ADM. KIRBY: “Americans Get Stranded… All The Time”

Today on Sekulow, as the Taliban declares victory in Afghanistan, Admiral Kirby tells the American public, well Americans, they get stranded all the time. On October 7, 2001, the U.S. began the war in Afghanistan. Today, the 31st of August, 2021, nearly 20 years later, the U.S. has no presence in Afghanistan. In fact, the only Americans left in Afghanistan are stranded Americans, and the administration is now using that term. So I think on this day, it's important to remind you what your Commander in Chief told you before this mission to withdraw began to be executed.

Take a listen. And are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out is out? Yes. We will rescue the Americans in there. I think you're going to see they're going to get out. Any American who wants to get home will get home. I've instructed the military, whatever they need, if they need additional force, I will grant it. Our first priority in Kabul is getting American citizens out of the country as quickly and as safely as possible.

If there's American citizens left, we're going to stay until we get them all out. You know, that sounded nice. That sounded wonderful from our Commander in Chief. Everyone was wondering how that would actually be done.

How would they actually get that done? That mission, incomplete and inexcusable. And also moving the goalposts, because it wasn't just about Americans. It was supposed to also be about all of those Afghans who assisted, risked their life working alongside the American military, intelligence, our State Department, our officials, all the bureaucracy we had there, risking their life, who now have, again, they are walking around, they're being executed, you know, as we speak, by Taliban death squads.

But take a listen, because now the administration is admitting to what they said would never happen. How does diplomacy get those people out of the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan? It's not completely unlike the way we do it elsewhere around the world. I mean, we have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time. Okay, we've dealt with Americans who get arrested in countries all the time, stranded all the time.

Any time that happens, it's a news story. I mean, that's how rare it is for an American to be held hostage around the world or to be held in prison or taken by. We did get kind of used to it during the beginnings of the War on Terror because they were being held hostage in those horrible execution video, okay? But not when you pack up and leave. But this is, well, I think the difference here, and it's important to point this out historically, the difference is, Andy, that historically we have never been in a situation that we can recall looking at it from history where we surrendered, basically, our people left them behind, intentionally left them behind because, well, we just ran out of time.

That's absolutely correct, Jay. In the history of the United States, we have never just said, well, we've run out of time. We have a deadline for withdrawal. We have a deadline for retreat and leaving.

And when there's Americans there, they're going to have to fend for themselves and do the best that they can. That has not happened. That is not the history of the United States. It shouldn't be the history of the United States. That's not how we operate.

That's not how we function. This is a first and a disgraceful and shameful first. Isn't it also, Colonel Smith, kind of against the ethos of the military?

Absolutely. Actually, in the military ethics that we take, you know, we talk about the fact we never leave a comrade behind, either alive or dead. You know, 20 years ago, we invaded this country almost 20 years ago. Now, and to defeat that terrorist group, now we're pleading with that same terrorist group not to harm our soldiers, citizens, and allies.

It is humiliating and it is unprecedented. You know, folks, we're going to take your calls, your comments on this as the U.S. evacuation finished yesterday, 24 hours early. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. There's a lot to talk about.

The short-term ramifications and the long-term ramifications. This is our final day two of our Matching Challenge, the month of August. You have until midnight tonight, wherever you are, to donate online at aclj.org. That's aclj.org.

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Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at aclj.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at aclj.org slash gift. Because I think you've got to hear John Kirby's words about these Americans being stranded all the time because he's not, what he doesn't do is give you any context about how they got there in the first place. Why are they there? This is not a one-off, this is not like some of the clients that we've helped with that maybe work in places that are more dangerous to be a Christian or where they get harassment for that but that's part of their life mission and they're willing to risk that.

Take a listen though first to what he says and then we'll break it down. How does diplomacy get those people out of the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan? It's not completely unlike the way we do it elsewhere around the world. I mean we have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time. I don't know where he's talking about exactly because usually that's what high-profile stories and in places like North Korea, Iran, we had in Turkey, you see this in war zones, in places like Afghanistan during the conflict. The difference is over these 20 years the Americans that were stranded were Americans who came, they were either working for non-government programs which were funded by the U.S. government by the way. Missionaries? They may have been missionaries so they may have been there for religious reasons or for business reasons as contractors assisting the U.S. on the ground after 20 years. So a lot of these people were living there. So the U.S. stranded them. They're not just stranded people.

They were stranded by the United States of America. That's a lot different than an individual deciding, you know, I've become a Christian, I'm going to witness to other people in Iran, I know that that can cause my life. That's not the U.S. saying you have to come to Iran, we'll pay you this, we'll give you this, we'll give you this, and we're going to get you all out and then we don't. Yeah, or even worse here, we have U.S. citizens in a war zone, Andy, that we are knowing we're trying to get out of for years.

This isn't something new. This is three-minute administrations of trying to get out. And rather than do it in a way that gets them out, as part of the negotiation process here, let's get them out, this is what we're going to do. Stranded is not even the right word. Abandoned is the right word. Historically, we don't do this.

That's exactly correct, Jay. It is part and parcel of a plan of action to remove Americans out of countries in which we have put them and in which we have encouraged them to go or have placed them militarily, commercially or otherwise. You don't just walk away from them.

When you decide to pull out, you do it pursuant to a plan that is coordinated among both sides and all people and you get them out in an orderly fashion, not clinging to the bases of airplanes or trying to get over into Pakistan or Iran or somewhere like that. This is not the way. It was a shameful and awful act. You know, Than, is there any sense right now in Washington at all that this isn't just going to pivot right off of this to other news? It probably will, Jay. I mean, that's just the truth of it. But look, the message that you're hearing today, really from both sides of the aisle, that this is mission not accomplished. In fact, this is mission failed. You even heard it, Jay, from the chairman, the Democrat chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith, who he had very harsh words to say this morning. He said, look, we should have started the evacuation of the civilians much, much sooner.

He said, I appreciate the pace at the end, but we did not start soon enough. And, Jay, the other thing I'm hearing from Senator Cotton is very much along the lines of what Jordan was talking about. The administration wants to say, well, look, this has happened before. Jay, not in places where it was the United States vacating the battlefield in a place where they were holding the security.

And, Jay, here's the other piece of it. They were not vacating a battlefield to an entity that is a known killing entity. We left these people in a place and in a land that is now controlled by an entity that we know, over the course of history, over the last several decades, they are subject to killing at the hands of that entity.

That hasn't happened before, Jay. I am just still horrified at the way we've abandoned these Americans and these Afghans that have assisted the United States. We've also let, and there's, the Connie network's holding somebody, and we didn't demand the release of that individual. Yeah, Mark Fredrick has been held for over a year with all these supposedly negotiations that General McKenzie said that the Taliban, as he negotiated with them, they were helpful and useful.

I can't even believe you said that. Yeah, they did not put on, as a part of the negotiations, release Mark Fredrick, who is a veteran who has been held captive by them for over a year. Let me play for you, General McKenzie, about his praise for the Taliban. I wonder if this will come back to haunt him and his career to give them this kind of praise when we know that they, let me tell you what, the long-term implication of this is a safe haven for terrorism. ISIS-K already exists there and other, Al Qaeda, and they will now have an opportunity they have not had in 20 years to have a place they can fully operate, plan, and then eventually what their goal will be to execute terror attacks, not in Afghanistan, but against the United States on U.S. soil.

Take a listen to, I can't believe this is a U.S. general who leads CENTCOM, for goodness sakes, Bite 40. I can tell you this, though, about what the Taliban has done. They established a firm perimeter outside of the airfield to prevent people from coming on the airfield during our departure, and we've worked that with them for a number of days. They did not have direct knowledge of our time of departure. We chose to keep that information very restricted, but they were actually very helpful and useful to us as we closed down operations. He's talking, of course, about the Taliban, is what he said.

Now, first, as you said, he talked about the perimeter, and while we were letting it play, everybody kind of looked and said, well, the perimeter was always a problem. That's why there's Americans stranded, is that how many times did those alerts go out to get away? Even before what happened last week, there were alerts then, there were alerts after that saying no more, and they didn't stop the terror attack. Well, they didn't stop the car bomb right at the gate, so they were great partners with this. I mean, I think what we saw as the Taliban is that they were willing to go so far to get us out today, Wes. They weren't risking their lives. Well, not only that, it was General McKenzie who in his now famous negotiations with this terrorist group that they offered the U.S. control of Kabul, and that's where most of our citizens are trapped in the city. There are some in the countryside, and it was this same general who said, no, no, you guys go ahead and take control of the city.

All we need is the airport. That's what led to all these hundreds and thousands of Afghan allies, hundreds of Americans being trapped there is because this general let them take control of the city. And now apparently, you know, he's not concerned.

They're useful. They've been very pragmatic, he said, very businesslike. I'm sure even as we speak, Jordan, that the Taliban is going through the streets of Kabul door to door, and they're being very pragmatic and very businesslike as they execute people. And it's happened on Biden's watch, on Austin's watch, on Milley's watch, and on General McKenzie's watch.

Well, he also said that he secured, that they secured the perimeter, which obviously, as you said with the horrible explosion, they secured the perimeter. They prevented Americans from getting in and Afghans getting in that had the right to go. So this is, you know, this is revisionist history already starting, Andy, and revisionist history is very dangerous because it's not history.

That's right. It's history the way the victors want to see it, and in this case, the victors of the Taliban. I mean, I am ashamed of General McKenzie making the statement that they were very useful and very helpful, that is the Taliban, in doing this. These are terrorists. These are ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas. These are all the same ilk.

These are the same people, and we're praising them for their helpfulness and their assistance in what they did in the execution of this mission. How can you possibly say that? How can you possibly, in good faith, as a member of the military and a general officer in the United States military, be making an absurd statement like that? That is a shameful remark to make. But, you know, but Than brings up the point, and Than, you said it, and that is keeping Washington's attention on this is going to be very difficult with everything else going on in the world. That's, so, we are going to, we're going to document this, by the way, our team, our video team, Logan's leading up a project right now to document all this, because this is an atrocity that has taken place. We have abandoned Americans, not stranded, abandoned Americans behind enemy lines, and the Taliban is the worst of the enemy. You know what they do to people they don't like? I'm not going to say it on radio, because you know what it is. But Than, is anybody in Congress going to say to Joe Biden's administration, what went wrong here?

Why did this happen? Well, they might today, Jay, but my concern is they won't in two weeks. I mean, there's two pieces of political reality here. The one is that in this moment, nobody wants to own this with the President, so you will hear nobody coming to his offense with this evacuation. But, Jay, I think you're correct. I mean, a week from now, two weeks from now, the second piece of political reality that is also true, they're going to be desperate to move on. Because they're going to be looking at their own election calculations, and this is not something the American people will stand behind.

So they will be looking to change the topic. Jay, one of the reasons that I know you're working there to document this is because it's going to be up to people like us to remember what happened here. 13 U.S. service members paid the ultimate price, and that was a result of very poor wartime decisions. It only falls at the feet of one person, Jay.

It's the commander in chief. We're going to have to remember that. We'll go to the phones when we come back for this break. Also, I know that Senator Sasse has put out a statement that was very direct about President Biden's role in this. It was a written statement, so we'll get that out to you as well.

And we'll play for you. Remember, it was Jen Psaki who just was not having anybody use it. You can't use that word stranded. They're not stranded. And then, again, John Kirby, the other spokesperson, now they're stranded. So it's okay to say they're stranded now.

It wasn't okay to say that a week ago when everybody knew that they were stranded, knew that they needed help, and the help didn't come. It's the last day of our matching challenge at the ACLJ. Support our work, double the impact of your donation. You have until midnight tonight where you are at ACLJ.org.

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It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways you're in membership with the ACLJ. It's empowering the right to life.

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A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. I want to get your phone calls 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. But I do want to play this first just to put it all to context. We've got it all on the table because we've played Kirby a lot saying that this is common to Americans being stranded in other places and that's very common. I don't think that's very common unless these are all classified stranded Americans because we've been involved in a lot of cases of Americans being imprisoned illegally abroad.

We still are involved in cases like that. That's different than stranded by the United States. So what he's talking about, he's trying to use that word in a way that I think they're trying to be creative with it because when Jen Psaki first heard it, she wanted nothing to do with that word. Take a listen. She wasn't trying to reuse stranded in a new way like Kirby is trying to redefine it. Take a listen.

This was just a week ago. Most of the criticism is not of leaving Afghanistan. It's the way that he has ordered it to happen by pulling the troops before getting these Americans who are now stranded.

Does he have a sense of that? First of all, I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home. No American stranded is the White House's official position on what's happening in Afghanistan right now. I'm just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan when we have been very clear that we are not leaving Americans who want to return home. We are going to bring them home. Okay, calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans. Okay, we're not leaving Americans and we're going to bring them home.

Okay, so she, they despise that word until today. Take a listen. How does diplomacy get those people out of the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan? It's not completely unlike the way we do it elsewhere around the world.

I mean, we have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time. And then he talks about the, for Blinken yesterday, how many is it? And so they're throwing out these numbers.

Take a listen. We believe there are still a small number of Americans, under 200 and likely closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave. We're trying to determine exactly how many. Okay, those 200 to 100 people that want to leave. So that takes other people who are saying, you know what, this is my job or I'm here and I'll deal with the risk.

That's their personal decision. That's different than being stranded. These people are stranded because they want to leave and they have told the U.S. government they want to leave. The U.S. government knows they want to leave. We now have a group that loves cutting those people's heads off and putting it on social media sites so that you see it, so that others see it.

How many days out are we from that? You know, I know that people were saying, well, that helicopter image that went through, that wasn't someone actually losing their life. They were hanging on and actively. But they are flying the helicopter. They're showing what they can do already with some of this equipment. We have a call about that. And the Chinese government also is supposedly already over there evaluating all this equipment.

Right. Listen, it's not going to take them long to figure out how to fly these equipment. They've got experts. And in fact, they also have any of those Afghan military that were trained. We don't know what side they're on or if they're being forced. I remember a story last week, the Taliban forced the police back into the street and traffic cops. So they forced them to put on their uniforms again. And so they are trying some sense of governing, but they do know that's a serious problem for the Taliban. That's something we talk about long term.

They've never been a governing body of a size this large, especially these kind of cities. Let's go to Lawrence first in New York on that question about the equipment. Hey Lawrence, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hi, thank you so much.

I really enjoy your show and I usually listen to it every day. My question is related to the equipment that has been left there. It's just so ludicrous leaving all this equipment as well as stranding our people there. Could there be an alternative motive that we're just not seeing? It just makes no sense to me.

I ask your expertise to answer the question. I think the initial motive was they weren't left behind for the Taliban. They were left for the Afghan military, Wes. That was the problem, is that they were left and instead of having a plan of, well, if this military falls, which they said any... It was interesting that all of the analysis said that military will fall. There was no one that said they're going to be able to hold this.

I think the longest time frame was 90 days that we heard. So no one was giving them credit to be able to actually continue their fight against the Taliban. But I guess there was no plan then to deal with these weapons once we knew that they couldn't fight the Taliban.

You're right. And what normally is done, has been done in situations similar to this in the past, is that if you have to abandon the equipment, you destroy it. You plant explosives on it, you use airstrikes, you destroy the equipment. But see, the Taliban has the United States, the Biden administration, over a barrel.

Because normally what we would do right now, you have over 40 blackout helicopters, you have some fixed wing aircraft, you have weapons, you have armored vehicles, you have over 7000 Humvees. We would go in, do airstrikes and take out all the equipment, destroy it. But if we do that, we're going to kill Taliban people who are with that equipment. And the Taliban has 200 American citizens. So the Biden administration is caught.

If they go in and do what they should do, destroy the equipment, they put these citizens at risk. The Taliban has the winning hand so far in this whole, whole game. You know, I looked at this, you know, when we talked about this before we went on air, you try to look at these things with an eye towards history. And I think history here is going to show, Andy, that not only did we abandon Americans and abandon, frankly, Afghans that were helping the United States, but that we also had no planning with no, as George just said, no backup when the Afghan military fell. And it was pretty obvious to everyone that the Afghan military was going to fall. That was accepted by the Biden administration. So this idea of leaving billions of dollars worth of equipment, which now the Chinese are reviewing. I saw that report last night.

They're already there. Really sets up historically a very dangerous precedent. You could almost write the end to the chapter. That's the problem. Well, Jay, someone has obviously not read history books and doesn't understand.

We have poured $83 billion worth of equipment into this campaign for the 20-year duration that it has existed. You're going to leave. You're going to make a decision. It has been made by the President that we're going to leave. You should have a plan of action for an orderly withdrawal instead of the chaos that we saw. And you certainly never, ever, ever strand and leave Americans who want to leave behind saying, well, we'll get to them through diplomacy. Who are you talking about having diplomacy with? The Taliban? Avowed terrorists?

People who execute people who cut their heads off and display it on television? You're going to negotiate with them about the return of the 200 or so. And you don't even know how many it is. You say, well, it's either 100 or 200.

We're not sure. You should have known that. You should have known this number.

You should have been fully aware and cognizant of this entire thing when you made this decision. Not simply willy-nilly saying we're withdrawing and then the rest of it will work out through diplomacy with a group of people who are known terrorists. This is an outrage.

No, I think that this is, it is very upsetting to any American people. And the military, I saw the hotline numbers are up right now for veterans. I know we're talking to a lot of veterans right now, Wes. I mean, that's important that people are feeling like they need to talk to someone.

There are people to talk to. Yeah. I mean, people have lost their lives there. They've left parts of their bodies there. They have been traumatized by the mission of their post-traumatic stress. This is a hard day and it is truly one of the most shameful days in American history.

And I say that as an American who loves my country, who served 26 years in uniform, but this is a shameful day. And I'm sorry, last evening when Secretary of State Lincoln said the military mission is over, the diplomatic mission has now begun, I wasn't very reassured. We don't have an embassy there. We don't have troops there. How are we supposed to exercise diplomacy with a terrorist group? Yeah.

I mean, these are the questions, again, we're all going to be getting into. Again, I encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ. This is the final day of our matching challenge of August. A big thank you to everybody who has supported us. That's right. The concert tonight on Facebook, 8 p.m. Eastern time.

So you can check out the J-Sec Hill Band then. But I encourage you, you've got until midnight tonight, to double the impact of your donation at ACLJ.org. Second half hour coming up in just one minute. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. We're talking about freedom. We're talking about freedom.

We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So I want to put some context to what we've been talking about the first half hour of the broadcast for you. We'll get to some more of your phone calls too.

1-800-684-3110. So we know now that the United States is admitting that we've stranded Americans abroad. And I want you to understand, they are trying to act like, well, this happens all the time.

People get stranded. The difference here is that we did it. The U.S. government is responsible for the people who they know wanted to get out and they left. And by the way, all those Afghans, they don't, I guess, exist anymore because they're not talking about them at all. And they're facing serious jeopardy as we speak. I mean, honestly, we don't know that the atrocities that might start occurring in Afghanistan with the Taliban having this kind of control without fear of any kind of response from the United States. So understand that.

But I want to play for you. So you understand again, why are we talking about these stranded Americans? Because the Biden administration admitted to stranding Americans.

Take a listen to John Kirby. How does diplomacy get those people out of the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan? It's not completely unlike the way we do it elsewhere around the world. I mean, we have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time. So again, stranding people all the time.

It happens all the time. First of all, we work in that kind of situations that we don't call it stranded. Usually they are being held against their will. They don't have any other options. They're either being illegally imprisoned.

Sometimes they've been housed in prison. Sometimes it's because of our own allies. But the word stranded is different when the U.S. is responsible for stranding them.

For saying, you know, we had to get out even 24 hours earlier and we didn't have the will or the wherewithal to send out enough special forces units or I don't even know if there were enough there to get those Americans. But this is a huge problem for the United States and I think the bigger long-term problem will be not the Taliban themselves, but what the Taliban allows to go on in Afghanistan and the threat that poses to the United States of America. That is very serious. Take a listen also to Blinken because he talked about the Taliban is going to prevent terrorism.

Now they're a terrorist group. It's not you shouldn't laugh because this is so ridiculous. Yes, but take a listen to this. Remember, it was Joe Biden who decided instead of him making the speeches, he's doing them in the afternoon, everyone's back to work at school for the most part if you're working from home, and so you're going to do a 3 to 45 in the afternoon address that most American people won't be able to watch. They might hear, they might see blitz.

But this is who he put out and this is what they're saying. This is Blinken, the Secretary of State. We will stay focused on counterterrorism. The Taliban has made a commitment to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for external operations that could threaten the United States or our allies, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban's sworn enemy, ISIS-K. They'd love to call them a sworn enemy. We will hold them accountable to that commitment.

We didn't. ISIS-K killed 13 American troops and supposedly, which is to believe that they're really sworn enemies when they're actually it's a break off group. They might not love each other, but the end of the day, we're not there anymore to even how are we stopping this?

We're not. And that Arab adage is true. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, you know, and so this is this is going to go south in a hurry and they are a terrorist group. How can a terrorist group pledged that we're not going to allow terrorism in our country?

And yesterday, Osama bin Laden's chief of security, Al Qaeda, moved back to his home in eastern Afghanistan, celebrated by his friends and colleagues in the area. ISIS-K still operates. Al Qaeda will have an umbrella of protection there because the Taliban is also a terrorist group. And I think the Al Qaeda angle is important, too, because they like to talk about, well, they've got the sworn enemy and ISIS-K. What about Al Qaeda? That's not their sworn enemy. They trained Al Qaeda. And ISIS-K is them, too.

Of course. It's a breakup of the Taliban. It's not like the ISIS guys are serious. We've given a country to terrorists. Yes. They have the caliphate. Yes. We gave it to them. We say, here it is. Afghanistan is your caliphate. That's right.

It's 100 percent right. And now it's a big report that the Haqqani network, the terrorists within the Taliban, they are running the security for Kabul. So would you like to be a stranded American there right now? I mean, this is very serious, folks. We'll get to your calls. Comments, 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ Matching Challenge.

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We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. New report out of Fox News 2. It comes with audio. It would be too difficult to hear, especially if you're listening on radio. But it comes with audio about the Taliban committing these house-to-house executions in Kabul.

Not in some province way outside, you know, in no man's land. But inside Kabul, house-to-house executions. And people are picking it up on the audio of their phones in their apartment buildings.

You can hear gunshot, then there's a time over, gunshot. So these executions are occurring. And remember, these people who were being executed were the people we made the promise to.

So in one of the pithy cartoons, it was, you know, what did we leave behind? As the helicopters, you know, the last plane's taken off, and it says our credibility. U.S. credibility.

So you could talk about all the loss of life that may occur because of what, how we did this. But the big picture, we talk about long-term, the threat to the United States. But also, our friend's gonna be willing, when we say we gotta go to war, to go to war with us again. And I think that, I think the international diplomatic side of this, Andy, is perhaps, and I've got a question for Wes on giving a country to a terrorist organization, but the diplomatic aspect of this, the British have been, and you just came back from England, I mean, the British have been particularly disappointed. Nigel Farage yesterday really went after the Biden administration aggressively about abandoning their allies, not listening to their allies, that a phone call was made by the prime minister of Great Britain, and Biden didn't, the President did not return it for 40 hours. This is one of our strongest allies, and this tells you, I think, it sends a signal, of course, as to, that this go-alone policy, you know, they used to complain to Trump about a go-alone policy. Look at what he's doing here. He ignored the, those civilized world in how we exited.

Yeah, Jay, I'm glad you mentioned that. I've been in London for two weeks, and I've been talking to a lot of British intellectuals, politicians, mainly, of course, on the conservative side, because that's what we espouse, and they were horrified in disbelief at the way that this exit was handled by President Biden, and particularly horrified by the way that Boris Johnson, the prime minister, was treated when he made a telephone call to the President. This is our closest ally after Israel, or perhaps equal to Israel, in the world, and that's Great Britain.

And what kind of a signal does this send to the British and to the other allies that we hope to establish in this new Biden world in which they, it's the post-Trump, we're not going to go it alone, but we're going to go with our allies. Well, you didn't go with your allies. You neglected your ally. You forsook your ally. You forsook your people, your own Americans whom you left stranded. And don't think that message did not get across to the British people, because it did, and to the British government, because it did, and they were horrified by Americans, because the question that they asked me, what have you achieved in 20 years?

What have you done? You are leaving your own people behind. We don't do that. That is, as the British say, not done. Yeah, I want to play what the Democratic chair of the Armed Services Committee said about the way the Biden administration, his party, has handled this.

Listen. Are you confident with where the U.S. goes from here? Well, absolutely not. It is a very chaotic, very difficult situation. As you noted, the Taliban cannot be trusted. I mean, even the Taliban can't control the Taliban, and they certainly can't control ISIS-K, as we learned a few days ago. So, no. I mean, no one should be confident about the situation and the chaotic situation that we have in Afghanistan.

So, let me go to Than first. So, how does that translate into real action, though? Yeah, that's the question, Jay. I mean, I would say two things on this.

First of all, he's 100% correct, of course. When ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. service members just a few days ago, Jay, I want people to hear this. They came through checkpoints, manned by who? Manned by the Taliban. So, we trusted the Taliban. They led ISIS-K.

They killed service members. But here's the important point, Jay, to your question about will it translate to tangible action. That person that you just heard from, Congressman Adam Smith, he is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. So, what I want to say to the chairman is, two or three weeks from now, when the House reconvenes in Washington, D.C., are you still going to be asking that question? Because if you're still asking that question, Jay, he has the authority to call the hearings and demand an investigation.

Will he do it? I don't know. You know, let's go to the phones. Lily in Idaho, on Line 2. Hi, Lily. Welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air.

Hi, Mr. Sekulow. I am just totally heartsick about this whole thing. I watched my brother-in-law come back from Vietnam. I watched that on the news. My question is, on this, they were given a list, and I don't know who they are. The Taliban got a list from the United States. They say that they have video of people being shot in their cases. Are we, as Americans, going to have to sit on our hands? There are reports coming out right now, because your phone line went bad on us.

Sorry about that. There are reports right now of house-to-house executions going on as we speak in Kabul right now. We, the United States, gave the Taliban a list of who the people that could be cleared are, because we forfeited the ability to control access to the airport in the streets. This is the problem, Wes.

It is. It's one bad decision compounded by another bad decision compounded by another bad decision. We could have controlled the security in Kabul. We forfeited to the Taliban. And then, instead of doing what the British and French did, sending teams out to rescue our citizens, oh, no, no, no, the Taliban's providing perimeter security. We'll give them the names and addresses of both Afghan allies and citizens, so they can help get them to the airport, which, of course, never happened. Well, listen to what Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State, said about all this. We will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.

Can we just stop? Yeah, we're going to hold them to the – I can't even listen to the rest of this. We hold the – we will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let the people freely depart Afghanistan.

They didn't, Andy, let them depart Afghanistan when U.S. troops were there. Yeah, and how are you going to hold them to the pledge? Are we going to go back again?

Is that what he's saying? What are you going to hold? You're going to hold a terrorist to a pledge. I'm a terrorist, okay? I am Hamas.

I am al-Qaeda. I am ISIS-K. And I make a pledge to you. And you're going to hold me to the pledge? You think that there's honor in that pledge? And Anthony Blinken, this absolutely naïve Secretary of State, making that kind of a statement, you're going to hold them to the pledge? By what means do you intend to do that, Mr. Secretary of State?

Why don't you answer that question? Don't worry, he says I'm quoting a Taliban leader who said any Afghans may leave the country, including those who work for Americans. If they want, and for whatever reason they want, they can leave. Meanwhile, they're going house-to-house, executing them right now. Well, I think the point is – Good job, Joe Biden. The point is this, which is what the Democrat congressman who's chair of the House Armed Services Committee said. Taliban can't be trusted.

They can't control themselves. So one Taliban commander cannot tell another guy, and it's all tribal-based and regional-based, and so they don't have this command and control structure the way that we envision militaries having. Also, we know that they can't control the outside terror groups that are inside Afghanistan that are supposedly unrelated to the Taliban. So if you can't do any of those things, Taliban can't be trusted, can't control themselves, and can't control the terrorist groups operating within. I mean, that's everything. That means all you can do – all of this is chaos and violence and death.

Yeah, absolutely. Afghanistan, thanks to the decisions of the Biden administration, is a failed state. It is chaos, it is lawlessness, and we had thousands of troops there, not near as many as we should have, but we had thousands of troops there while our citizens were trapped. We could have applied pressure then. We could have forced Afghanistan under threat of military action to actually honor that empty commitment that Secretary Blinken is talking about.

What he said is empty rhetoric, and the Taliban knows it, Al Qaeda knows it, ISIS-K knows it. And one other thing about our allies and what happened in Great Britain, what ended this year, disturbs me. You know, we had over 20 countries join us in Afghanistan.

Why did that happen? Because America was attacked on 9-11, and they invoked Article 5 of the Charter for NATO. So those other NATO countries went with us because it was a defense of America, and yet we did not consult them. We simply turned on our heels and left, and then the President has the audacity not to return the phone calls with the British prime minister, probably because he did not want to face what Boris Johnson was saying. This is a shameful disgrace, and all of this is on the shoulders of our President. I like to play this sound because Democrats talk about this situation. So, again, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Smith, he's a Democrat, take a listen, he had more to say. But now the Taliban is the Afghan government. I mean, look, if there was one sort of central failing in this exit, it was to not, you know, take a cold-eyed look at what was going on there and say the Taliban are going to take over. Whether it's weeks or months, it's not going to be years.

It's going to be days, weeks, or months. And if that's the case, what do we need to do? And two big things. One, we need to pull a lot more equipment out. Two, we needed to get people out sooner, particularly the Afghan SIVs. That should have started much sooner than it did.

But it did not. So a lot of this, again, the best assessment possible, I just want to remind everybody here, was that the Afghan military and their government, primarily Kabul, could hold on to Kabul for 90 days. That was all that they thought was the best case scenario after we left, was very little time.

So if that was the best case scenario, why didn't you plan on the chaos? Because if it was falling within 90 days, which it felt much quicker than it felt in hours, if it was falling in 90 days, that doesn't give you a lot of time. You've got to get everything done before those 90 days start. Because you're saying it's going to happen within those 90 days, as it did in the first day. And of course, that was just one report.

A lot of intelligence reports were worrying, a week before they started, don't do this right now, the military will fall. Back with our final segment. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash GIFT. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. So this is a great call and a question for Than in Washington, D.C. Joe's called in Florida online too. Hey Joe, welcome to Sekulow. You are on the air.

Thank you very much and thanks for all you do. I just want to ask Than, what's Congress doing about this? What can they do, other than hold hearings?

Than? Yeah, I mean, well, they have a fiduciary responsibility, Jordan, to get to the bottom of it, to conduct oversight over the administration. And if they do believe that there were failings here, which unequivocally there were, Jordan, it is their responsibility to conduct that oversight. And this goes back to the conversation I had with Jay just a moment ago about the comments from the House Armed Services Committee chairman, Adam Smith. Jordan, everything he said in those two statements, 100 percent correct. You can go through the list of failings that go all the way up to the commander in chief. But my question for him is, when Congress reconvenes in two or three weeks, is he still going to be focused on this, Jordan, or is he going to be talking about the infrastructure, you know, social spending package that they want to pass? I don't know the answer to that.

History suggests that their attention span is very, very short. But to what I would say to Joe is, you just heard the sound from the chairman. He can call those hearings. He can do the investigation.

He can conduct the oversight if he wants to. Yeah, I think that there's also been a lot of discussion about the way that they've authorized these military engagements. They put very broad authorizations of force that has been used by Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden.

Those are all coming to a close now. So that's also something Congress can look at is tightening the language because those were done in response to a catastrophic event in the United States, which was the 9-11 attacks. Yeah, I wonder, though, two things here, and that is, and there's an interesting comment coming in from Sherry on Facebook, says, what country is ever going to trust us again? And then Christina writes, are the Americans left behind now considered hostages?

And that's hard. Maybe not yet. And maybe not all of them, but some of them likely will become hostages.

I can almost guarantee that. Maybe they are even given that opportunity and not just killed. But the loss of trust, I mean, I think one of the lessons here, Andy, from this is the loss of trust from the United States leadership is dramatic.

I don't know how you would fix it. Jay, if you were an ally of the United States like Great Britain, would you trust the United States again to join a mission that when you're called upon to do so, you initially went to do it? If this is how it's going to end, I can tell you the British have no trust anymore. Would you, as an independent country, solemnly pledge to assist the United States, send and put into harm's way your troops and your military if this was the way that the President of the United States disembarks from the sinking ship? I don't think so. What does this do to Colonel Smith, to the military?

Oh, man. I have talked to so many of my military friends the last week or two. They are so upset. They are demoralized.

They are angry. And they, what they want, and it's what I want too, they want some accountability. Obviously, we cannot fire the President of the United States, but our senior military leadership has apparently swallowed this line and they went along with it.

And at the very least, some of those senior leaders need to be held accountable. So, two weeks ago, President Biden said he would extend the deadline if all Americans were not out. And he said, let me be clear, quote, unquote, any American who wants to come home, we will get you home. These broken promises and empty words cause me to doubt that they will ever get the rest of our people out without paying a price.

I think what's going to happen, we will pay a political and possibly a financial ransom to get these people out of Afghanistan if indeed we can actually get them out. But this brings into question not only President Biden's leadership, which is woefully lacking, and I say that with all due respect, but it also brings into question his integrity and his honesty. I mean, this is, again, I just want you to, a reminder about what President Biden promised the American people just weeks ago.

Yeah, I mean, this was, again, a week and a half ago, take a listen. And are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out is out? Yes, we will rescue the Americans in there. I think you're going to see they're going to get out. Any American who wants to get home will get home.

I've instructed the military, whatever they need, if they need additional force, I will grant it. Our first priority in Kabul is getting American citizens out of the country as quickly and as safely as possible. If there's American citizens left, we're going to stay until we get them all out.

So there was the President. The question is, do the American people? I think you got these statements coming from Democrat members of Congress because the next election cycle is midterms.

It's not the President who's up. So it's easy for them to, like Dan said, they want to put the criticism out now. They can then utilize that for their reelection efforts. But then when you get to the big, the general election, which is a long way away still, they want to make it history. And I think that unfortunately this is shown to work as a strategy in the U.S. Politically. Yes, politically.

Not as the right military strategy, but if you're just looking at the short term, I want to get reelected, this strategy has worked before. It'll be up to the American people if they'll even make this an issue in the next Presidential election. I know it's tough to imagine that not being an issue, but imagine three years from now, is this going to be in the questions even, how you would handle this differently when it's three years?

Probably not. Unless the American people are still demanding an issue, unless Congress continues to make an issue, which is like what Dan said. That means the Democrat members, until at least the midterms, have to make an issue themselves.

You just played you what the President said about no American left behind, and then listen to Anthony Lincoln yesterday. We believe there are still a small number of Americans, under 200, and likely closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave. We're trying to determine exactly how many. So we don't even know the number, but, you know, Andy, we talked about how this impacts other countries. But my goodness, how does it impact Americans? Well, it impacts them in a very bad way.

100 or 200 or 1, it doesn't make any difference to me. There are American citizens and there are Americans who were sent there and who went there at the behest of the United States government. They have a passport, they have citizenship, and they have the rights to be exercised and to be protected by their government. They were abandoned to what I am afraid, Jay, is going to be a very bad end for them. This is why these empty words from the President and Secretary Blinken are why when they talk about getting the rest of the people out, I simply don't believe them.

It's why our allies going forward will have trouble believing them as well. As Secretary Blinken went on to say last night, our commitment to those left in Afghanistan has no deadline. That is essentially Jay saying we will be thinking about you. We're in our hearts. It should have a deadline. We're getting you out by next week. Exactly.

Jordan. Yeah, and I think, again, what we do know now is that the attention, we have the attention of the American people, but we were talking about in our meeting before, is whether or not the attention will even be there tomorrow. And the President is going to address the nation. It's an afternoon address. It's not evening. It's not prime time.

He gave that up to others. And I think that's all part of a strategy. I think that where they messed up their political strategy is that you've got one saying never use the word stranded, the other now using the word stranded. You've got to say, well, get every American out. Well, we'll try to get every American out.

And so that's been problematic. But their bigger strategy is the President doesn't own this. It's not really about him.

This was already kind of in the works. But whatever you think, this is up to you, all of you listening right now, whether or not this will matter a day from now, a week from now, a year from now, unless we all forget and then the terrorists do strike. Then we'll all remember again. But we don't want that in our country. Of course not. That is what we fought and fight against.

The question now is, are we so hampered that we can't stop it? Remember the Matching Challenge at ACLJ.org and the concert tonight 8 p.m. Eastern time on the Jay Sekulow Facebook page. We will talk to you tomorrow. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $60 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Get a gift today online at ACLJ.org.