³ÉÈËXÕ¾

I’ve listened to hours of press briefings from all sides of the evacuation debate, and what’s been especially moving are the Afghan veterans, many of them serving in Congress, who have made emotional appeals to President Biden to extend his deadline.

These people have been there. They care about the Afghans who worked with them. And I don’t blame them for being angry. They’re incensed that the Taliban can tell us what to do – because no enemy tells the American military what to do.

But my question for them is – what if Biden follows their advice, and it doesn’t work?

It feels really good to say we should rain down hellfire on the Taliban if they dare to resist, but how exactly would you do that now?

I heard one critic compare Biden to a captain who sinks the ship then brags about the number of lifeboats. Well, maybe. But you know what’s worse than that? The captain who sinks the ship and then doesn’t have any lifeboats.

So if our troops suddenly rain hellfire on the Taliban, what do you think the Taliban will do? Beg for mercy? Wave the white flag, apologize, and leave town?

They have nothing to lose at this point. They’re cut off from foreign aid, they’re watching the smartest, most capable people in their country leaving by the tens of thousands – I think they’d take their revenge on the very people we’re trying to save.

Those two lawmakers who decided to fly into Kabul to see the debacle for themselves? They flew in and out, no problem. But what they did not do was leave the airport and attempt to rescue any of the thousands of people stranded outside. Then – they come back and say we should go after the Taliban.

Well, we certainly could rain hellfire on the Taliban. In fact we did it back in 2001. It was Look it up. We used it in Vietnam, too. And yet – here we are.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.