family around the couch-style television, well, I have good news for you.
Because you can now watch our program, Facts Matter, on TV, specifically on NTD. NTD is an awesome cable news network.
They're actually a sister media to the Epoch Times, and they report the news in a solid, professional way without all the spin and all the false narratives that you get on other cable news networks.
I mean, they're basically a great alternative to the CNN, Fox News, MSNBC monopoly on cable news.
And now you can watch our program on their 7.30 p.m. Eastern time slot.
Now, they're still growing.
Currently, you can watch NTD in 32 different states, but they have coverage on Roku and Apple TV as well.
So you can actually watch them over Wi-Fi anywhere.
So if you'd like to see how you can watch NTD, whether it's carried by your cable provider, you can go on over to NTD.com forward slash TV.
I'll throw a link to it in the description box as well.
And if you don't actually get NTD, you can call up your cable provider and ask them, hey, I'd like you to carry NTD.
They actually do listen.
And actually, one of our viewers, he works at a television station, at a local TV station, and after watching our previous announcement, he actually reached out to NCD, and now he is carrying them on his local channel.
So also, if you have any connections in your local TV stations, I'd highly recommend you reach out to NCD and get their broadcast to as many people as possible.
Again, I'll throw their link into the description box below.
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