Mike Huckabee

From Gary L. P-G:

Question: I've read we had about 2,500 troops left in Afghanistan, intelligence and logistical support. If this is the case, why was there over $85B of equipment there? Were we going to leave it regardless? It doesn't make sense to have that much equipment there for 2,500 non-front-line fighting troops. Please answer in either your morning or evening newsletters, I read both.

From the Gov:

Gary, that highly sophisticated equipment provided logistical and air support for the Afghan army. Now that it’s in the hands of the Taliban, our guess is that they will use captive Afghan soldiers who had been trained by us on the equipment to train THEM how to use it.

Also, that base was of huge strategic importance. We should not have relinquished it –- have you looked at it on a map? It’s right across the border with China, a good spot to keep as heavily armed as it was. Every bit of that equipment should have been evacuated. Hang the “expense,” which, believe it or not, was one reason given for leaving it there. Another reason was the time constraint, which was bogus, too.

From Nitha V:

I am disappointed in you, Mike Huckabee. I believe I looked at all the videos included in your morning edition (Aug 31). I did NOT see a human body hanging from his neck. What I saw was the helicopter preparing to land a person onto the roof of some building. the body was hanging from the helicopter with attached around the mid section. The body was moving around and landed on the building; the person certainly was not dead. Maybe you looked at different videos. Please do not inflame people like this. What the Taliban does is bad enough without adding fuel to the fire.

From the Gov:

Unlike numerous news/opinion sites, we were careful NOT to come to any conclusions about whether the person at the end of that rope was dead or alive. (As of this writing, some sources are still reporting that he was dead.) We made it clear that there were multiple possibilities. Whatever the explanation, we were still inflamed, simply because one of our Black Hawks had been flown over Kandahar, pressed into service by the Taliban. And, oh, yes, there will be many hangings and beheadings, whether this was one of those atrocities or not.

USA TODAY has reported that this man was a Taliban fighter (one of the possibilities we had mentioned) being lifted by a Black Hawk to the top of the tall building housing the former governor’s office in Kandahar to plant a Taliban flag. Again, still infuriating.

From Sanford W:

What Biden has done is beyond a disgrace. It’s TREASON. Besides betraying our armed forces and stranded American citizens he has provided “AID AND COMFORT TO THE ENEMY.”

From the Gov:

Sounds like an impeachable offense to me.

From David:

TALIB TIMES? For a moment there, I'd read TLAIB TIMES, and thought you were going to sneak a word in about how many times Rashida Tlaib has condemned America and praised foreign terrorists. Whew!

From the Gov:

David, you get to do it for me today.

From Lawrence F (excerpt):

It may be too soon to start listing the lessons of our 20 years in Afghanistan, but a couple are so obvious they need stating now.

First, we left the Afghan military unequipped to go on without us, knowing that every few years the American electorate chooses some buffoon who knows nothing about military operations or foreign policy and will end a military operation disastrously...Granted, none of the earlier surrenders –- even Iraq –- were as disastrously fouled up as this latest one.

In 20 years, we trained Afghan pilots, special operations soldiers and infantrymen, but i am unaware of one single truck or aircraft mechanic trained by us. So when Sleazy Joe, without consultation with any allies and ignoring the advice of his military advisors, decided to suddenly end the contract to maintain aircraft and vehicles for the Afghan security services, the Afghan military who we had re-created in our image, were immobilized. Then he had the gall to say they were unwilling to fight, in spite of the 77,000 Afghans who gave their lives in what should be our battle against terrorists.

Lesson Two is, don't let either the left or the right infiltrate and politicize our military. When Republicans...control the White House and both houses once again. we need to have a thorough housecleaning of our senior military ranks, and we need to teach cadets at West Point, Annapolis and Colorado Springs the tradition of a non-political military. The current crop of political hacks in the top ranks is disgusting.

Finally we need to inculcate in the Washington civil service the concept that foreign policy is not a tricycle for children to learn how to ride; it is not a toy that a new administration takes off the shelf and "re-designs" without consultation with everyone. One of the impeachable offenses Joe Biden has committed is ignoring our allies. Public law (yes, when the NATO treaty was ratified by Congress, it became part of public law) requires consultation with our allies, and Sleazy Joe ignored them and his military advisors and waltzed off into rainbow flag la-la land all by himself.

From Mike H (excerpt):

Mike, thank you again for your honest, forthcoming commentary, day in and day out. That said, there are not words that can be said here to tell you the inter RAGE I am feeling against this CLOWN Biden, who I will not call President...If I see him on television, I will shut it off. Why? ...Not only can I not stand the sight of him but I know that if his lips are moving, if he is breathing, he is lying, spinning or covering up whatever it is that he is thinking or alluding to. I am very sure from conversations I have had with many, many people that they are feeling the same way...Biden, Harris, Schumer, Pelosi and their cohorts must be [out of power] ASAP. This is DEAD serious. These horrible Democrats are destroying this country!!!!!

From the Gov:

Thank you, Mike, for expressing what millions are feeling. I think you and all my readers would appreciate this passionately felt monologue from Tammy Bruce on Tuesday’s FOX NEWS PRIMETIME (sorry, there are a few seconds of Biden’s face in there). She speaks forcefully for all of us who love America and are disgusted by what is happening before our eyes.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6270389929001#sp=show-clips

From Anne T (excerpt):

Since the woke people are always comparing things to the Civil War or 9-11, as in worse than, etc., I would call this Afghanistan situation the saddest since those times. What can be sadder than people like me raised with pride in my country, raised by the “greatest generation” than to see this kind of ineptness, lack of leadership, cruelty, irresponsibility snd total incompetence from our government?

The idea that we left Americans in country when we knew we were going to leave, and also left many of those who helped us, is unbelievable. You folks who voted for this because you don’t like mean tweets and only watch mainstream media are guilty of gross negligence. You knew, as well as I knew, that Mr. Biden was failing mentally and that Kamala is grossly unqualified...Each of you bears some responsibility for what will happen to the women of Afghanistan and to the rape of little girls by disgusting men.

Dear Lord, please help me to forgive these people...I also blame Trump to a certain extent...It wouldn’t have taken him much to moderate his rhetoric to some extent and push him over the voting line. God bless America and please help us to get out of this pit.

From the Gov:

Before the election, one of our writers contributed a piece, “The speech I wish President Trump would give,” about that very thing. Sadly, Trump never gave a speech like that. Even so, support for him in key states that Biden “officially” won by a few thousand votes was enormously strong, and we still don’t know the real election story. I can never forgive those who knew what sort of person Biden really was and worked to get him into office anyway, by hook or by crook.

Mike Huckabee

Update:

Our original story included a link to the Defense Department's denial of claims that any military service dogs were left behind, but Lead Stories now has more details to confirm that.

https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/09/fact-check-the-united-states-did-not-leave-behind-military-working-dogs-in-cages-in-afghanistan.html

On Tuesday, we commented on a story from an organization called American Humane, which works to rescue military working dogs and place veterans with service dogs, about U.S. military dogs being left behind in Afghanistan. We didn’t know if it was true and said we’d try to find other sources confirming this. Tuesday evening on Tucker Carlson’s show, he said the SPCA had confirmed that the Biden administration has chosen to leave the dogs behind.

“In the end,” the SPCA said, “the dogs and their caretakers were explicitly NOT allowed to board military aircraft, and numerous private charter aircraft were not granted access to the airport, either.”

If this is true, about 200 of these very special dogs are presumably doomed by the decision to leave them behind. But the U.S. military is saying this claim is “erroneous.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Karen Roxberry, said in an email that the “priority mission was the evacuation of U.S. citizens, SIV [Special Immigrant Visas] and vulnerable Afghans,” but she also stated that reports about leaving dogs behind were in error. She said the photos circulating online (perhaps including those Tucker had on his show, showing dogs in carriers) were not of dogs under the care of the U.S. military but rather the Kabul Small Animal Rescue.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/31/american-humane-society-say-us-left-military-dogs-behind-in-afghanistan/

So what’s the story? And what dogs were in the custody of Kabul Small Animal Rescue, and what happens to them? Honestly, we can't say for sure. Those are probably shelter dogs and former pets of evacuees, and they likely face cruelty and extermination by the Taliban, who think of dogs as unclean and typically kill them. But the government insists all the military dogs were evacuated, that none were left behind.

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/08/no-us-military-dogs-were-left-behind-afghanistan-dod-says/184984/

Let's hope that’s true. I wish we could take our government at their word, but these are also the people who said no American would be left behind.

Mike Huckabee

All right, this is JUST IT. The breaking point.

Whoever at the White House, State Department and/or Pentagon comes forward to try to put a good spin on "8/31" by saying we met “the deadline” and are “out of Afghanistan after 20 years” can just, pardon the expression, pound sand. We're NOT all out. Don’t even bother trotting somebody out to try to clean up for the mentally AWOL Commander-in-Chief in one of your increasingly ridiculous press briefings. You still have some partisan loyals in the media trying to cover for you, but in defending this President you are a pathetic joke. You know perfectly well that we ALL wanted to be out of Afghanistan, Trump included, and we were going to be, and he would've gotten us out in a way that at least made strategic sense. But this latest development is, pardon the expression again, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

What finally did it –- what irreparably broke the hearts of me and my staff –- is this image from yesterday, in which the Taliban are flying over Kandahar in one of the Black Hawk helicopters we used to own, which President Biden left for the terrorists along with $90 billion worth of other military prizes as if it were Christmas in August. Yes, we’d already seen them joyriding in a Black Hawk, but this is the first case we’ve seen of them taking one up and dangling what appears to be the body of a man hanged by the neck. Is the man dead? We don't know.

https://www.westernjournal.com/videos-show-taliban-hanging-body-neck-bidens-left-behind-us-black-hawk-helicopter-report/

The WESTERN JOURNAL reports that it is indeed a dead body and describes this as “a giant middle finger to the Western world that has battled terrorism for the past two decades.”

The video was shared by the TALIB TIMES; it’s from a Twitter account claiming to share “official news” from “the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan.” (I assume that’s what we’re supposed to call it now.) The caption reads, “OUR AIR FORCE!”

And who was this man? WAS he dead, or being tortured, or what? Maybe he was one of our interpreters or guides. Maybe a young student at American University, after our State Department refused to admit them to the airport. Maybe just some poor schlub whose beard was too short or who was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe he was a happy Taliban fighter, very much alive, getting his kicks and celebrating the 8/31 defeat of the Americans.

Some have interpreted this video as appearing to show a member of the Taliban “on patrol” over Kandahar. We don’t know, but it would be the strangest patrol ever.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/taliban-hanging-us-helicopter-afghanistan-v41072cd5

Here are more details on the massive array of equipment the Taliban now have, thanks to President Biden. Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who assembled the list, said the Taliban now has “more Black Hawk helicopters than 85 percent of the countries in the world.” Each helicopter cost the taxpayers $6 million, and there is so much more we bought them. We've armed our own enemy to the teeth!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9941207/Taliban-Air-Terrorists-fly-captured-6million-Black-Hawk-helicopter-Kandahar.html

The administration has been trying to fool us into thinking the Taliban are “negotiating,” working with us, fulfilling our interests by going after ISIS-K, the “real” terrorists who blew up 13 of our service members at the Kabul airport checkpoint. That, as I've said, is a distinction without a difference. They are all terrorists and all want Americans dead. If the Taliban and ISIS really were enemies, the Taliban wouldn’t have released the approximately 2,000 ISIS fighters we’d detained at Bagram Air Base.

Note to Biden administration: Just stop insulting our intelligence. Calling ISIS-K the “real” terrorists to take the heat off the Taliban reminds me of O.J. Simpson’s lawyers saying he would dedicate himself to finding the “real” killer of Nicole.

And who flew this helicopter? It’s not as if some 7th-century Taliban soldier climbed aboard this ultra-sophisticated piece of equipment and somehow knew how to take it up and circle it over Kabul, dead-or-alive person in tow. Are we sure EVERY American helicopter pilot got out? Or maybe the pilot is an Afghan trained by us and now held captive. We don’t know, and, even worse, we can’t trust the White House to tell us.

Western media have been mostly banned from Afghanistan.  

Well, they did allow some media people because they wanted the world to see them take over and declare victory over America.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/taliban-fighters-kabul-airport-hangar-examine-helicopters-us-troops-depart-afghanistan

There's no telling the horrors that will go on. Those particularly in danger include Americans left behind, Afghan women and girls, interpreters and others who helped American soldiers, and Christian missionaries. We don’t know how many thousands of people this might be.

President Biden, when asked about any of this, says he’s “not supposed to take any questions” on Afghanistan. (What??) Then he walks away. Can you IMAGINE what the reaction would be if Trump were in office and he did that? They’d use it to push their fake “Russia” narrative and say Vladimir Putin had instructed him not to answer.

Here’s something else we can’t forgive Biden for, if the allegations are true: leaving our service dogs behind in Afghanistan. I’m not comparing this to the loss of 13 service members, but these dogs mean so much to the soldiers who depended on them. Some owe their lives to these dogs. Here’s the press release from American Humane, an organization that brings home retired military working dogs and pairs service dogs with veterans.

https://www.americanhumane.org/press-release/american-humane-condemns-death-sentence-delivered-to-contract-working-dogs-left-behind-in-kabul-afghanistan/

American working dogs left there by our military face a grim future: certainly death and perhaps torture. We’re looking for additional verification that these dogs have indeed been left behind in the crush to evacuate. Our leaders like to talk about “who we are”; this certainly is not it.

Something else: the airlift out of Kabul was supposed to rescue those who helped us, but it turned into such a free-for-all that Afghans weren’t vetted before boarding the planes. Here’s just one unfortunate example.

https://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/aug/30/convicted-rapist-reached-us-afghan-evacuation-flig/

Of the 2,000 rescued Afghans being held at Wisconsin’s Fort McCoy, not a single one had an SIV, or Special Immigrant Visa. And according to the WASHINGTON TIMES, only “a tiny fraction” of those evacuated have been Americans.

But here's a ray of hope: An organization of retired U.S. generals and admirals called “FLAG OFFICERS 4 AMERICA” has HAD IT every bit as much as we have and is demanding accountability in the form of the resignation of the two top generals, the highest military advisers to President Biden (who should have resigned in the first place rather than carry out his disastrous orders), Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley. Know what I call those resignations? A good start.

They’ve also written a spectacular letter expressing what they think of the modern “woke” military and weighing in on a number of national security issues, including Biden’s fitness to serve. If anything will make your day, it’s this letter and the long, long list of signatories. Here it is, in pdf form to share far and wide.

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/fb7c7bd8-097d-4e2f-8f12-3442d151b57d/downloads/2021%20Open%20Letter%20from%20Retired%20Generals%20and%20Adm.pdf?ver=1630334080425

Mike Huckabee