GOP's Sasse says Biden is drifting into 'hostage situation' in Afghanistan

published 22 August 2021

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Sunday that the Biden administration's "incompetence" has pushed the United States toward a "hostage situation" in Afghanistan.

"They abandoned Bagram Air Force Base in one of the stupidest military blunders in all of U.S. history," he told Fox News' Chris Wallace, referring to the decision to leave the base, which is outside of Kabul, and use only the capital's Hamid Karzai International Airport for evacuation flights. "Now we're left in a situation where we're relying on a civilian airport ... that has only one runway."

His fear is that "one RPG taking down a plane" could leave a whole lot of people stranded in Kabul. To make sure that doesn't happen, Sasse said he wants President Biden "to step up and be the commander-in-chief" and make sure the Taliban knows he won't stand "for the hostage situation into which we're drifting." A few of the steps he wants to see Biden take in the coming days include scrapping the "arbitrary" Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline, pushing the U.S. military's "perimeter well beyond Karzai airport," and figuring out whether it's necessary to retake Bagram.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.