Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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4 Responses

  1. Philip H says:

    Here’s a quote from CNN that I think is worth sharing:

    From August 23 at 3:00 AM EDT to August 23 at 3:00 PM EDT, a total of approximately 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul.

    10,900 people moved in 12 hours. on top of an estimated 16,000 the day before. That puts us at somewhere well north of 40,000 people since 14 August.

    Tell me again why the US has botched this?Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Philip H says:

      I think it’s because of the after-the-fact thing. Like, if someone said “the withdrawal from Afghanistan will have result in the Taliban taking over Kabul in two weeks and two people will die because they were clinging to planes leaving in a replay of Saigon” back in, oh, April, it’d have been seen as a criticism of the administration rather than an assessment that is wrong because it was too optimistic.Report

    • Marchmaine in reply to Philip H says:

      “Tell me again why the US has botched this?”

      The US isn’t in control of the evacuation zone.

      Who gets evacuated and who doesn’t is predicated on a cease fire with the Taliban; and it’s the Taliban who controls the checkpoints which determine who can and cannot depart.

      We’ll likely never know how many or who didn’t make it out… but as North has previously observed, as long as those folks are indigenous, well, who’s gonna care?

      Which points back to the baseline assumption that no contingency plans were necessary because the evacuation zone would obviously be under Govt. control for the duration.Report