August 18, 2021
"Mindful of the people hanging onto the plane, the pilots taxied slowly at first. Military Humvees rushed alongside trying to chase people away..."
"... and off the plane. Two Apache helicopter gunships flew low, seeking to scare some people away from the plane or push them off with their powerful rotor wash.
REACH885 accelerated and was airborne.
Minutes later, however, the pilot and co-pilot realized they had a serious problem: The landing gear would not fully retract. They sent one of the crew members down to peer through a small porthole that allows them to view potential problems in the wheel well while aloft.
It was then the crew saw the remains of an undetermined number of Afghans who had stowed away in the wheel well — apparently crushed by the landing gear.... Alerted of the tragedy on board, mental health counselors and chaplains met the anguished crew members as they disembarked."
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“Quick question: does anybody, anybody believe that if Donald Trump were still president Afghanistan would have been consumed in this humiliating maelstrom?“
Roger Kimball
That which is seen, if only by narrative, cannot be unseen. The question arises, "who is responsible for this?" in the wake of this kind of clear human tragedy.
I can't help thinking about another man in Washington once upon a time talking about known unknowns and unknown unknowns. The President seems to think that we are at the end of something. Does he understand that this end is the beginning of something else?
More important, does it matter whether this man understands anything? Who is at the wheel of this runaway train?
Didn't someone recently say the buck stops with him?
It was then the crew saw the remains of an undetermined number of Afghans who had stowed away in the wheel well — apparently crushed by the landing gear.... Alerted of the tragedy on board, mental health counselors and chaplains met the anguished crew members as they disembarked.
The first entry in a very long Wikipedia article titled, "Civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan (2001–present)"
The Project on Defense Alternatives estimated that in a 3-month period between October 7, 2001 and January 1, 2002, at least 1,000-1,300 civilians were directly killed by the U.S.-led aerial bombing campaign,[6] and that by mid-January 2002, at least 3,200 more Afghans had died of "starvation, exposure, associated illnesses, or injury sustained while in flight from war zones", as a result of war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_war_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)
I guess it's been a busy two decades for "health counselors and chaplains".
Hopefully the end was quick. It's awful to imagine those people's last moments--the terror-filled sprint down the runway underneath the plane, trying to get on any way they can, a minute or two of euphoria as they thought they found a way out, finally realizing they were trapped and would be crushed to death.
Alerted of the tragedy on board, mental health counselors and chaplains met the anguished crew members as they disembarked.
Would these counselors & chaplains be part of the crew treating all those White House reporters suffering from PTSD as a result of witnessing the events of January 6th?
Blogger tommyesq said...
Didn't someone recently say the buck stops with him?
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cruelly neutral reading of the semiote - buck stops >>>
Biden could be another way of saying - all the bucks belong to me? and I dispense them as I please
and we misunderestimatestand by assuming he is taking responsibility
A mindless President generating mindless fear. In God We Trust. Yes, things are that bad.
we had 3 things to do while pulling out
*remove our military
*remove our people
*distroy abandoned equipment
Maybe, Just MAYBE; that wasn't quite the right order for Jo Biden to order it done
Protip: Don't abandon Bagram Air Base, until LAST.... NOT First
In some cultures, impending certain death results in the emergence of resistance to inflict as much pain on the oppressor as he would inflict on you. The Taliban are inspired by their belief that “martyring” themselves through conquest gets them a ticket to paradise ( with all those nice Bacha Bazi like “servants” to fulfill their needs) .
What you have here is craven fear of those who would try to smuggle themselves in a certain death escape path. Frankly I have more contempt than sympathy since they could have damaged the escape path of others.
It’s just one more example of how badly the “experts” read Afghani culture and ignored all of the corruption and duplicity of a 7th century society.
Life imitates Con Air.
They sent one of the crew members down to peer through a small porthole that allows them to view potential problems in the wheel well while aloft. It was then the crew saw the remains of an undetermined number of Afghans who had stowed away in the wheel well — apparently crushed by the landing gear.
"Hillbilly! Cyrus wants you to check out the landing gear."
"Then I'll get to see some nice scenery whipping by down there... Trees and stuff."
"Bye, Pinball!"
When I saw the video of the C-17 taxing with the crowd hanging on the aircraft I was afraid this was inevitable. It is easy to Google and read about multiple occasions over the years where bodies of stowaways have been found in wheel wells of commercial aircraft.
wondering what the payload limitation on the plane was
one plane shown on internet as setting record with "800 souls" had lots of head room left for the crowd sardined in the floor
they could have rigged some netting for more people to ride hammock style
Didn't someone recently say the bucks stops with him?
--Hunter Biden
The should put the remains into ZipLock baggies and send them special delivery to the Oval Office.
" the Air Force is investigating." The aircrew did a heroic deed, but I fear the USAF will punish them instead of the General Officers.
We should stop the election audits because it's obvious that Biden is a fraud.
If the crew had left the landing gear down to avoid crushing the stowaways, they would have frozen to death or died of hypoxia instead. They always were doomed, though this doesn’t make it less tragic.
Blogger Ironclad said...
It’s just one more example of how badly the “experts” read Afghani culture and ignored all of the corruption and duplicity of a 7th century society.
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regret to say Ironclad has this bassackwards -- the Americans experts recognize soul mates in the Afghans they work with... and bring corruption back home.
what you call corruption there you call bureaucracy here
I am reading Afghan president Ghani left on plane with $169 million in cash and family living in USA
Afghan patriots with opener views want respect not condescension ... and they are ignored.
According to LLR Chuck and Howard, Trump's plan required attaching desperate would be refugees to the outer airframe of departing Air Force transports and poor, poor, well-meaning Joey Biden had no choice but to carry that plan out.
Also according to the bookend lefties LLR Chuck and Howard, Trump's plan required the complete abandonment of thousands of American citizens to the Taliban.
"one plane shown on internet as setting record with "800 souls" had lots of head room left for the crowd sardined in the floor"
Spirit airlines has taken notice.
Go easy on Joe. Being a good Catholic boy, as soon as someone mentioned pulling out, he reflexively screamed, "DO IT RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW!!!"
No hammocks, I think. You can't have tons of weight swinging freely, and the extra weight itself would probably alter the center of gravity and prevent takeoff. (I assume there wasn't time to rig anything anyway--everyone sitting on the deck is the only way.)
There's a horrifying vid of a Russian cargo plane some years ago where the load inside broke free as it took off. It fell backwards.
Hammocks would be fine. The total mass doesn't move very far at all.
Thanks for the info, O_O. I was spitballing.
What about the weight, still? If 800 on the deck is a heavy load to lift, how many more would it take in hammocks to make it impossible? (We may find out.)
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