This is a cut and paste from an article I saw.
UPDATE: This Wall Street Journal story, posted two hours ago, gives the most coherent picture I have seen of what is going on:
By evening, the main road to the Kabul airport—packed with Afghans desperately trying to escape and with thousands of American troops protecting the evacuation effort—presented a bizarre scene of Taliban fighters mingling with uniformed Afghan troops.
***
At the U.S. Embassy compound on Sunday helicopters ferried American and Western diplomats and civilians to the military side of Kabul airport. One after another, Chinooks and Black Hawks took off from the landing zone, spraying dust.Below them was a city of traffic jams and roundabouts choked by cars—many of them filled with Afghans trying to reach the airport’s relative safety. Dark smoke, presumably from burning documents, rose from the presidential palace.
***
President Biden has rushed 5,000 troops to Kabul to secure the airport and help evacuate American diplomatic personnel. By the end of the day, the Green Zone that contained much of the foreign presence in Kabul emptied out as embassies closed or relocated to the military base in the airport.In the airport, large crowds gathered at the military gate, trying to get through the checkpoint. There was an exchange of gunfire, with a warning of a ground attack sounding in the terminal.
On the tarmac, dozens of gray U.S. Air Force and British transport planes awaited their passengers. Civilian flights were suspended.
The U.S. Embassy released one more statement:
“The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly and the situation in the airport is deteriorating rapidly,” the U.S. Embassy said in a notice sent after nightfall. Consular operations, it added, were suspended indefinitely. “Do not come to the Embassy or airport at this time.”
This may seem like a disaster to you, but be of good cheer. Indeed, it is time for a victory dance, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected parallels being made with the rushed U.S. exit from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam in 1975, when staff was evacuated by helicopter from the building’s roof. He said the aim in Afghanistan was to target al Qaeda, which had been achieved.
“This is not Saigon,” said Mr. Blinken, speaking to CNN on Sunday. “We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission, and that mission was to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11. And we succeeded in that mission.”
Secretary Blinken’s new name/initials should be Blathering Buffoon Blinken/BBB!
