https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/08\/29\/biden-book-afghanistan-00113295<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“When National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan relayed the news to Biden that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, he writes, Biden exploded in frustration and said, \u201cGive me a break.\u201d
\nIn the excerpt, Foer depicts a scene that went viral of the withdrawal: when dozens of Afghans climbed onto the side of a jet to escape the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly after the plane had lifted into the air did the crew discover its place in history,\u201d Foer writes. \u201cWhen the pilot couldn\u2019t fully retract the landing gear, a member of the crew went to investigate, staring out of a small porthole. Through the window, it was possible to see scattered human remains.\u201d”<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
“When former ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass touched down in Afghanistan after the plane\u2019s departure to lead the evacuation effort, he toured the gates of the airport where he was greeted \u201cby the smell of feces and urine, by the sound of gunshots and bullhorns blaring instructions in Dari and Pashto.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDust assaulted his eyes and nose. He felt the heat that emanated from human bodies crowded into narrow spaces,\u201d Foer writes.<\/p>\n
Biden would shower Bass with ideas to evacuate more people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president\u2019s instinct was to throw himself into the intricacies of troubleshooting,\u201d Foer writes. \u201c\u2018Why don\u2019t we have them meet in parking lots? Can\u2019t we leave the airport and pick them up?\u2019 Bass would kick around Biden\u2019s proposed solutions with colleagues to determine their plausibility, which was usually low. Still, he appreciated Biden applying pressure, making sure that he didn\u2019t overlook the obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn total, the United States had evacuated about 124,000 people, which the White House touted as the most successful airlift in history,\u201d Foer writes. \u201cBass also thought about the unknown number of Afghans he had failed to get out.\u201d”<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/08\/29\/biden-book-afghanistan-00113295<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[435,375,272,355,314,780,391,619,1497],"class_list":["post-11681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-afghanistan","tag-biden","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-policy","tag-international-relations","tag-joe-biden","tag-middle-east","tag-united-states","tag-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11682,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11681\/revisions\/11682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}