Sept. 17, 2023
LM#37---American Foreign Policy, Part 3
FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message American Foreign Policy, Book 3 and Part 3 Are you ready to be profoundly shaken? Brace yourself as we rip open the concealed layers of the harrowing Abbey Gate incident in Kabul, Afghanistan in August 2021 with our guides, the authors of this remarkable and hard hitting book, Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End by Jerry Dunleavy & James Hasson This episode goes be...
FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message
American Foreign Policy, Book 3 and Part 3
Are you ready to be profoundly shaken?
Brace yourself as we rip open the concealed layers of the harrowing Abbey Gate incident in Kabul, Afghanistan in August 2021 with our guides, the authors of this remarkable and hard hitting book, Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End by Jerry Dunleavy & James Hasson
This episode goes beyond just the gruesome incident, we're also going to unravel the effects of Biden's foreign policy on the devastating fallout of the US Forces' withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Key Points from the Episode:
- We're taking a hard look at the very fibers of this catastrophe, including the improper planning going all the way to the President.
- The valorous Marines who remained at the gate due to British lobbying, and the sighting of an individual who mirrored the bomber's description. Yet, the alarming question remains: Why was there no permission to engage, despite the US military's prior knowledge about the bomber?
- We discuss talk presidential leadership, media's role in camouflaging administration blunders, and Biden's seemingly shallow understanding of the region.
- From closing the Bagram Air Force Base to entrusting the Taliban with airport security, we're critiquing it all.
- And let's not forget the heart-rending fact that Biden failed to even say "he was sorry" to the grieving families of the fallen US service members.
Join us for this riveting discussion.
Other resources:
American Foreign Policy, part 1 and book 1,
- MM#266--The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower by Michael Mandelbaum.
American Foreign Policy, part 2 and book 2
- MM#267--Sergei Polkiy's eye-opening book 'The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History.'
More goodness
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00:00 - Abbey Gate
13:04 - Consequences of Biden's Foreign Policy
27:26 - American Foreign Policy and Biden's Failures
WEBVTT
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245 am August 26th, kabul, afghanistan, hamed Karzai International Airport.
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Hki Sergeant Tyler Vargas Andrews sat in the tower overlooking Abbey Gate.
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Vargas Andrews and other members of his sniper team, reaper 2, were providing overwatch while their fellow Marines continued to pull Americans and Afghan allies from the canal in a last-ditch attempt to save as many people as possible.
00:00:33.328 --> 00:00:36.939
A new message appeared in the unit's classified chat log.
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Intel confirms IED attack imminent.
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Over the last 48 hours, the threat stream had grown increasingly ominous.
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The tones of the reports had switched from if to when.
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Longer the Marines stayed at the gate, the greater the chance of catastrophic loss of life.
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But the mission wasn't done yet.
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Us forces had originally planned to close Abbey Gate on the evening of the 26th, but the British government hadn't finished evacuating all of its citizens and had successfully lobbied for more time.
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Plus, there were still thousands of stranded Americans and SIV applicants to save.
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A source provided us with evidence of contemporaneous intelligence community assessments indicating that the Taliban officials were likely flooding intelligence sharing channels with supposed warnings about threats at other gates to funnel the crowd toward Abbey Gate.
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Abbey Gate would stay open, even though it almost certainly meant US casualties.
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For the next 15 hours the Marines tried to thread the needle, protecting themselves as much as they could and still saving as many people as possible.
00:01:48.322 --> 00:01:52.236
All the while they knew that death could come at any moment.
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Still, the knowledge of a forthcoming attack loomed large in their minds.
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In the days prior, junior Marines had been allowed to take their helmets off for just a few seconds at a time to wipe their brows and get some relief from the oppressive heat.
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Now NCOs yelled at any Marine who would so much as unbuckle the strap on his Kevlar Ghost company commander, captain Jeff Ball police the line spot, checking the Marines who were congregating too close to each other or who were not taking sufficient cover.
00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:33.507
30 minutes later, captain Ball received another message imminent SI I'm sorry, imminent SVEST suicide vest threat.
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Headed to Abbey, ball ordered his Marines to seek cover and take a knee to minimize their exposure to a potential blast.
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They spent most of the night in that posture, permission denied.
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The military officials weren't totally blind.
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The previous night, military commanders at HKI had received an intelligence briefing containing a description of the likely suicide bomber who was expected to attack on the 26th, contrary to the post-hawk assertions by Army Brigadier General Lance Curtis at the Department of Defense Press Conference on February 2022, announcing the results of the Pentagon's internal investigation.
00:03:17.211 --> 00:03:22.465
The threat stream was not vague nor non-specific.
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The intelligence assessment contained a detailed profile of the suspected attacker and the intelligence community was aware that the individual had already completed his exit interview with the ISIS media wing, which would publish his final testimony once the attack was complete.
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Per its standard operating procedure, the Marines of Reaper 2 were told to look for an Afghan man with a shaved head and a close cropped beard, dressed in all black.
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They were also told that it was highly likely that the suspect would be carrying a backpack with three yellow arrows stitched on the exterior.
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Several other Marines confirmed that they had been given the same threat description.
00:04:04.736 --> 00:04:14.556
Before the bombing on the 26th, the Reaper 2 sniper team spotted a suspicious individual whose appearance matched the description of the bomber nearly verbatim.
00:04:14.556 --> 00:04:23.298
The man was toward the back of the ground, trying to maneuver forward, but his route didn't seem to be oriented towards the entrance of the gate itself.
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That report is consistent with sworn statements submitted by members of Ghost Company's 3rd Platoon, which received the same suspect profile and whose members stated that they had achieved positive identification for the threat and reported it to higher headquarters.
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Vargas Andrews requested permission to engage the suspect.
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Several times His request were not granted.
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Vargas Andrews said that he and two other US service members spotted the man who fit the description and the suspected bomber exactly between noon and 1 pm.
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The suspected bomber was with an older man who, quote, seemingly coached the bomber as the suspected bomber, consistently and nervously looking up at our position through the crowd.
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Vargas Andrews said I requested engagement authority but he was specifically told do not engage the Marine.
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Sniper said the psychological operations individuals then came to our tower immediately and confirmed the suspect met the suicide bomber's description.
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Vargas Andrews said Lieutenant Colonel Brad Whitehead then arrived to review the evidence and that we asked him if we could shoot.
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The Marine said the battalion commander told him I don't know.
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Vargas Andrews said that we received no update and never got our answer and that eventually the individual disappeared.
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The Marine added to this day we believe he was the suicide bomber.
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Plain and simple.
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We were ignored.
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Supporting exhibits from the Pentagon's Abbey Gate investigation appeared to confirm Vargas Andrews account.
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Exhibit 184 of the report, which was fully redacted, is labeled man identified shortly before the attack.
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Another fully redacted exhibit says man identified by recon as suspected accomplice.
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The next exhibit is a picture of Vargas Andrews and another member of Reaper 2 photographing the crowd with a telescopic lens from the sniper tower.
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Vargas Andrews account is nearly identical to the account provided by another Marine who was also present, tristan Hirsch, who was assigned to Echo Company.
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Have repeatedly stated that the Marines at Abbey Gate knew about the assassin two days prior to the attack.
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He had a.
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We knew what he looked like.
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The CIA let us know he looked exactly as they described him.
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Perhaps most significantly, he reported a friend of mine who was a sniper racked back his rifle and was ready to kill the guy.
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The permission was denied by 5 20 pm.
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Things were getting increasingly out of control.
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The dense mob of bodies slowly surged forward as if it was a living organism.
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The men and women waving pieces of paper at the front were there one moment and then simply folded under and it's assumed by the blob.
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The next.
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The other worldly chorus of high-pitched cries for help from people suffocating in place increased in direct proportion to the forward movement of the masses.
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Still, the Marines continued scanning for legitimate evacuees and then pulling them over the wall in ones and twos.
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An Afghan civilian and his wife and children were among the lucky souls who were pulled out of the canal.
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At the very end, as the family moved down the gate corridor onto the airfield, a Marine Syop officer observed the man, spoke perfect English in addition to Pashtun and gently pressed him into service.
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Just give me ten minutes.
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Just help me for ten minutes and I'll bring you back to your family.
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The man was understandably hesitant to leave his family once they had finally made it inside together, but he reluctantly agreed to speak to the crowd.
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At 5 25 pm.
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He took the microphone next to the Syop truck.
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The officer set a timer for ten minutes.
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He implored the crowd to stop pressing, stop pushing.
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Please calm down and give some space.
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You're hurting women and children.
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No one paid any attention.
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While the impromptu interpreter spoke, marines at the front saw man suffering from a heat stroke and hoisted him over the wall.
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They dragged him to the concrete Jersey barrier several feet away from the ledge and yelled for a corpsman.
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Without hesitation, 22 year old corpsman third class Maxden Soviak from Berlin Heights, ohio, sprinted forward from his protected position at the rear of the outer corridor to render aid.
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At the same time, sergeant Vargas Andrews, fresh off his overnight shift but volunteering to help, linked up with the interpreter in the canal and prepared to guide him to the gate, but the man wasn't ready just yet.
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He needed to find his father who was somewhere in the back of the crowd.
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Vargas Andrews waited in the canal.
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At 5 35, the Syop officers timer dinged.
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The ten minutes were up.
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The helpful civilian apologized for his lack of success.
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I did my best.
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True to his word, the officer began to escort the man back to the gate to reunite him with his family.
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At 5 36 pm, an ISIS suicide bomber, abdul Rahman Al-Agari, stood at the top of the wall on the other side of the canal, directly across from the assembled Marines, and detonated a 20 pound vest packed with hundreds of five millimeter ball bearings.
00:09:53.091 --> 00:10:04.076
Two years ago we had the third most deadly attack on US troops in over 20 years in Afghanistan.
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Now we find out the true facts of what happened and who was responsible and accountable.
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Let's talk about it on this Liberty Minute.
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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life.
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Now here's your host, david Kaiser.
00:10:36.158 --> 00:10:36.961
Hello, I am David.
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Welcome back to this Liberty Minute and to this ongoing trilogy series all about American foreign policy.
00:10:44.719 --> 00:11:02.638
Now, part one was on Tuesday, so be sure to check out that episode, where we covered Michael Mandembaum's the four ages of American foreign policy Weak power, great power, superpower and hyper power.
00:11:02.638 --> 00:11:07.549
I will put a link in the show notes for that one.
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And then part two was delivered on Thursday, where we checked out and reviewed and talked about the Sergei Polki eye-opening book, the Russo-Ukrainian war, the return of history.
00:11:21.254 --> 00:11:24.462
So be sure to check out both of those episodes.
00:11:24.462 --> 00:11:27.418
I will, like I said, put put links in the show notes.
00:11:27.418 --> 00:11:39.784
And I apologize, folks, we normally get these Liberty Minutes up on Saturdays but boy oh boy, was there a lot to cover in this episode, holy smokes.
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Now what this series is covering is answering the question what are some of the best books to cover American foreign policy and what have we as a country learned and say the last 25 years?
00:11:52.783 --> 00:11:59.647
That's a tough question because it appears that we have not learned too much in the last 25 years.
00:11:59.647 --> 00:12:27.976
Now, today's book review, which I read three excerpts from this book in the opening of the show, gives us the first hand knowledge of what happened on the ground that faithful day, august 26, 2021, in which a suicide bomber took the lives of 13 US service members and killed another 170 lives in Kabul, afghanistan.
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That book is Kabul the untold story of Biden's fiasco and the American warriors who fought to the end.
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It was written by Jerry Dunleavy and James Hassan.
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Now, jerry Dunleavy is an investigative reporter who has worked for the Washington Examiner.
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He spent time covering the courts and the intelligence community and the national security arena.
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James Hassan is a military affairs analyst and he spent time in Afghanistan and is a former US Army captain.
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Now, after reading this book, and how President Joe Biden made the worst policy decisions, one after another, you're going to find out.
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This unmitigated disaster was clearly avoidable.
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So, again, this book is so compelling I was trying to reduce down what to even cover, and that's why we were posting this Liberty Minute late.
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I mean, this book is so tremendous because it gives us the unvarnished truth of what exactly happened August of 2021 in Kabul, afghanistan.
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It was clearly one of the darkest moments in modern American history and, yes, most Americans wanted the troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan.
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But there is a process, there was a way and, most importantly, there was a proper way to do it and President Joe Biden royally screwed up that whole process.
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Now we have documented from this microphone before that we believe he's the worst president ever in the history of the United States, and that's a hard thing to do, because you've got to go back to James Buchanan right before the Civil War to get to that level of incompetence.
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But here we are.
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We are at that level of incompetence Just sheer amateur stuff, not even amateur, below amateur.
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Now we studied Joe Biden in his actions on the domestic front, with several episodes there, so be sure to check those out.
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We'll put them in the show notes as well.
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But now we're studying his foreign policy decisions, especially with this book as our final trilogy.
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So let's go back to the book to pick up this story from the beginning and let us try to answer these three questions Does presidential leadership matter in foreign policy?
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How did we get here and what was the specific situation like on the ground on that day, since the mass media has been running cover for this administration ever since all of this unfolded in August of 2021?
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Those are all great questions.
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So let's go to the book to gather some details and get the facts Going to the book.
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This is from the prologue Abigate Harmid Karzai International Airport, kabul, afghanistan, august 26, 2021.
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The crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder.
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Every man, woman and child shouted and waved pieces of paper.
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Their contents indiscernible and frantic attempts to gain the attention of the US Marines and Air Force special operators standing on the wall above them.
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The promise of a new life lay just beyond the Americans guarding the gates.
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Sunset was less than an hour away, but the temperature exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit and the air was still filled with a stench of sweat and human excrement from the desperate souls who have been waiting outside for days with nowhere else to relieve themselves.
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There was no respite other than the dry wind periodically blowing from east to west, away from the gate and down the canal, full of civilians struggling to shove their way to the front.
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Most of the crowd had no reason to be there.
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They had no connection to the United States government and no legitimate claim to US protection.
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Many had remained on the sidelines during the decades long fight against the Taliban, but most of them posed no active threat either.
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They knew that Afghanistan's US back government was no more and that Sharia law enforced by the Taliban was on the horizon and they desperately wanted to find a way out.
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Some had showed up because they had sincerely believed social media posts saying that the Americans would take anyone who wanted to leave.
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For men such as Amir, the others, motives didn't matter.
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He had a right to be there and he was trying to push through the throngs to take his wife and four children to safety.
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He had served as an interpreter for the US Special Operations Units and the Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA, for nearly a decade.
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As such, he had an advantage over the hordes holding up clearly forged emission documents.
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Us troops were looking for him and had given him a call sign to confirm his identity.
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The US veterans and intelligence operators had served alongside him.
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Now, back in the United States, had arranged it.
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Amir could see Abbey Yate.
00:17:51.198 --> 00:18:01.454
He took a picture of the troops standing on the wall so they'd know where to look, and another of the call sign he'd been told to paint on a placard Pale Rider.
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Then he took one more of his two sons and two daughters standing below him in the crowd.
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His younger son stood on the far left of the frame and his two daughters stood on the right, his older daughter, six years old with soft brown eyes gazed directly into the camera with an inquisitive smile.
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His younger daughter the baby of the family was distracted by the ongoing commotion and, blissfully unaware of the moment.
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Between his younger son and daughters stood his oldest child, an eight-year-old boy with large eyes, tousled hair and a troubled expression.
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He seemed to be the only one who realized that things weren't okay.
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At 5.30 pm, amir sent the photos to his handlers in the United States, who in turn would relay them to the troops waiting for his family.
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His family was a hundred feet away from freedom.
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The US-based operatives acknowledged his message and replied with further instructions, but Amir's transmissions went silent.
00:19:00.353 --> 00:19:11.296
A few minutes later, a third platoon of Echo Company's 2nd Battalion 1st Marines known as the 2-1, gathered 1,250 feet away for a group photo.
00:19:11.296 --> 00:19:16.234
Less than an hour they had to begin their final shift at Abbey Gate.
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Their platoon sergeant tried his best to capture a moment to commemorate what they had endured together.
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He took a few shots and then told the platoon to turn 90 degrees and face toward the gate, where the fading sunlight offered the best picture.
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The Marines first saw a flash of light, then felt the concussion of a blast in their chest.
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For a few seconds.
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Everyone remained frozen in place while their brains attempted to process the sensory overload.
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Reality set in as body parts started raining down on the seaman around them.
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The entire platoon sprinted toward the gate.
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By nightfall, military officials announced that 13 US service members had been killed in action in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the airfield Eleven Marines, a Navy corpsman and an Army staff sergeant from a special operations unit.
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At least 170 civilians were killed in the blast as well.
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Amir's oldest son was among them.
00:20:20.164 --> 00:20:34.407
The deaths of 13 American heroes of Abbey Yate and those of the innocent civilians they were attempting to save were neither inevitable nor the product of good faith decisions poorly executed.
00:20:34.407 --> 00:20:44.595
The same goes for the thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies left behind in Afghanistan on August 30, 2021.
00:20:44.595 --> 00:20:53.588
Those outcomes were caused solely by the Biden administration's toxic combination of ignorance and self-assurance.
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The wisdom of the overarching decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan is immaterial.
00:21:01.376 --> 00:21:08.907
Plenty of Americans and plenty of Afghanistan veterans hold differing views on that topic in good faith.
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No matter which side you choose in that debate, one thing is painfully clear Americans did not have to turn out the way they did and, unlike the tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies abandoned in Afghanistan on August 31, 2021,.
00:21:26.250 --> 00:21:33.269
The consequences of the administration's failures in Afghanistan have not remained in Kabul.
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They've been unleashed.
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They've unleashed a dangerous new global dynamic that will be felt for some time to come, and that's the overwhelming two key takeaways from this book.
00:21:48.394 --> 00:21:56.092
No matter which side you choose in that debate, one thing is painfully clear Things did not have to turn out the way they did.
00:21:56.092 --> 00:22:17.449
Thirteen service members did not have to die along with 170 Afghans and, unlike those tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies abandoned in Afghanistan on August 31, 2021, the consequences of the administration's failures in Afghanistan have not remained in Kabul.
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They have unleashed a dangerous new global dynamic that will be felt for some time to come.
00:22:24.724 --> 00:22:26.711
So, in answering the question, how did we get here?
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Well, you could say that the American people voted in Joe Biden in 2020.
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But now most Americans believe that election was extremely suspect.
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I know that's a controversial statement, but most Americans, just like the COVID debacle topic that we have covered here, the same thing is happening with the 2020 election.
00:22:50.057 --> 00:23:10.939
Some very shady and suspect things went on during the 2020 election, so suspect that history, we believe, will record it as one of the most contentious, with the most weird things that happened as any election, probably going back to the 1876 election.
00:23:10.939 --> 00:23:17.497
Now, that would be a good podcast comparing the 1876 election to the 2020 election.
00:23:18.644 --> 00:23:21.190
But back to our topic at hand Biden.
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President Biden was dead wrong in Iraq in 2003.
00:23:25.739 --> 00:23:31.436
He was dead wrong on Russia and the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
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I mean, the guy has just been a village idiot on almost everything foreign policy related.
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I mean, this guy's history is just laughable.
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I wouldn't put him in charge of dog catcher.
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He was wrong on Vietnam in 1975.
00:23:48.548 --> 00:23:59.599
He was wrong on Cambodia in 1975, wrong on the CCP in 1979, wrong again on the CCP in 1989.
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And you can check out the book for all these details.
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They go into extreme detail on everything he said and how he goes back after the fact.
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It wants to rewrite history.
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:12.105
Now here's the most famous episode.
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Let's go back to the book to capture this one Rewriting history from.
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Don't go to go.
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I said, among with others, we'd follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell if need be.
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President Biden boasted in April of 2021 as he announced his disastrous withdrawal.
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That's exactly what we did and we got him.
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But that was not what happened and the Biden had admitted it nine years earlier.
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At a House Democratic Party retreat in January of 2012, biden had said that when Obama had been making his decision about whether to authorize Operation Neptune Spear, he had told the assembled advisors.
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We owe the man a direct answer.
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Mr President, my suggestion is don't go by 2015,.
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Biden had fully reconstituted and reconstructed his account of the events, changing his advice from don't go to go.
00:25:10.267 --> 00:25:16.530
According to his new narrative, he had privately encouraged Obama to approve the operation.
00:25:16.530 --> 00:25:25.066
During the 2020 campaign, he offered a slightly different version, claiming he had quietly told Obama to go with his gut.
00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:41.647
That revisionist history, however, is fatally contradicted by the public accounts of Hillary Clinton, secretary Robert Gates, former CIA director Leon Panetta and Obama's administration staffers, and even Obama himself.
00:25:41.647 --> 00:25:45.126
Joe, had also weighed in against the raid.
00:25:45.126 --> 00:25:51.942
Gates wrote in his memoir that Biden's primary concern was the political consequences of the failure.
00:25:51.942 --> 00:25:53.942
That was, against the operation.
00:25:53.942 --> 00:26:04.943
Optics, not tactics, guided Biden's decision making, and taking credit for other people's work was a habit he had practiced since his first year of law school.
00:26:04.943 --> 00:26:14.882
Liar, liar pants on fire, and in fact, here is Obama himself talking about his own vice president later in the chapter.
00:26:14.882 --> 00:26:38.486
In sum, nothing in Biden's 48 year political career before his presidency provided any reassurance that he was capable of navigating a national security decision such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan, as his former boss, president Obama, bluntly cautioned quote don't underestimate Joe's ability to f things up.
00:26:38.486 --> 00:26:41.603
Obama himself getting quoted.
00:26:41.603 --> 00:26:45.819
Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f things up Now.
00:26:45.819 --> 00:26:48.740
There's the real truth right there Now.
00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:53.069
We asked this question before does presidential leadership matter in foreign policy?
00:26:53.069 --> 00:26:57.173
And after hearing everything you've heard, what do you think?
00:26:57.173 --> 00:27:01.463
The answer to that question should be Overwhelmingly it does.
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Without question.
00:27:02.426 --> 00:27:13.511
President John Kennedy echoed that with the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, while he was trying to overthrow the Castro dictatorship.
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He's quoted there saying victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.
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Kennedy took both the blame and the responsibility of that operation.
00:27:24.709 --> 00:27:26.132
That's leadership.
00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:44.842
Finally, we started this American foreign policy trilogy with some questions, tough questions, and to keep this episode within a reasonable limit, we're going to answer these questions over in our members area, with some extended, with a special extended edition of this trilogy over there.
00:27:44.842 --> 00:27:47.886
But let's visit these questions real quick.
00:27:47.886 --> 00:27:53.569
How should American foreign policy balance national interest and global responsibilities?
00:27:53.569 --> 00:27:58.048
Question two what role should human rights play in our foreign policy?
00:27:58.048 --> 00:28:03.910
Number three how can we ensure that our foreign policy promotes global economic growth?
00:28:03.910 --> 00:28:10.570
Number four should American foreign policy prioritize military power or diplomacy?
00:28:10.570 --> 00:28:18.311
Question five how should we approach relations with emerging powers and emerging states?
00:28:18.311 --> 00:28:25.270
And our bonus question is how should we handle rogue states and non state actors?
00:28:25.270 --> 00:28:34.749
That last question is especially important because it addresses exactly what we're dealing with right now in Afghanistan, with the Taliban.
00:28:34.749 --> 00:28:44.711
And again, we're going to answer these questions over in the members area with a special, extended edition of this American foreign policy trilogy, part three.
00:28:44.711 --> 00:28:47.066
So be sure to sign up while you can.
00:28:47.066 --> 00:28:54.226
We still have a discount going for the Mojo Academy 2.0 special Now that will be ending at the end of this month.
00:28:54.226 --> 00:29:06.550
Click on the members button in the top right hand corner of the team Mojo Academy dot com Again top right hand corner at our website, team Mojo Academy dot com.
00:29:06.550 --> 00:29:09.446
You'll see become a member there.
00:29:09.446 --> 00:29:13.789
Click on those details and sign up for the members section of the Academy.
00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:22.640
There's so much that this book documents that we have not heard in the major media that it's just hard to cover all of it Now.
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