Thing about the media swearing we can't get 50,000 people out of Afghanistan in a week

[bigtree]

Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen 8h
The thing about the media swearing that we can’t get 50,000 people out of Afghanistan in a week is that we just got 16,000 out in one day.


...21,000

Jim Sciutto @jimsciutto 45m
Another jump in evacuations:

21,000 people were evacuated from Kabul airport in last 24 hours, via 37 US military flights carrying 12,700 evacuees & 57 coalition flights carrying 8,900, per WH. 12,700 is largest number evacuated by US military in 24-hour period to date.

Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Is there a source for the original claim that it would be impossible to evacuate 50,000 in one week?

Other than Bryan Tyler Cohen's "some people are saying" tweet?

The thing about the media swearing that we can’t get 50,000 people out of Afghanistan in a week is that we just got 16,000 out in one day.

Link to tweet

[bigtree]

9. heh, I remember when a media consensus had formed about estimates of who was left to be evacuated

...and the number was 10 to 30k.

It's all mostly anecdotal with these critics, and there isn't some central arbiter of all of the complaints. Clearly the number of evacuations is never going to be enough for some, but its the 31st withdrawal date that's the target of most critics, I think, more than any actual concern about someone left behind.

Some are going to be left behind, but with these numbers, its hard to argue, as some do, that the administration and military aren't doing the utmost.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. So fucking proud of our flyboys and gals and their crews and the soldiers on the

ground keeping order and so fucking proud of our president!

[Botany]

3. "Since August 14, 58,700 evacuated."

End of story.

[FBaggins]

8. Not at all the end of the story. But a much more encouraging chapter.

The question is and has always been how many (if any at all) will be trapped in the end. Since we can't know how many people we're supposed to get out and we don't really know whether next week is a hard deadline... we can't tell whether we will be ultimately successful or not - or whether current progress hints at ultimate success.

What we do know is that the numbers belie any claims of incompetence in the execution of the current evacuation. But if 50 Americans are left behind, "we got out 49,950 out of 50,000!" won't be very effective spin.

[WA-03 Democrat]

4. We have a real Commander in Chief

One who’s son served in this long war. He understands and values the military very much.

[marble falls]

5. Joe's getting it done.

[Botany]

7. "Joe's getting it done."

Yup! And the total # of US casualties? Zero. I'm sure the administration has let the Taliban
know if they try to mess with the withdrawal and evacuation they would pay a heavy price.

[Wounded Bear]

10. Joe didn't delay things while he figured out how to profit from it...

[Botany]

11. Or wait until getting his orders from Vlad Putin.

Joe is doing a great job after being dealt a very bad hand to begin with. And that "bad hand" was
deliberately put in place by Trump and Stephen Miller.

Not only is President Biden very skilled in his job but he has also surrounded himself with really talented
men and women too. One thing that Biden has now is kind of like what he was in the Obama administration
and that is having people who IN PRIVATE disagree with him and that dynamic helps to shape a better
end product.

[Demovictory9]

6. kick