Business Insider,
by
Sinéad Baker
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/24/2021 9:26:59 AM
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The Taliban could force Kabul's airport to close if President Joe Biden extends his August 31 deadline for troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warned. Biden is expected to decide on Tuesday if he will extend his deadline in order to evacuate more people after the Taliban's takeover.(Snip) He told the BBC's Radio 4's "Today" program that the Taliban had a range of options available, "from preventing people getting to the airport all the way through to military activity that could potentially close the airport. That is very difficult for everyone." "So that's why our focus and
Daily Beast,
by
Matt Lewis
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/23/2021 7:50:46 PM
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Joe Biden was bluffing with a weak hand again. Faced with the prospect that America’s promised retreat from Afghanistan wouldn’t be complete by month’s end, the commander in chief began backtracking on his exit date last week. “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay to get them all out,” he told ABC News. (Snip) Having abandoned Bagram Air Base and allowed Kabul to fall, Biden now finds himself in the unenviable position of relying on the good will of the Taliban to permit Americans to safely exit the country. This whole situation is a tinderbox. The administration rolled
CNN Politics,
by
Barbara Starr
,
Ellie Kaufman
&
Nicole Gaouette
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/23/2021 6:14:20 PM
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The US military is advising President Joe Biden that he must decide by Tuesday whether to extend the evacuation in Afghanistan beyond August 31, according to a defense official directly familiar with the discussions. Military advisers have told the White House that the decision must be made by Tuesday in order to have enough time to withdraw the 5,800 troops currently on the ground, as well as their equipment and weapons. If the President agrees, the military anticipates "a few more days" of trying to evacuate as many people as possible before the drawdown of US forces begins, possibly at
Associated Press,
by
Staff
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/23/2021 1:48:09 PM
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GENEVA — A top World Health Organization official says the agency only has “a few days left of supplies” for Afghanistan and wants help to ferry in 10 or 12 planeloads of equipment and medicine for its beleaguered people. (Snip) Brennan said U.S. and other authorities have encouraged WHO and partners to look to other Afghan airports other than Kabul’s, which is facing a crush of thousands of people who are trying to get out of Afghanistan after a Taliban takeover. He said those authorities “have suggested that it’ll be too difficult a logistics exercise and security exercise to bring
Telegraph [UK],
by
David Millward
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/23/2021 1:32:52 PM
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Joe Biden’s propensity for verbal gaffes haunted the US president again after he referred to Afghans as “Afghanis” – the country’s currency. The slip was noticed by Idrees Ali, a Pentagon correspondent with the Reuters news agency. He voiced his irritation on Twitter - see below. (Tweet) Others joined in, with Eric Nelson, a biomedical researcher, suggesting that the term Afghani was in fact offensive. David Fielder, a military officer, added: “It grates on my nerve. Like fingernails on a chalkboard.” It was just the latest unfortunate slip of the tongue by the 78-year-old president, which has led Republican critics
Business Insider,
by
Tom Porter
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/23/2021 8:54:50 AM
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A Taliban spokesman warned of "consequences" if the US kept troops in Afghanistan beyond its August 31 deadline hours after President Joe Biden said he could do exactly that. In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, the Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said: "It's a red line. President Biden announced that on 31 August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that." (Snip) Taliban sources have also told Reuters that they would not extend the August 31 deadline for Western forces, adding that
KGO-TV [San Francisco CA],
by
Cornell Barnard
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/22/2021 10:06:10 PM
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SAN FRANCISCO -- A Bay Area man is sharing his terrifying story, escaping from Afghanistan. It's a journey which began more than a week ago. His former military buddy in the East Bay assisted in the effort to get him out safely, which almost didn't happen. "I didn't think I'd be able to make it back to the states without losing my head," said Jay. (Snip) "It was a total disaster," he said. Kabul is a city in chaos. Jay says he made several attempts to get to the airport but the Taliban's gauntlet made it almost impossible. "People were being
Business Insider,
by
Oma Seddiq
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/22/2021 2:29:36 PM
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Rep. Adam Kinzinger slammed the former Trump administration's deal with the Taliban, saying on Sunday that it set the stage for the current failure in Afghanistan. The Illinois Republican said former President Donald Trump and his then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are at fault for America's "disastrous" withdrawal from the country. "Donald Trump was publicly saying, 'We have to get out of Afghanistan at all costs. It's not worth it.' Mike Pompeo meets with the Taliban and tries to 'negotiate' something," Kinzinger said during an appearance on CNN. "They ended up getting rolled almost as bad as Neville Chamberlain," he
Daily Caller,
by
Shakhzod Yuldoshboev
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/21/2021 9:46:09 PM
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CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward left Kabul, Afghanistan, sharing a picture of a U.S. Air Force plane packed with evacuees in a Friday tweet. (Snip) Ward quoted one of the Afghans awaiting evacuation from the Taliban-controlled Kabul, who described the situation as “an insult to human dignity” and added that he did not know “why the Americans are doing this.” (Tweet) Ward confirmed landing in Doha, Qatar, with 300 other people Saturday, saying that they were “the lucky ones” to get such an opportunity. She reported seeing a “female soldier carrying a weeping Afghan toddler,” a “Marine supporting an
USA Today,
by
Bart Jansen Maureen Groppe
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/21/2021 2:26:25 PM
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All gates at Hamid Karzai International Airport were closed Saturday because of a backup at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, according to a Defense department official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Most U.S. military evacuation planes fly from Kabul to Qatar and the inability to handle more evacuees there is causing a ripple effect. Pentagon officials said Saturday they continue to process evacuees from Afghanistan, despite a fluid and dynamic situation at Kabul airport. “The airport remains secure,” said Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor, deputy director of the joint staff for regional operations. “There has been no
NBC News,
by
Minyvonne Burke
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/21/2021 10:45:45 AM
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Henri, still a tropical storm, is inching closer to the north-northeast coast and is expected to make landfall Sunday as a hurricane on Long Island or southern New England, weather forecasters said. The storm is currently about 525 miles south of Montauk Point, Long Island. Henri's maximum sustained winds are near 70 mph with higher gusts, the National Hurricane Center said in its 8 a.m. Saturday update. "Strengthening is forecast through tonight, and Henri is expected to become a hurricane later today and be at or near hurricane strength when it makes landfall," the agency said. The last major threat
Business Insider,
by
John Haltiwanger
Original Article
Posted by
NorthernDog
—
8/20/2021 6:24:48 PM
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President Joe Biden just faced one of his toughest weeks as president yet, with pandemonium in Afghanistan, skyrocketing COVID-19 cases, and a declining approval rating. Roughly a month after Biden forcefully defended his move to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, expressing "trust" in the capacity of the Afghan military to keep the Taliban at bay, the militant Islamist group marched into Kabul on Sunday. The Taliban had rapidly seized major cities over the course of the prior week, often without much of a fight. The militants regained control of the country just days after the US military assessed that it
Comments:
I am tempted to say this is a petty criticism but apparently it is offensive to the Afghan people, and as a Head of State Biden should know the correct terms to use.