I get emails and texts every day from Americans and Afghan allies begging us to save their lives. These people are desperate to escape the Taliban. The U.S. government won’t help them. So they come to the American citizens trying to fill that void.
Project Exodus is make up of retired special forces, veterans, government contractors, humanitarians, security specialists and one journalist. Yesterday, we began coordinated our efforts with almost all the “private groups” doing rescues in Afghanistan. It’s inspiring and powerful.
But it also makes it more clear that the U.S. government has failed to do its job.
This all started for me nine days ago when I got an email forwarded to me from the retired special forces operator, who I’ve called “Mark.” I reposted his email at the bottom here so you can read.
Now Mark and I text and email countless times a day about Project Exodus and getting all the people in Afghanistan accounted for and then rescued. Every night, we talk on the phone to recap the day’s events and make plans to improve for the next day.
Last night when we talked, his voice was scratchy from talking all day and not enough sleep. His wife and kid were calling for him.
There are so many men like Mark who have given over a week (so far) of their full time effort, energy, connections, training and skills to save people in Afghanistan. No one is getting paid. We are all just doing what is right.
The guys on the Project Exodus team rarely show emotions. They are trained by our awesome military to do the mission. But they get upset when they get the texts from someone scared for his or her life in Afghanistan. People beg us to come help them. We all just have to work while hearing the constant raw emotions from terror.
Mark sent me an audio message today with just this note:
My ARU guys wants America to hear his voice. Here it is.
I have had to learn a lot of military acronyms in the past week but I didn’t know that one so I asked him:
ARU is the Afghan Reconnaissance Unit. But you can just say Afghan Special operations. I trained those guys. They are highly trained and highly vetted. He was an Afghan soldier, and then became a special forces soldier, and then we selected them from the cream of the crop and trained them to be the AFG version of us.
By “us”, Mark means the best of the U.S. special forces who served in Afghanistan. National Mission Brigade (NMB) is the Afghanistan special forces. Read below what the man said,but it’s better to listen to his voice in the podcast:
Hello, brothers. This is X from Afghanistan, a guy who did work with US forces in Afghanistan for the last 11 years.
I'm telling to all Americans, all the people, all the politicians of USA. So, brothers, I'm stuck here in Afghanistan. I did work for you guys. I served my country and also U.S. for a long time.
So, now we are under threat of Taliban terrorist group [inaudible] who are armed with weapons.
They killed people in their homes, searched their homes. So they are going everywhere.
We are under surveillance from them, so I didn't sleep last night in my home. I went to my friend's home because of their threats.
They killed one of my friends today who was working with NMB, Afghan special forces.
I'm here, bro. What should I do?
I'm not a crime criminal. I didn't do any criminals activities. The main reason that I am under surveillance is I did work for the U.S.
You guys left Afghanistan. You left us. So, what should I do? I don't know. There is no way to go.
This is my request from you guys: What should I do? You are talking about human rights. You are talking about your allies. Where is your human rights? Where are your allies right now? So what should I do? I'm still stuck here.
My U.S. friends helping me. They are stuck there. The government do not let them to help us to get us out of Afghanistan. What should we do, please? If you can do anything for us, do it. This is the time.
It is not hard for [the Taliban] to find us. If we hide for one day or two days, we can hide. But on the third day, they can reach us. They can kill us.
If you can help, this is the time. Please help us. Thanks, brothers.
What is Mark supposed to say to him? What can Americans say? Our president refuses to help you? No. We will say, we are coming. We value you. We know you need us. We are coming to rescue you.
EMAIL FROM “MARK”, RETIRED SPECIAL OPERATOR IN THE U.S.- AUG. 28
Fellow Americans -- we need a significant movement to take place to save the poor Afghan people and stranded American citizens.
There are several groups of retired special operations guys and other veterans who have gathered significant private funding and moved lots of assets to begin rescuing people from Afghanistan since our Government refuses to do their job. These groups have sent private planes into Kabul and been told they could not land.
They have shuttled busses of American citizens to the Kabul airport and at have been told to leave and that the were not allowed to fly out.
Some of these other groups have been granted access to fly into neighboring countries to launch tactical flights to recover personnel just to have the US Dept of state come behind them and shut the door.
The U.S. Government has given rosters with the names of all our Afghan partners and American citizens to the Taliban, saying “we did it so the Taliban would allow them in.” We all know that’s not the real reason, and who would be that stupid anyway!
The stats they are pushing on the news are false. There are many more American citizens who want to escape but have no option because our own government keeps halting all actions.
We who are trying to save these people have run into roadblock after roadblock.
Everyone can understand that this is an embarrassment to the current administration but that’s no reason to stop these valiant acts of selfless service.
If you believe in the sanctity of human life then you need to make your voice heard as loud as possible.
This is the worst disaster in American history and being magnified by this pure evil attempt to stop the actions of those who truly care. This must stop!
The only way to put and end to this is if everyone will band together and make your voice heard in person and through every platform available. Go to your State Capitols! Call every politician you know!
Let them know this entire administration needs to be removed from the top down, including the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, The Secretary of State and everyone else involved in this despicable coverup that will cost the lives of many Americans, and our loyal Afghan partners!
Anonymous
Special Operations Veteran (Ret)
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PODCAST: 'You Left Us' to be Killed by Taliban