--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of Daily Wire, and I'm here with Georgia Howe. Today, we're talking about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the American allies who remain there.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. Just over a year after the withdrawal, tens of thousands of American allies are still in Afghanistan, hunted by the Taliban with little hope of getting out.
--:-- John Bickley: But there are groups of American veterans, many of whom fought side by side with these allies, who are working tirelessly to provide some aid and protection. One volunteer group called Task Force Pineapple, founded by retired Green Beret Scott Mann, has been collaborating with the U.S. military to get allies out of harm's way.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. And Scott Mann is our guest today. Welcome to Morning Wire, Scott.
--:-- Scott Mann: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're talking about the allies still left behind in Afghanistan, what veterans are doing about it, and what the U.S. needs to do to make sure another 9-11 doesn't happen again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Scott, let's start with the numbers. How many allies do you think are left in Afghanistan now under Taliban control?
--:-- Scott Mann: Well, a lot of it has to do with how you quantify allies. If you look at SIV, special immigration visa, eligible individuals, I've seen numbers ranging between 75,000 and 100,000. And that's where an explicit promise was made that if you risk your life in defense of the United States of America in this war in Afghanistan, you are eligible for an SIV.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a big number. But then you've got another 20,000 to 30,000 Afghan special operators, special mission wing pilots, who really took on 98% of the combat in the last five years of the war. They don't even have a pathway to a third country or the United States.
--:-- Scott Mann: That's right. They're not eligible because they technically didn't work for the U.S. government. They worked for the Afghan government. And they're being hunted, killed, and exterminated right now in droves.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do you have people in contact with some of those folks?
--:-- Scott Mann: We do, actually. The brotherhood in the special operations community between U.S. special operators and the Afghan special operators is very tight. We fought alongside each other for years. And so even though a lot of us are retired who are doing this volunteer work, we've known these guys like Nizam, who's in my book. I've known him since 2010.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a remarkable story. And you've also got someone on the ground in Afghanistan, working with the resistance and reporting out to you and other volunteer groups.
--:-- Scott Mann: That's right. His name is Legend. He's an Afghan-American, former U.S. Army intelligence NCO. And he's on the ground right now in Afghanistan, working with the resistance and giving us really good intel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, are they fighting back or are they trying to find ways to get out?
--:-- Scott Mann: Both. Think about it this way. Imagine the special operators that we built in our own image. So there's this false narrative that the Afghans didn't fight. It's just not true. I mean, but understand that the Afghan special ops that we built in our image. So if you were to see these guys, you would think they were Delta or Rangers or SEALs.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a great point. And it's clear that they're still fighting, even though they've lost a lot of their support.
--:-- Scott Mann: That's right. Many of them ran out of ammunition. Many of them, it just got to the point where there were so many Taliban in the city that they had to go get their families. You know, their generals, their officers were gone, but they were still fighting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And some of them have joined the resistance and are fighting back.
--:-- Scott Mann: That's right. But some of them are so hunted and so isolated. They had to leave their homes in the middle of the night because the Ministry of Defense was compromised and all the records were left there. So their associations with their home of record. So all they could do was run in their house real quick, grab what they could and put it on their back. And they've been on the run ever since.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a heartbreaking story. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working to help these allies are doing a lot of good work.
--:-- Scott Mann: Yeah. So what's next? What's the next line of action to provide more help?
--:-- Scott Mann: Well, one of the things that's been so remarkable about this, to me, is the way that our veteran population stepped up, particularly the special operations community. We worked in that country for 20 years and we built these networks. You know, for example, Green Berets, which is what I was, we specialize in unconventional warfare. So we build networks. We build networks that include auxiliaries, that include medical care.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And you're using those networks to provide humanitarian aid to the allies who are still in Afghanistan.
--:-- Scott Mann: That's right. We're using safe houses, food drops, indigenous connections to provide medical care. One group delivered 20 babies between the ISIS explosion and the new year.
--:-- John Bickley: That's incredible. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working on this are doing a lot of good work.
--:-- Scott Mann: Yeah. But we're rapidly approaching the point now where we're going into another severe winter. The government has still not stepped up. And most of these veteran groups, they're trying to solve an Uncle Sam size problem with their pension.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a big challenge. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working on this are doing a lot of good work, but they need more support.
--:-- Scott Mann: Yeah. And the reason they're doing it is because we're trained and conditioned. You don't leave a partner on the battlefield, you know, and so they're not going to do that. It's too much of a moral injury.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a powerful point. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working on this are doing a lot of good work, but they need more support.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Scott, have you seen any progress in Washington? You've done a lot of advocacy work for these guys that have been left behind.
--:-- Scott Mann: Not really. I mean, if I'm being honest, I really don't think so. And I think most of the volunteer groups like Moral Compass and Project Exodus Relief, they would agree that there just has been no real relief from the government or support from the government.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a disappointing answer. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working on this are doing a lot of good work, but they need more support.
--:-- Scott Mann: Yeah. There's been a lot of words. You know, a handful of us were summoned by the chairman of the joint chiefs about this time last year to go to DC and meet in the Pentagon. There was a lot of talk about what we were going to do, nothing happened really substantive.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a shame. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working on this are doing a lot of good work, but they need more support.
--:-- Scott Mann: Yeah. The metric that we use to measure this is the number of our partners who have been killed and tortured over the winter. You know, and that's one of the hardest things about this. It's what I worry so much about our veterans is you know these guys have been on the world's longest 911 call.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a powerful point. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working on this are doing a lot of good work, but they need more support.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Scott, what can the average American do to help with the situation?
--:-- Scott Mann: I think the big thing is don't take your eye off Afghanistan. You know, just because we're done with Al-Qaeda and ISIS, they're not done with us. They have a long-term narrative that is apocalyptic in nature.
--:-- John Bickley: That's a great point. And it's clear that the volunteers who are working on this are doing a lot of good work, but they need more support.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Scott, thank you so much for talking with us today.
--:-- Scott Mann: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: That was retired Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann. If you want to learn more about his mission, go to scottmann.com and operationpineappleexpress.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us this morning. This has been a Sunday edition of Morning Wire. From all of us here at Morning Wire, we hope you're enjoying the show.
--:-- John Bickley: And if you want to learn more about our show, you can subscribe to Daily Wire Plus. That means you'll get access to all Daily Wire has to offer, including news, commentary, documentaries, movies, and so much more.
