From:
slider@anashram.com
we'll see how all this pans out next Wednesday.
i'm puttin' my money on this: in a jeff bridges voice: "that didn't pan
out right"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_KUwMD0sU0
WASHINGTON — As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why
the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with
Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next year's midterm elections.
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2021-08-28/republicans-afghanistan-refugees-u.s.-2694323.html
Little more than a week ago, as the Taliban's stunning takeover of
Afghanistan still was snapping into focus, former President Donald Trump
issued a statement saying "civilians and others who have been good to our Country ... should be allowed to seek refuge." But in more recent days, he
has turned to warning of the alleged dangers posed by those desperately
trying to flee their country before an end-of-month deadline.
"How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America?" he asked.
As Republicans level blistering criticism at Biden during his first major foreign policy crisis, some are turning to the nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric perfected by Trump during his four years in office. It's causing dismay among others in the party who think the U.S. should look out for
those who helped the Americans over the last two decades.
"I think these false narratives that these are a bunch of terrorists are
just — they're completely baseless in reality," said Olivia Troye, a
former White House homeland security adviser who currently serves as
director of the Republican Accountability Project. "There's no basis for
this at all in terms of the intelligence and national security world."
Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster, said the rhetoric reflects
"a general, overall increase" in concern in the country over the risk of terrorist threats after Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban — not just in
the short term from those who may not have been properly vetted, but a
year or two down the road.
"There's just a sense that we are less safe as a country as a result of
this," he said.
The Biden administration has stressed that every person cleared to come to
the U.S. is being thoroughly vetted by officials working around the clock.
But the refugees have become an emerging flash point, with Trump and his followers loudly demanding that Americans be prioritized for evacuation
and warning of the potential dangers posed by Afghans being rescued in one
of the world's largest-ever civilian airlift operations.
That talk intensified Thursday after a suicide bombing ripped through the
crowd at the Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and well over
150 Afghans.
"How many American military personnel have to die to evacuate unvetted refugees?" tweeted Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont. "Get American citizens out
and bring our troops home."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday toured the Doña Ana Range complex at
Fort Bliss, where many refugees will be housed, and later tweeted the U.S. "should rescue Afghans who've assisted the US military, but they should go
to a neutral & safe third country."
"They should NOT come to US w/o a FULL security vetting," he said.
That followed a call Wednesday by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top
Republican on the House Oversight and Reform committee, for the
administration to brief lawmakers on their efforts to vet Afghan refugees
and prevent terrorists from entering the country.
"In the chaotic situation left in the wake of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, we are particularly concerned that terrorists and others who
wish to harm the United States may seek to infiltrate the country
disguised as those who provided assistance to coalition forces in
Afghanistan," he wrote in letters to the secretaries of state and homeland security.
Still others, including Republican governors and members of Congress, have taken a different stance, welcoming refugees to their states and working furiously to help those trying to flee. On Capitol Hill, the effort to
help Afghan friends and family of constituents is the rare undertaking
that is consuming legislative offices of members of both parties.
The U.S. has evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began Aug. 14, including more than 5,100 American citizens. While
the administration's explicitly stated priority is to evacuate Americans,
the numbers reflect the demographics of those trying to flee.
U.S. officials believe about 500 American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country; others are believed to want to stay.
And many of the Afghans, including those who served as American
interpreters and fixers and in other support capacities, are desperate to escape, fearing they will be prime targets for retribution by the Taliban
once the U.S. leaves.
But that hasn't stopped Republicans from accusing the Biden administration
of failing to put Americans first.
"We're actually prioritizing Afghan refugees more than we're prioritizing
our own citizens," said Republican J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate
in Ohio and has made repeat television appearances blasting the administration's approach.
On Fox Business Network, he claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. has
"no knowledge" of 90% of the people being evacuated and said some have
shown up on wide-ranging terror databases.
"They put Americans last in every single way, but Americans pay for it
all," echoed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has shot to
prominence with incendiary statements.
Trump and his former policy adviser Stephen Miller, along with
conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson, have taken things even
further, using the same anti-immigrant language that was the hallmark of Trump's 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
"You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn't
allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights," Trump
said. "Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have
been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighborhoods around the world."
Carlson has warned about Afghans invading America.
The rhetoric underscores the transformation of a party once led by neoconservatives who championed interventionist nation-building policies
and invaded Afghanistan — followed by Iraq — nearly 20 years ago.
But not Republicans all are on board.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose office has been working around the clock
to rescue the "countless" Afghans he says deserve evacuation, chastised
those in his party invoking "terrorist" rhetoric.
"I would say that they need to do their homework," he said. "When you talk
to the people that we've spoken with, when you look at their service
record ... when you recognize that they sleep in the same tents, they
carry arms together, they've been in live firefights, how dare anyone
question whether or not they deserve to come to this country or to a safe
third country?"
"We're not talking about just walking down the street and picking and
choosing people," Tillis added. "We know these people. We know who their children are. We know what their service record was. And quite honestly, somebody taking that position, each and every time they do, is insulting a service member who considers these people like brothers and sisters."
Many of the Afghans seeking to come to the U.S. are doing so under the
Special Immigrant Visa program designed specifically for individuals who
worked with U.S. forces. Adam Bates, policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said that, due to their work, those
individuals were extensively vetted by U.S. authorities before applying to
the program — and are again extensively vetted "by a wide array of federal agencies" before the visas are granted.
Troye, who has spent significant time on the ground in Afghanistan over
the years, said Americans became extremely close to the Afghans with whom
they served.
"These people became like family to many of us," she said. "It's really shameful to see some of these Republicans speaking in this way about
people who really risked their lives to help us, who were really our
allies on the ground."
### - how typical? i.e., with nada else to seize on and with their own
house in total disarray, the gop are going all-out to make a mountain
outta this one for biden huh...
i mean, i can remember 'obama' talking about getting the troops outta afghanistan, not to bring them home so much as sending everything they've
gots to the south china seas instead? (thereby hinting that that's what's coming up next)
trumpy merely continuing that same movement, as-is now biden!
iow: it's basically business as usual no matter *who's* in office across several presidencies, right?
how typical then of old trumpy-boy to now lamely make an issue outta 'immigration'?? duh!
hey maybe he'll suggest building a fuckin' wall all along the afghanistan border huh LOL ! :D
so pay no attention to bs, especially when the 'real' issue here is the 2 decades of US occupation whereby everything is virtually now right back to exactly where things were 20 fuckin' years ago before the US even arrived?
ALL of it a totally wasted effort involving untold 1000's of deaths on all sides! (someone must've made a shed-load of money outta that war then huh)
and ya's can't blame all that on biden heh ;)
i.e., the gop are literally fighting for their survival here, and as such
are obviously prepared to seize on anything & everything to fuel their
struggle + this is just the beginning coz it's gonna get a whole LOT
nastier than this!? lol we ain't seen nuthin' yet! this being only the
opening shot in a gop-war against the left, which they HAVE to win or
become extinct!
(am personally hoping for extinction heh, wherein the right-wing
disappears altogether just like what happened in south africa heh, coz
imho THAT'S the only safe future we gots! ;)
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)
