Thread by @mattczeller

.@POTUS WHAT ABOUT OUR AFGHAN WARTIME ALLIES??? #KeepOurPromise #SaveOurAllies #TakeThemAll #AfghanEvac #EvacuateNow #DigitalDunkirk #TakeThemToo #AfghanLivesMatter #KabulAirlift #AfghanAirlift

https://twitter.com/riegerreport/status/1428111847656497155

It’s boggles my mind as to how they can possibly just now be this concerned. We’ve been warning them over and over again for seven months. Daily.

Next to completely abandoning them, this is our nightmare scenario.

We predicted this. In April I wrote an oped for the military times. The crux of my argument: When collapse occurs in Afghanistan it will happen faster than DC can respond. And that this kind of rescue would necessitate the largest airlift since 1948. militarytimes.com/opinion/commen…

We have extreme difficulty getting people passed the gates at #kabulairport.

There are three layers of security. The outer most is Taliban. The inner most are our forces. And crazy as it may sound, in between them are a thin line of what remains of the Afghan National Security Forces still on duty in Kabul.

Those Afghans absolutely better be on our jets when we leave.

The Taliban have checkpoints everywhere. If they find that you are carrying a passport or English documents or communications of any kind, they immediately confiscate them. Good luck getting the gate through without any documents or phones.

And oh by the way, they’re now on the Taliban’s hit list.

They are going door to door and searching for our allies. When they find them one of two things happens. To some they say, with a smile on their face, “we’re making a list and when the Americans leave, we’re coming back for you.”

To others, they simply just take them, never to be seen again.

We had one ally - a 17 year old kid, taken while out shopping for groceries, because his neighbors had reported to the Taliban that he and his family were leaving for America. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

At the gates and online with the #DigitalDunkirk, there is mass confusion.

Throngs of people make it impossible to get to the gates of #kabulairport.

We’ve literally been instructed by people on the ground to tell our allies to push through by any means to the front of the line in order or hear their name called by an interpreter who is relaying the information for an American official.

Even in our last hour, the #interpreters remain on post - we have to take every. single. last. one. of. them.

At night the Taliban go through and beat the crowd with chains.
They fire over the base at the crowd in an attempt to get the crowd to surge towards the US gate. They are trying to spark an incident that looks awful for us.

They are testing us. How we expect anyone to get through this is madness.

Some of our NATO allies have already figured out better solutions. Some like the French are just going out with their Special Forces and getting their people by whatever means necessary. @POTUS, if the French can do it, so can we.

https://twitter.com/tweetsintheME/status/1428066894033133582?s=20

Others are having their evacuees meet at other locations around Kabul and then finding alternative means to get them to the airport. Both of those options are exponentially more effective and efficient than what we have on the ground right now.

.@POTUS please meet with our coalition so we can properly explain the situation to you. Our message has failed to get to you through your staff. I’m asking now publicly in this insane global forum because it’s the last bastion of the desperate & we’re at our most darkest hour.

Here are @wartimeallies recommendations:

Order the US military to expand the perimeter well past the airport. The Taliban cannot be allowed to remain 100m from US Marines where they can commit atrocities knowing we will do nothing. They are thugs. We are the United States of America. Show them we won’t be bullied.

Use the might of our forces to create a humanitarian corridor in Kabul - so that people can safely get to the airport without this chaos and constant Taliban interference.

Retake by force and reopen the following airfields: Baghram, Kandahar, Mazar-I-Sharif, Herat, and Jalalabad. Set up similar humanitarian corridors in each of those cities.

Asking the some 50,000+ Afghan wartime allies & evacuees we are tracking that live outside of Kabul to run the Taliban gauntlet of checkpoints is a suicide mission.

If you’re so determined to continue negotiating with liars, try and make one last deal - we take ALL our people in exchange for a peaceful exit from the country.

We do not want another war. We are not going to remain in #Afghanistan. We just want to take ALL of our people and leave. Get them to agree to those terms. Bring them home. Just get it done. Our people are counting on you. #KeepOurPromise #SaveOurAllies #EvacuateNow #TakeThemAll