Lawmakers Wish They Could Do More to Save American Hostages in Afghanistan 

Displaced Afghan families head into Kabul from the northern provinces desperately leaving
Paula Bronstein /Getty Images

Congressional lawmakers lamented on Wednesday they wished they could have done more to save American citizens stranded in Afghanistan two weeks after President Joe Biden’s deadly evacuation.

“It was tough, honestly. I was in communication with probably five to 10 people on the ground in Kabul and that was just emotionally frustrating and demoralizing,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) told the Hill.

Swalwell also said his staff was swamped with requests from hostages in Afghanistan due to the State Department’s red tape. “My staff, they were in contact with almost 1,000 times that, so for them it was even worse. We all felt helpless more times than we felt like we were successful,” he explained.

A burqa-clad woman walks with her children along a street in Kabul on August 31, 2021. (Photo by Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images)

A burqa-clad woman walks with her children along a street in Kabul on August 31, 2021. (Photo by Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images)

Ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) told the publication he feels some “guilt” for not saving everyone strapped behind enemy lines.

“There’s a bit of … let’s say guilt. We had a big role to play. We did save a lot of lives. But it was very emotionally stressful — when you’re making life and death decisions and pleading with people on the ground at the airport itself to let these people in,” McCaul said. “Because you know if they get in, they will escape. And if they don’t get in, they will die.”

“Our offices were flooded with requests to help people get out” after Biden’s disastrous withdrawal, McCaul bemoaned. The pleas “were coming to us because the State Department failed,” McCall added. He said his office members felt like “kind of mini State Departments.”

Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) described the situation as desperate for those stranded in the collapsed county while suggesting she understands why Americans were in Afghanistan. Families believed “ultimately the window for visiting Afghanistan or their country of origin might be closing but wanted to go back and see family, be part of family celebrations,” explained Spanberger.

A young girl is pictured at the airport in Kabul on September 12, 2021. (Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images)

A young girl is pictured at the airport in Kabul on September 12, 2021. (Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images)

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL), who described the scene as “very personal” to the Hill, knew many of those trapped were “people I had known or worked with and fought with.”

“We just received a flood of panicked requests. And they weren’t just random requests. These were people I had known or worked with and fought with or tried to improve the country with over time, so it was very personal,” he said.

Waltz added the situation gave him “somewhere on a spectrum between rage and grief,” he added.

Lawmakers were not the only individuals who spoke to the Hill. Congressional aides revealed they had to make decisions because they could not rely on the State Department to save the stranded Americans.

A U.S. Marine with Joint Task Force - Crisis Response assists evacuees at an Evacuation Control Check Point (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26. U.S. service members are assisting the Department of State with a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) in Afghanistan. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla)

A U.S. Marine with Joint Task Force – Crisis Response assists evacuees at an Evacuation Control Check Point (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 26, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla)

“I had to make the decision to send women and children that I had to prioritize, to the airport, where they — something could happen to them — in order to potentially maybe get them through the gate,” a staffer told the publication.

“And I always really struggled with that,” the aide said about his experience that will live with him for years.

“Are they going to be able to sit there for two or three days, if they need to? Do they have extra cellphones? Do they have food, water? And again, it feels like it didn’t have to be this way,” the aide said. “I’m a caseworker, I’ve done crisis casework before, but it should not be up to us. … I still feel, physically, so frustrated by it.”

It is unknown how many Americans remain hostage to the Taliban. The Secretary of State acknowledged Monday he believes “about 100” Americans and “several thousand” green card holders remain in the country.

Medical staff check the children of a burqa-clad women during a free medical camp for internally displaced people at Shahr-e-Naw Park in Kabul on September 11, 2021. (Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images)

Medical staff check the children of a burqa-clad women during a free medical camp for internally displaced people at Shahr-e-Naw Park in Kabul on September 11, 2021. (Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is a picture that will continue to change over time,” Blinken excused his lack of certainty.

Media reports suggest 100 to 5,000 Americans remain, while 6,000 have been rescued. President Joe Biden said ten percent of Americans originally in the country at the time of its collapse were left behind. The White House said the original number was 11,000.

Meanwhile, stranded Americans and green card holders are currently being blocked from leaving the country due to Taliban control and health concerns. No rescue flights have left the country since last week. And the flights that escaped the Taliban only brought a handful of Americans.

But despite the crisis, Biden claimed the evacuation was a job well done. It was an “extraordinary success,” Biden said.

President Joe Biden pauses as he speaks about the bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 12 U.S. service members, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden pauses as he speaks about the bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 12 U.S. service members, from the East Room of the White House, August 26, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history,” Biden continued. “No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history; only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø 

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