Rush of troops to Kabul tests Biden’s withdrawal deadline

The Associated Press ^ | August 14, 2021 | By ROBERT BURNS, MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER

[Oldeconomybuyer]

WASHINGTON — The last-minute decision to send 3,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to help partially evacuate the U.S. Embassy is calling into question whether President Joe Biden will meet his Aug. 31 deadline for fully withdrawing combat forces.

The vanguard of a Marine contingent arrived in Kabul, the capital, on Friday, and most of the rest of the 3,000 are due by Sunday.

Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, said in an interview the announcement that 3,000 U.S. troops are heading to Kabul to help pull out American diplomats and embassy staff likely made Afghan morale even worse.

“The message that sent to Afghans is: ‘The city of Kabul is going to fall so fast that we can’t organize an orderly withdrawal from the embassy,’” Biddle said. This suggests to Afghans that the Americans see little future for the government and that “this place could be toast within hours.”

There are a little over 4,000 personnel still at the embassy; the State Department has not said how many are being pulled out in the next two weeks.

The Biden administration warned Taliban officials directly that the U.S. would respond if the Taliban attacked Americans during the stepped-up deployments and evacuations.

[Jumper]

Tenant organizations: Intel Agencies/Cover & declared positions), DIA(Military Liaison/Defense Attache), FBI/LEGAT, USAID, Peace Corps, Treasury, Commence Dept, e.g., there are over 106 different USG entities most of which represent all the various Departments in D.C. Heck they probably have the EPA by now....

I was in the foreign service (Middle East, Asia, South America) handling the classified communications, radio program, Telephone Swatch, Satellite, Pouch Mail, US Postal Supervisor, etc. Anything for anyone or any organization went thru me, and I put them in the Classified and Unclassified computers.

There is so much going on in an embassy or consulate. We have people overseas representing the FBI, Treasury, DEA, etc., doing their work overseas in a lot of different countries. These three are in as much danger as the Intel Agency folks. Everything is shared intelligence. Meetings held by the Amb/CG with all department heads expedites work and ensures all department heads are onboard or aware of everything everyone has concerning ______ (just about anything you could reasonably think up as a function of the USG in the States).

In my humble opinion, the appropriate mix of personnel representing Agencies/Departments is adequate.

Security can amount to extra layers of personnel in the mission or connected to the mission. In many countries people are protecting the embassy who never communicate with the mission. Everything is reasonable.

God Bless or As Allah Wishes the Local Nation’s who work in every section of that mission; they are dead meat.

I believe that contractors and Rent-an-infantry are counted in these numbers.

The USMC / Marine Security Guards are a token force within the mission.

I have a family member working in the International Law Enforcement and because of their dealings with US Drug Enforcement they are considered to be potential targets for drug cartels.

[lurk]

If they don’t have armor and air cover, they’re sitting ducks.