Congressman Michael Guest spoke with Y’all Politics regarding the growing crisis in Afghanistan.
Congressman Michael Guest provided insight into the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban recently took power when U.S. troops were pulled out of the country.
According to Congressman Guest the situation in Afghanistan was due to a rushed job by the current administration. He said he believed President Biden wanted a “date” he could point to and say that the U.S. was no longer occupying Afghanistan on September 11.
Mid morning on Tuesday the Associated Press confirmed that President Biden decided not to extend the evacuation order for Americans and allies past August 31. Guest added that the decision not to extend the evacuation deadline, not only puts Americans and allies lives at risk but sends a weak message to the Taliban and the rest of the world.
“What we hoped to hear today is the President say ‘We will stay as long as is necessary to bring our allies home…..These are American citizens, these are American allies. Some of whom have fought beside Americans for the last 20 years and we’re going to stay as long as it takes to bring them home,” said Guest
Guest said sensitive information indicates that there is no way all Americans and allies will be evacuated by August 31. He said this puts the Taliban at an advantage giving them the notion that all they had to do was delay those individuals leaving for roughly another week before the U.S. is no longer around.
He said the Taliban continues to make it very difficult for individuals to make it to the airport, however the U.S. is back in control of it with a very small perimeter.
Along with people, millions of dollars of military equipment and weapons from the United States armed forces were left in country. This creates the problem of the Taliban having access to use these weapons or sell them to others for monetary gain.
Guest agreed that long term impacts will be felt across the world including America. He said the United States is much less safer since the pull out than they were prior to leaving Afghanistan.
Sarah Ulmer
