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Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin Profile picture
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19 Aug, 6 tweets, 1 min read
the notion the admin wanted to hang out to dry Afghans is belied by what we know. The TRUMP admin had processed no one and had a backlog of 17,000
The Biden team built a system, surged consular people, set up an entire category of P2's and erected an AIRLIFT (never contemplated) and is now sending flights with maj Afghans out.
they deserve plenty of criticism for not coming up with plan or foreseeing immediate crumble but lack of intent to pull out Afghans is not one of their sins
newsweek.com/biden-announce…
it also included P's
State in July switched from merely issuing visas to a physical airlift of 1000's: af.usembassy.gov/operation-alli… ... could it have started sooner? kept Bagram? pushed harder on the Aug 31? All legit. questions. But not to say admin cowed by nativists or abandoned partners

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More from @JRubinBlogger

Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin Profile picture
29 Aug
any hope of depopulating a war-torn country, and ending the suffering there (including the dismal future for millions of women and girls) is not grounded in reality. It belongs with the magical thinking that we'd create a nation state in Afghanistan.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
He was criticized for “abandoning” Afghans; when we stay to rescue them he gets faulted for risking American lives. The insistence that there must have been a painless way to lose a 20-year war, rescue all imperiled Afghans and avoid any more casualties is a fable
We should have pulled out everyone in April! (Would not the Afghan government have crumbled then?)
Just leave a few thousand U.S. troops there! (And attacks would magically cease? One should think long and hard before increasing the number of Gold Star parents.)
Read 6 tweets
Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin Profile picture
25 Aug
No one ever envisioned airlifting hundreds of thousands of people in such a short timeframe before the Afghan government collapsed. This was a challenge with the Trump administration’s May 1 deadline and by Biden’s agreement to leave by Aug. 31.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
But the problem of the left behind would have existed even if the deadline was Oct. 1 or Dec. 1. It’s simply not possible to remove a significant portion of the population after having lost the war. It's really an argument for NEVER leaving if we can't depopulate the country.
We could get all of the known SIV applicants, plus thousands of at-risk Afghans, and still leave many vulnerable Afghans behind. In one sense, every girl and woman might face a threat of persecution. But evacuating tens of millions of people is unimaginable.
Read 6 tweets
Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin Profile picture
21 Aug
Deeply reported: 1.) IC did blow it with 18-24 mo timeline 2.) Biden did have a plan for that timeline 3.) State was trying to speed up SIV processing 4.) once IC finally admitted it was going to hell, too late. Why does Haines still have a job?? nytimes.com/2021/08/21/us/…
really does rank up there with WMD's...
so Biden "mistake" = believed his IC (betwn this and WMD's, maybe hire kids w/laptops instead?). But - and this is key - whenever began mass evac chaos would start. That happens when you lose a war and leave. Now up to 17,000 evacuees in 1 wk. Can we pull off historic airlift?
Read 4 tweets
Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin Profile picture
17 Aug
Biden deserves ample criticism for a clumsily executed, poorly planned evacuation in Afghanistan. (We will see whether he can atone for it in the follow-up rescue.) But he should also receive credit for calling out the military’s dissembling over 2 decades washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Much of the blame for the failure to produce a competent Afghan army falls on the United States for its ill-conceived training programs, constant churn of leadership and cultural tone deafness. But the Afghans deserve blame, too.
the military concealed this doomed effort from decision-makers, who were told success was around the corner. Three presidents bought that falsehood, as did Congress, outside consultants and numerous pundits who were drawn into the “just give us more time and men” canard.
Read 5 tweets
Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin Profile picture
12 Aug
The concern is that this event will be more than a dog and pony show, a conference with glossy programs but little in the way of substance. .. But it doesn't have to be this way
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
use this as a chance to get our own democratic house in order - voting and anti-corruption reforms, for starters
the administration can emphasize disinformation as a topic for the summit, as it is a key tool that authoritarians employ to threaten democracy. Use this as a forum to pressure transnational social media companies
Read 4 tweets
Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin Profile picture
29 Jun
they have taken themselves outside the small-d democratic compact that requires, at the very least, that we respect election results and abide by normative guidelines in defeat or victory.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
there is a racial and religious component: The evangelical worldview in America has historically been built on a set of hierarchies that have been defended as divinely ordained — Christian over non-Christian, Protestant over Catholic, white over non-white, men over women.
In its strongest forms, this worldview is fundamentally anti-democratic and theocratic.”
Read 4 tweets

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