This is terrible, but who would take American students on a trip to Afghanistan this summer?!
Cajon Valley Supt. David Miyashiro... said that the families are on special visas for U.S. military service and that the Department of Defense considers them allies.... Cajon Valley School Board member Jo Alegria said the students were in Afghanistan on summer vacation with their families.
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49 comments:
Why do people visit Trenton? Life is full of mysteries...
Yeah, Afghanistan doesn't exactly sound like Spring break material.
I guess North Korea was all booked up.
aid that the families are on special visas for U.S. military service and that the Department of Defense considers them allies
Yo, DoD! Those American students are not allies. They are US civilians. Allies are foreign nationals that support us.
With all the possible locales to visit, these people pick Afghanistan? And do you move heaven and earth to get them out or just wish them luck? Knowing the leaving timeline, how did these people ever get visas approved?
I find the story confusing as to who the students are. I read the whole thing and it talks about "refugees". Are these children refugees? the parents? From Afghanistan? Elsewhere?
And what the Hell does this mean:
"special visas for U.S. military service and that the Department of Defense considers them allies."
If they are Americans or even just American citizens, why would they be considered "allies"? What visas for Military Service? Are they serving with the military?
The article is REALLY confusing about who these people are.
John Henry
Now we have a hostage crisis......way to go, Joe!
Next up......inflation!!
So are the children and their parents Afghani, visiting extended families? That would make some kind of sense. Or are they just random fools? And who organized this thing - presumably FACE? The Times must know who the families are; why don't they tell us?
An article in the Times of San Diego sheds a bit more light, though not much
District officials said the families traveled to visit family for summer break and were left without a flight back home following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Kabul.
https://timesofsandiego.com/education/2021/08/25/cajon-valley-school-district-reports-24-students-stranded-in-afghanistan/
I found a number of other stories that clarified that they were visiting relatives. I found nothing to indicate what they are doing here in the first place. The students may have been born here but what about the parents? Naturalized? Green card? Some other status?
The story seems more designed to obfuscate than clarify.
And I found this too:
El Cajon family of 5 makes harrowing escape from Afghanistan
Mon, August 23, 2021, 7:24 PM
El Cajon family of 5 makes harrowing escape from Afghanistan
That's it. Complete story. Are these 5 from the same group the other papers are writing about today? Why no mention of part(?) of the group escaping Monday in today's articles?
https://news.yahoo.com/el-cajon-family-5-makes-232447274.html
John Henry
Where are they supposed to go? The Louvre? The beaches of Normandy? Washington DC?
How is THAT supposed to get them into an Ivy League school?
It isn’t clear to me at all from the article. Are these students whose families are Afghani and they went to Afghanistan to visit them? That is, they are refugees who went home for a visit. Or are they children with a parent deployed in Afghanistan who went to visit their military parent? I would hope the military would have the wherewithal to warn families not to go there when they knew the shit was about to hit the fan. But, the level of incompetence we’ve seen so far makes it all too possible they wouldn’t.
To answer your question, apparently 16 parents of the 24 students.
Snark set aside. If that is the reality, then there must have been many people who believed that the power and might of the US government would not be diminished by senility or dementia. Many of you voted for this. Enjoy the moment.
Sorry to post so many comments but now I find this, from Monday, looking for info on the Cajon family of 5.
"EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) - An El Cajon family is back on American soil after a dramatic escape from Afghanistan.
In 2017, while volunteering for a nonprofit advocating for immigrants, Amanda Matti, helped resettle a family of four in El Cajon, including a former Afghan interpreter, his wife and two young sons."
That's only 4, all apparently Afghan refugees. Reading further into the article, there is mention of a baby born in the US. So at least one of these 5 is a Natural Born US citizen. Baby seems to be about 3 years old.
Looking at other articles, it appears that El Cajon is a magnet for Afghanis that make it to the US.
John Henry
To repeat- they aren't stranded, they are differently located, and all they have to do is go to the airport in Kabul where the Taliban at the gates will let them through.
Do I need a sarcasm tag on this?
It is has been interesting to me- this is the only story published in any major forum about which Americans are stranded. It is almost like no one wants to write this sort of story right now.
And then suddenly this Summer…
I guess, because it was teenagers, the LATimes decided they couldn't ignore it.
The L.A. Times article described the students and parents as “stranded.” I have been assured by the Biden’s Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, that no American is stranded in Afghanistan. So either the parents and students aren’t Americans — or Ms. Psaki lied.
well, isn't THAT special!!!
PSAKI YESTERDAY: "It's irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded. They are not"
A trip to visit grandparents? Washington Post has an article on one such family today. They thought they could get in and back out before the government collapsed.
This makes me think of something that President Biden said, that he had never been to the private residence of the White House prior to his election. He'd been Vice President for 8 years yet President Obama never deigned to invite him to the private residence? Was VP Biden such a clueless blowhard that he was really only made VP to keep Obama from being assassinated?
Seeing slow or sleepy Joe in office, it seems that the answer is 'yes'.
Also, when Sleepy talks of his dead gay son ('Heathers' reference, possibly appropriate) serving in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, was his crack-head son banging his wife while he was serving overseas? What did Joe know and when did he know it?
Progressive Californians would.
Actually, they went on special visas..."District officials said the families traveled to visit family for summer break and were left without a flight back home following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Kabul.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the families involved are on special visas for U.S. military service and that the Department of Defense considers them “allies.”"https://timesofsandiego.com/education/2021/08/25/cajon-valley-school-district-reports-24-students-stranded-in-afghanistan/
Holiday in Jalalabad
So you thought you'd seen it all
A change of scenery, maybe greenery
But here your type will crawl
And ya won’t do lunch at Barney’s Beanery
As your thoughts turn toward your home
Braggin' that you know, how the Afghans feel betrayed
As you stand barefoot in sewage
It's time to taste what you most fear
Joe Biden will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear
Brace yourself, my dear
It's a holiday in Jalalabad
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Jalalabad
Don't forget to pack a knife
OK...I'll make the obvious joke (unless someone beats me to it):
Taking school kids to Afghanistan takes a lot of Cajones.
Stating the obvious: Who would ALLOW students to go to an unstable place like Afghanistan where the Taliban hold huge portions of the co9untry and the US is planning to imminently withdraw DURING the time the student are in country. People should lose jobs over this. But they won't because it will mean that the government run by a (D) made a mistake. no mistakes can ever happen.
Stating the obvious: Who would ALLOW students to go to an unstable place like Afghanistan where the Taliban hold huge portions of the co9untry and the US is planning to imminently withdraw DURING the time the student are in country. People should lose jobs over this. But they won't because it will mean that the government run by a (D) made a mistake. no mistakes can ever happen.
Twenty-four students and sixteen adults — high school students for Pete’s sake! — went into a war zone? And someone in the DoD and/or Dept of State acquiesced??? Is there anyone, anywhere in the federal bureaucracy who actually does their damned job?
That's some poor decision-making that went into this decision, but it's not like the School District was involved in this -- other than having to keep the kids' places in the classroom. Scant information on why it happened, so I won't speculate. But I'm wondering what kind of Afghani ex-pat is in the School District?
That sounds like something that should be included in a remake of the Bad Ideas Jeans commercial. Soon to be Bad Ideas Burqas.
I know the region and thus recognize how gorgeous parts of the Hindu Kush range are, but if they went there KNOWING that the US was planning to remove forces while they were there, they are a special kind of stupid.
The fact that this was approved shows that perhaps friends of the US military need someone who will tell them no, and anyone who green lighted this should be paying costs to help get them out.
Fools.
The Times should know that it's irresponsible to say "stranded"; and how bad must things be in El Cajon that people fled to Afghanistan for the summer knowing the US was scheduled to pull out by August 31?
The things parents in California will think of to get their kids into USC....
"At least 24 Afghani students studying in El Cajon returned to Afghanistan during summer break to be with their familes and are stranded. No Americans are at risk"
but who would take American students on a trip to Afghanistan this summer?
Their Afghani parents, it would appear: “Cajon Valley School Board member Jo Alegria said the students were in Afghanistan on summer vacation with their families.”
Jen was asked about them today. Strangely, the press person who asked used the term "stranded" and Jen didn't push back and call it irresponsible for calling them stranded. Maybe because it wasn't a Fox reporter asking the question; maybe because it was a woman asking. Maybe both.
Taking school kids to Afghanistan takes a lot of Cajones.
A bad joke; one translation of "cajones" is "coffins".
Your inner Emily Litella was reaching for the word "cojones".
Yes, But Think of the Tales they'll be able to tell (assuming they live, and get back)
This One Time, at Taliban Camp....
El Cajon won the Little League World Series in 1961. (They also made it to the final game in 1977, but got waxed by Taiwan, as all American teams did in those days.)
My wife is planning to take her HS Art students to NYC next year.
I wonder if it is any safer than Afghanistan.
I guess like the Biden administration, the school administration should have researched and taken into account that whole "fighting season" thingy.
What a relief!
We actually have video from their future release as it gives the Taliban yet another propaganda victory.
https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/aug-23-1990-british-hostages-iraq-10799747
My wife was a high school Spanish teacher. I helped chaperone kids to Spain and Mexico. When you have a dozen and a half white-bread, corn-fed nuidwestern mid-adolescents, most girls, in BARCELONA, you get a lot of attention. In freaking MADRID. On the subways. After I ran off one nutcase, another chaperone said, "I've noticed your wandering eyes." Didn't know it was obvious. And this was in civilized western Europe.
Jeebus, what fool arranged for this?
play stupid games, win stupid prizes
Readering: "The things parents in California will think of to get their kids into USC...."
Now that was amusing.
But to make the joke truly spot on, you'd have to convey that the parents and their "consultants" would merely lie about having their kid go to Afghanistan....
'Your inner Emily Litella was reaching for the word "cojones".'
But then it wouldn't be a pun...
So we are to believe: the parents were here because they had to escape Afghanistan because they helped the military (translators, guides).
They were given special visas to move to America in return for their service because it was too dangerous for them to be in Afghanistan because they helped the Americans.
But they go back to Afghanistan for visits. OK.
The more I worked in refugee and immigrant centers, the more I realized it was a giant racket that benefitted three groups: the war-makers and radical warlords who were always the first ones in line to emigrate; the nonprofits here, religious and secular, who trotted their clients around like trophies while denouncing other Americans as racist or ungenerous for not wanting their neighborhoods and small towns transformed into a foreign culture, and the savvy people who took advantage of our generosity to set up here then ship in their extended families, all on our dime. And they visit their “unlivable” home countries regularly. It’s a racket.
Hello Muddah, hello Papa
Can you please help
Make it stoppah
It is not so entertaining
But it could be if teh bullets
Would stop raining
h/t AlanSherman
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