UPDATE: Biden’s Afghanistan Speech

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala walk up the stairs in the West Wing of the White House Monday, March 29, 2021, following the President’s remarks in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith)

UPDATE: During his speech, Biden offered up as solutions things that should have been done months ago. Coordinating with allies, getting humanitarian backing from the developed world, and giving the American military personnel on the ground the material and support they need to get the job done are all things that could have been done before a crisis took place. It’s just bad intelligence. 

Joe Biden will give a speech at 1:00 pm today on “the evacuation of American citizens and their families, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans.” Kamala Harris is rumored to also be planning to attend. The speech promises to be a lot of fluff without much action, and one thing that certainly isn’t on the table is bombing U.S. purchased equipment leftover in Afghanistan by the country’s fleeing military. Fox News reports that Biden is not considering airstrikes to reduce the capabilities of Taliban fighters. Greg Norman writes:

As evacuations remain ongoing in Kabul, the Biden administration will not launch airstrikes on American-made aircraft and military equipment in Afghanistan that has been seized by the Taliban, a U.S. official told Fox News on Friday following a Reuters report claiming the action was being considered.

Earlier, current and former U.S. officials that spoke to Reuters said the option of airstrikes on equipment provided to the Afghan army that the Taliban now controls hasn’t been ruled out amid concerns that the weaponry could be used to kill Afghan civilians or fall into the hands of militant groups and U.S. adversaries such as the Islamic State, Russia and China.

But there is “no chance U.S. launches strikes as long as this evacuation is underway,” a U.S. official later told Fox News.

Past videos have emerged showing Taliban fighters inspecting lines of vehicles and opening crates of firearms, communications gear and drones during their blitz of Afghanistan, according to Reuters.

“Everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban’s now,” one U.S. official told the news agency.

Another U.S. official, citing a recent intelligence assessment, told Reuters that the Taliban are suspected to have captured more than 2,000 armored vehicles, such as U.S. Humvees, and up to 40 aircraft, possibly including UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

“We have already seen Taliban fighters armed with U.S.-made weapons they seized from the Afghan forces,” Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who is the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Reuters. “This poses a significant threat to the United States and our allies.”