memeorandum: Chaos persists at Kabul airport, imperiling Afghanistan evacuation effort (Washington Post)

10:30 AM ET, August 20, 2021

Top Items:

‘This is Actually Happening’ — President Joe Biden and his inner circle were in an ebullient mood. — It was Wednesday morning, Aug. 11, and they were basking in the glow of back-to-back legislative wins. The day before, the Senate had passed a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, The National Interest, Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, The Daily Signal and National Review

Vivian Salama / Wall Street Journal:

Confidential State Department Cable in July Warned of Afghanistan's Collapse — About two dozen State Department officials in Kabul sent an internal memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken — WASHINGTON — About two dozen State Department officials serving at the embassy in Kabul sent …

New York Times:

Live Updates: Biden to Address Afghan Crisis as Desperation Builds at Kabul Airport — President Biden will speak on Friday amid intense criticism of the evacuation effort. A 17-year-old boy was identified as one of the Afghans who fell from a U.S. military plane as it lifted off.

Discussion: Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Los Angeles Times, New York Post and CBS News

Michael Crowley / New York Times:

Trump's Deal With the Taliban Draws Fire From His Former Allies — The former president and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, are attacking President Biden over Afghanistan even as their own policy faces harsh criticism. — WASHINGTON — Days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 …

Discussion: Raw Story, Metro.co.uk, Washington Examiner, coldfury.com, New York Post, National Review, Politico and CNN

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

The Best and Brightest never recovered from Vietnam. Will Biden's team fare better? — The Afghanistan disaster has rocked the Biden administration's foreign policy team, which may need months to regain its sense of balance and momentum. — Senior officials don't have time or emotional bandwidth …

Discussion: Sputnik News, Townhall, No More Mister Nice Blog, WV MetroNews, Metro.co.uk, CNN, National Review, Responsible Statecraft, New York Post and RealClearPolitics

Patrick Reilly / New York Post:

Oklahoma mom of 11 rescues members of Afghan all-girls robotics team — An Oklahoma mother of 11 flew to Afghanistan earlier this month to rescue 10 members of the country's all-girls robotics team, and hoping to save more as the Taliban takes power in Kabul.

Ed Morrissey / HotAir:

CNN's Ward: Getting inside the Kabul airport “one of the more harrowing things I have experienced” — The good news: CNN's Clarissa Ward and her crew have finally made it into the airport in Kabul. The bad news: It's not a heck of a lot better inside. “There isn't a coherent mechanism yet …

Discussion: Euractiv and New York Post

German Election / DW.COM:

Relative of DW journalist killed by the Taliban — Journalists and their families are in grave danger in Afghanistan. The Taliban have no compunction about carrying out targeted killings as the case of a DW journalist shows. — Taliban fighters hunting a DW journalist have shot dead …

Discussion: CNN, Insider, UPI, Forbes, Al Jazeera, Politico, Sputnik News, Financial Times, Breitbart, Bloomberg, The Hill, Committee to Protect … and VICE, more at Mediagazer »

Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times:

Encounter with the Taliban: Punched, detained — then offered an energy drink — FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT AND PHOTOGRAPHER — When I headed out to work, it had been five days since the Taliban took over Kabul. And it was Independence Day, a national holiday, when Afghans celebrate their country's independence from Britain in 1919.

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Reuters:

Biden's Afghanistan policy counts on issue fading in importance for war-weary voters — President Joe Biden is brushing off criticism of his administration's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal because he and his aides believe the political fallout at home will be limited, according to White House allies and administration officials.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Washington Examiner, CNN, Louder With Crowder, One America News Network, Ace of Spades HQ, Real Clear Politics and Althouse

New York Times:
How News Organizations Got Afghan Colleagues Out of Kabul

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and The Intercept, more at Mediagazer »

BBC:
Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to door manhunt, report says

Discussion: HotAir, Breitbart, New York Post, Reuters, New York Times, Agence France-Presse and Politico

Peter Nicholas / The Atlantic:
What Joe Biden Is Betting On

Discussion: Washington Times and Washington Post

emptywheel:
Journalists Getting Suckered by Ass-Covering Sources on Afghanistan

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Breitbart, New York Post and Digby's Hullabaloo

Katherine Tully-McManus / Politico:
Capitol rattled by standoff ahead of House's return next week

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon and Associated Press

Kait Hanson / NBC News:
10 girls on Afghanistan's robotics team rescued

Discussion: The Hill and The Intellectualist

Wall Street Journal:
The Right and Our Afghan Allies

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post, HotAir and Daily Kos

Kate Storey / Esquire: Inside Clarissa Ward's 19-Hour Days Reporting From Kabul

Matthew Rosenberg / New York Times:
Hunted by the Taliban, US-Allied Afghan Forces Are in Hiding

Discussion: The American Conservative, HotAir, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, New York Post, The US Sun, The Daily Caller and Just Security

Amnesty International USA: Taliban responsible for brutal massacre of Hazara men - new investigation

National Review:
Milley and Austin Should Resign

Discussion: Breitbart, New York Post and RedState

Sean Davis / The American Mind:
Moral Blackmail — Tell them: we do not negotiate with ostracists.

Discussion: New York Post, CNN, Reuters, Radio Free Europe/Radio … and Reuters

Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:
CIA Won't Back an Afghan Resistance Anytime Soon, If Ever

Discussion: Sputnik News, TFIPOST and The National Interest

James Jay Carafano / New York Post:
Call Afghanistan what it is: The worst hostage crisis in American history

Discussion: Louder With Crowder, Townhall, Breitbart and The Federalist

Politico:
Biden and the political fallout from Afghanistan

Discussion: New York Times and New York Post

Washington Post:
Chaos persists at Kabul airport, imperiling Afghanistan evacuation effort

Discussion: CNN, Politico, Insider, Just Security, Task & Purpose and Snopes.com, more at Mediagazer »

Kash Patel / New York Post:
I ran Team Trump's Afghan withdrawal — Biden's attempt to blame us is just sad

Discussion: HotAir, The Atlantic, Breitbart and Mediaite

Wall Street Journal:
How Biden Broke NATO

Discussion: New York Post, New York Times, Daily Kos, Sputnik News and White House Dossier

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Quiet Rage of the Responsible — Let's talk for a minute about Lollapalooza. After canceling in-person events last year, a few weeks ago Chicago once again hosted the long-running music festival, drawing more than 385,000 people. Many feared that the huge, raucous crowds could produce a coronavirus superspreader event.

Discussion: Off the Kuff

CNN:

I live in Texas and I am really angry — Gov. Abbott tests positive for Covid-19 after months of blocking mask mandates — Stephen I. Vladeck is the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Court at the University of Texas School of Law, a CNN contributor and an expert on the role of the federal courts in the war on terrorism.

Discussion: Dallas Morning News, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and WGN-TV

Michael Gerson / Washington Post: Govs. DeSantis and Abbott, in denial and risking lives, have betrayed the public trust

Nick Visser / HuffPost:
Texas Stops Enforcing Ban On Mask Mandates In Schools Amid Lawsuits

Discussion: Bloomberg, CBS News, Forbes, HotAir, Daily Kos, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, CNN, New York Times, Insider and Political Wire

Mac Stipanovich / Tampa Bay Times:
Ron DeSantis has ‘made a monumental mess of masking in public schools’ | Column

Discussion: Raw Story

Reuters:

EXCLUSIVE FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated-sources — The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.

Discussion: Townhall, Sputnik News, Summit News and Power Line

Anne Applebaum / The Atlantic:

Liberal Democracy Is Worth a Fight — Of all the empty, pointless statements that are periodically repeated by Western politicians, none is more empty and pointless than this one: “There can be no military solution to this conflict.” That was what Ban Ki-moon, then the UN secretary-general …

Dave Lieber / Dallas Morning News:

If North Texas runs out of ICU hospital beds, doctors can consider a patient's vaccination status — This would be a big change in health care, but doctors have yet to announce it. So The Watchdog does it for them. — North Texas doctors have quietly developed a plan that seeks to prepare …

Discussion: Forbes, New York Times, HotAir, Patterico's Pontifications, Ace of Spades HQ and Raw Story

Daily Mail:

Fox News' Greg Gutfeld is crowned new king of late night television after he scores 220K MORE viewers than Colbert's Late Show on CBS — Comedian Greg Gutfeld's show pulled in the most viewers during Tuesday's late night time slot with about 2.12 million — Gutfeld! debuted in April …

Discussion: OutKick, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, The Wrap and RedState

Sam Karlin / The Advocate:

‘Locate us a ring’: Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins challenges Facebook user to a fight — Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins has once again threatened someone on Facebook with violence. — The Lafayette Republican, who has a long history of bizarre social media antics …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Carla Marinucci / Politico:

Elder's ex-fiancee said he brandished a gun at her — PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Alexandra Datig, the former fiancee and longtime radio producer for California GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder, says she broke off an 18-month engagement with the conservative talk show host in 2015 …

CNN:
‘Women exaggerate the problem of sexism’: Top California recall candidate Larry Elder has a long history of making disparaging remarks about women

Discussion: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Politico, Associated Press and Sacramento Bee