re: Taliban has taken Kabul. Terrorist attack at Airport at least 12 marines confirmed killed

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Can’t fly em though

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You sure about that?

I'm sure they have some people who can fly them, but they surely don't have nearly as many people who can fly them as Australia does, making their fleet effectively much smaller than Australia's.

Again, all I can say is heartbreaking.

@Wikileaks just tweeted this, which gives a good idea of the motives of china and Russia. That's not news, really, but it just confirms it.

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Successful privatisation of Afghanistan’s “world-class” Aynak copper resources near #Kabul, could “assist in 're-branding' #Afghanistan as a place where international corporations can do business”, according to a 2007 US cable revealed by WikiLeaks

LINK LINK

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I don't know that I believe this. "In the last 24 hours" we have seen a massive stampeed/crush that killed seven, shooting that could have killed some of those, an ISIS threat that completely shutdown all of the gates and forced the Embassy to tell Americans not to come to the airport, and German news outlets reporting planes leaving with very few people on them.

I suppose they could have strictly been evacing people who were inside the airport, which we were told that there was a "10,000 person 'backlog'", but I don't know.

@JoshNBCNews

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NEW: @SecBlinken says US evacuated about 8,000 from Kabul in last 24-hour period. That would be by far the largest single day total yet

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It is also important to note that when they say stuff like this, they just say "people". They never differentiate between Americans and Afghans. They also say the "US got 8,000 people out", which I find hard to believe when multiple nations are running flights in and out of that airport while sharing the same runway. To say the "US has gotten 8,000 people out in the past 24 hours" is more than a bit disingenuous, and amounts to more than just a little bit of spin for this Admin.

I've tried, Bobby, to rally a group of highly trained OTers to charter a jet and head over and pop that ol' baw. I was even going to use Peej as a decoy in a suicide vest so he could "Blow up the palace!" Alas, I only had one taker.

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It is also important to note that when they say stuff like this, they just say "people". They never differentiate between Americans and Afghans. They also say the "US got 8,000 people out", which I find hard to believe when multiple nations are running flights in and out of that airport while sharing the same runway. To say the "US has gotten 8,000 people out in the past 24 hours" is more than a bit disingenuous.

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Not to mention that you have to back them into an extreme corner for them to tell you how many Americans were evacuated. Plus the runway was shut down for like 8 hours yesterday. I don’t believe for a fricking second we evacuated 8,000 yesterday just given the footage we’ve been shown.

Looks like they aren't fond of their Afghan journalists leaving the country:

@SuhailShaheen

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A three-members committee has been set up in Kabul to reassure media.
A member of the Cultural Commission, a member of the Union of Journalists and media outlets and a member of the Kabul Police Dept will participate as members.
They will address media problems in Kabul.

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Just wait til the first suicide bomber strikes outside of the airport…. US intelligence indicates it’s likely coming.

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Yeah, that’s going to kill 40 people on its own, nevertheless the number of people that will be trampled to death as the panic ensues.

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It is also important to note that when they say stuff like this, they just say "people". They never differentiate between Americans and Afghans.

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This. Although I hope we can get the Afghans out who helped us, our first priority needs to be American citizens. I have seen no definite numbers of American citizens who have been rescued. Hell, they don’t even know how many are there.