Defense & National Security — Struggles remain a year after end of Afghanistan War

by Ellen Mitchell - 08/29/22 7:21 PM ET

U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots load people being evacuated from Afghanistan onto a U.S. Air Force plane in the background as a line of people forms — Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air Force via AP
In this image provided by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, load people being evacuated from Afghanistan onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021.

It’s been one year since the U.S. withdrew its military from Afghanistan, ending its longest war. But for many — including Afghan refugees in the U.S., vulnerable Afghans who have been unable to escape the country and those refugees scattered across the globe — the struggles are far from over.

This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Ellen Mitchell. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

One year on, refugees find shelter but little security

Khalis Noori had one thing in common with the U.S. government: He never thought Kabul would fall so quickly.

After years of living in the United Kingdom, he had returned to Afghanistan in April of 2021, prepared to take a job as an international aid adviser with the country’s Ministry of Finance.

It was an important time to come home, he said, with the fledgling democracy in need of its best and brightest as the U.S. was set to end its 20-year partnership by withdrawing military forces that had been on the ground since 2001.

But the rapid fall of the country altered that trajectory, changing his life forever.

Rebuilding a life: Khalis is just one of roughly 85,000 Afghans who made it to the U.S. this year after they fled the country as the Taliban barreled across Afghanistan, capturing city after city until Kabul fell on Aug. 15, 2021.

Since the last evacuation flight took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 30, 2021, Afghan evacuees have been undertaking the arduous work of rebuilding their lives.

Still struggling: Many spent months in military bases abroad only to then spend months in military bases on U.S. soil — meaning a year after the U.S. left Afghanistan, some evacuees are still in the early stages of getting settled into new jobs, homes, schools and lives.

Many are still dealing with the heartache of leaving home while fearing for those left behind.

Read the full story here, the first installment in a three-part series.

Officials: Violence in Iraq ‘disturbing’

Biden administration officials on Monday expressed concern about the violence unfolding in Iraq but denied that personnel were being evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, called reports of unrest throughout the country “disturbing” and expressed concern that “Iraqi institutions are not being allowed to function.”

‘False’ reports: But, Kirby said, reports of the U.S. Embassy being under threat are “false.”

“There’s no evacuation going on at the embassy and no indication that’s going to be required at this time,” Kirby told reporters on a call on Monday.

Earlier reports: Media reports indicated that multiple people were killed and several were injured in clashes in the Green Zone in Baghdad after Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced he plans to withdraw from political life.

The Pentagon’s response: Later on Monday, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters that “there is no change” to the status at the U.S. embassy.

“We spend a great deal of time ensuring that we’re taking care of American overseas and we have ample security at the embassy in Baghdad to ensure that,” they said.

Read the full story here

Russian military recruitment ‘unlikely to succeed’: US

The U.S. government doesn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent effort to increase the size of his military by more than 130,000 troops will succeed, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.

Putin, who last week signed a decree to boost Russia’s combat personnel from
1.9 million to 2.04 million starting next year, is “unlikely to succeed, as Russia has historically not met personnel end strength targets,” the defense official told reporters.

Lagging numbers: They added that prior to the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the country “may have already been 150,000 personnel short of their million personnel goal,” and have been trying to expand recruitment efforts by eliminating the upper age limit for new recruits and recruiting prisoners.

“Many of these new recruits have been observed as older, unfit and ill trained. So what this all suggests to us is that any additional personnel Russia is able to muster by the end of the year may not, in fact, increase overall Russian… combat power,” the official said.

Limited information: Since the early days of its attack on Ukraine, Russia has not been forthcoming about how many of its service members have died in the conflict, only allowing that 1,351 of its soldiers had been killed.

Western officials, however, estimate that at least 45,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has also kept guarded its information on how many of its troops have been killed in battle, but last week revealed that nearly 9,000 military personnel have died in the war.

Read that story here

FROM THE WEEKEND

Fears over Afghanistan threat simmer, despite White House assurances

When the United States pulled its troops from Afghanistan in a chaotic dash, the Biden administration and its critics traded fire over whether America could keep its borders safe from terrorist threats without boots on the ground.

A year later, that debate is still raging.

While the Biden administration has pointed to key wins from afar — in particular a Kabul drone strike earlier this month that killed longtime al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri — former and current defense officials and experts harbor doubts that the U.S. is safe from future threats with its troops gone from the region.

Read that story here

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will speak at the U.S. Special Operations Command change of command ceremony at 3:30 p.m.

WHAT WE’RE READING