Biden Is Keeping His Promise - But Some Will Still Complain

President Biden is keeping his promise to evacuate Americans and our Afghan friends from that country. Over 83,000 have been evacuated, and many more will be evacuated before operations cease. But if you listen to the media, you might think the evacuation was a failure. It is NOT. But however many are evacuated, there are going to be some (especially on the right) who will not be happy with the results. Those people would not be happy if a million people were evacuated!

Here is part of Jennifer Rubin's take on the situation in The Washington Post:

Now that the number of evacuated Americans and at-risk Afghans has cleared 87,000 since the end of July (the vast majority of which are Afghans), the media’s premature declaration of “failure” looks off-base. Indeed, the coverage has tended to ignore or minimize the achievements of U.S. military and State Department personnel, which have exceeded any previous noncombatant evacuation operation. It becomes more difficult to argue that the United States has “abandoned” Afghans, given that we are moving heaven and earth to extract tens of thousands of them.

But don’t expect the media to rethink its excessively gloomy verdict. Instead, get ready for the post-Aug. 31 coverage that will point to every stray American (even those who failed to reply to State Department messages). Moreover, we will be told of the plight of many Afghans left behind as evidence that President Biden didn’t keep his promise to get Americans and Afghan partners out. . . .

 The New York Times reports that “the Biden administration had identified about 50,000 special visa applicants, and their families, to be evacuated.” However, thousands more could qualify under the special immigrant visa (SIV) program or be considered “at high risk of being targeted by the Taliban — former Afghan security forces, government officials, journalists, judges and prosecutors, and women rights advocates among them.”. . .

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. 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.

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.

Meanwhile, MAGA folks will be turning themselves inside out to argue that the United States left too many Afghans behind while also complaining that it is taking too many in. Fevered hatred of Biden will collide with their xenophobia.

The administration can and should continue to attempt rescue operations after Aug. 31. But some perspective is in order: The herculean effort could end up evacuating tens of thousands or even 100,000 Afghans and still fall far short of rescuing all at-risk Afghans. Yet this cannot be considered neglectful or hardhearted, because the pool of vulnerable Afghans is virtually limitless. . . .

In sum, the commitment to remove Americans and SIV recipients who worked directly with the United States and its allies was never intended to rescue large swaths of the population. When the United States accomplishes something difficult — exceptional even — and acts with kindness, humanity and decency, it should be acknowledged, even if its performance falls short of perfection. Subsequent drafts of history must provide context, perspective and moral discernment.