The Resurrection of ISIS

As we feared, President Biden’s hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has ushered in the return of the Islamic State (ISIS). This has provided exactly the safe haven ISIS has been waiting for to re-emerge.

In addition to the growing concern of terrorist attacks on the U.S. as a result of the chaos in Afghanistan, the Taliban has now put a time limit on when Americans can exit safely.

The Taliban has warned the U.S. that the deadline for safe exit is August 31st. If the evacuation goes past that date, the Taliban says there will be consequences. On top of that, we went from 2,500 U.S. troops keeping Afghanistan relatively calm, up to 6,800 U.S. troops just to secure an airport. So now the Taliban has given us a deadline of August 31st to get at least 6,800 troops out of Afghanistan.

Are we on the potential brink of a war restarting?

Director of National Security Jake Sullivan described the threat of ISIS as:

The threat is real. It is acute. It is persistent. And it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal.

But just three days before, President Biden, clearly out of touch with reality, said:

Look, let’s put this thing in perspective here. What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as – as well as getting Osama bin Laden. And we did.

The mixed messaging coming out of the White House does not instill confidence in the American people that we have a grip on what is going on. ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy Ric Grenell commented on the failure of the Biden Administration:

On January 20th of this year . . . in Afghanistan, we had freedom. The Afghans were looking forward to creating more freedom. The U.S. Embassy was working well. All of that was on January 20th of this year; now look at the chaos that we have. We went from Donald Trump telling the Taliban exactly what to do, and the Taliban in fear that they would be bombarded from the air. Now fast forward to today, and the Taliban is telling us what to do; they are telling us to get out by a certain date. The whole script has been completely flipped.  This is a political crisis. I want to be clear – this is not an intelligence failure. For those listening, you should understand that your government – the U.S. government through intelligence and State Department Foreign Service Officers and the men and women at the Pentagon – they all did their job. They presented warnings to the political class. It was the politicians who messed this up at the end. We need to be very clear with our U.S. military. They protected the U.S.; they went to Afghanistan and got rid of the immediate threat. They did their job, and they should be very proud. We owe them a debt of gratitude. The politicians in Washington are the ones who messed it up.

In addition to American citizens being in harm’s way, other vulnerable populations in Afghanistan are suffering immensely. Christians in Afghanistan have to operate underground, or they face persecution.

The Taliban has been reported to be searching each and every house to find and kill Christians right now, going as far as looking through their phones for any Christian content. Through President Biden’s bungled exit strategy, he has left these Christians helpless.

Ric Grenell points out exactly who advised this Administration on this failed strategy:

Let’s talk about who is advising this Administration. Susan Rice is considered to be the Domestic Policy Advisor. We all know that is phony; she is actually running the foreign policy. Do you know who her two deputies were when she was the National Security Advisor? One deputy was Antony Blinken, who is our Secretary of State now. The second deputy was Avril Haines who runs national intelligence; she is the Director of National Intelligence now. Those were Susan Rice’s two deputies. Our National Security Advisor right now – Jake Sullivan – is the individual who sent Hillary Clinton classified emails on her laptop. This is a group of people who are highly partisan. . . . They gave us the Libya disaster in Benghazi. They sat on their hands during Syria when it unfolded into a genocide and ISIS took over. Now they are delivering us Afghanistan. . . . This is a history of failing up in Washington.

We could be on the cusp of another United States and Afghanistan war. We are preparing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get to the bottom of this. The world is watching, and the lack of leadership is putting American’s safety at risk.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis on the return of ISIS.

Watch the full broadcast below.