In the days after the Taliban took Kabul in August, a desperate Afghan father pleaded over the phone with a State Department official to help get his family out of harm’s way.
Interviews with more than half a dozen State Department employees in addition to government officials and advocates, as well as a review of internal administration emails POLITICO obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the desperation and disorganization that consumed frontline State Department employees.
“We’re not used to failure at State, and in every single possible circumstance, it was failure,” one of the officials said. “You’re failing with the email, you're failing with getting guidance on what we could do and what we could not do. We weren't empowered enough. No one really understood what our policy was.”
State employees knew their efforts could make the difference between death, torture, and the nightmare of life under the brutal Taliban regime — or freedom in the West. The decision to turn down the VA’s offer infuriated one of the State Department employees who spoke to POLITICO, who said not enough attention has been paid to the U.S. officials who have suffered under the unyielding mental and emotional demands.
“It was really hard to watch everything we’d worked on crumble,” a U.S. diplomat involved in the situation said. “We have a lot of contacts and friends who are still there.”Photo after photo of passports popped up in employee inboxes. Haunting images of stranded babies, young girls or the bloodied victims of the Taliban populated their texts and emails.
“The bottom line was a tremendous sense of terror for the position they were in in Afghanistan, especially for wives and children,” Trone said. Rep. David Trone speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 17, 2019, to unveil the"Immediate Financial Relief for Federal Employees Act" bill. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
“I heard from in-laws, I heard from my parents, from my spouse. I heard from my kids ...” the official trailed off, pausing to allow a wave of emotion to pass. “How impossible it was to not have their [parent] present in any physical, emotional, mental, psychological capacity.”
Imagine shedding tears for not being able to kill and humiliate Afghans in imperialist wars anymore. Oh, boo-hoo!
Awwwwww Anyway...
Two thousand Americans are still in Afghanistan. 88 Billion of equipment was lost to the Taliban. 13 American service members were lost to us forever. The Biden administration botched every aspect of the withdrawal.
fakenews. Sounds like a great excuse to divert from the Biden screw up
Why care about their 'mental breakdown'? Their privileged asses are safe.
Why was it so difficult? Everyone knew it was going to happen, months in advance. Seems like a spin from our friends with the defense industrial complex
How many SAM's did Biden leave in Afghanistan? Who ended up with them? Chinese? Iran?
I guess the GOP wants to start resurrecting Afghanistan withdraw for the election cycle!
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