Congressman goes missing after trying to evacuate family from Afghanistan.

 

Congressman Markwayne Mullin. Congressional photo.

Congressman Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) has gone missing after trying to evacuate a family from Afghanistan. The Hill. Mullin reportedly threatened embassy staff in Tajikistan after a request to bring cash into Afghanistan was denied. Mullin's plan was to hire a helicopter to fly out a family of five Americans, one woman and her four children. The State Department no longer knows where Mullin is and his office made no comments. The United States withdrew from Afghanistan yesterday, leaving between 100 to 250 American citizens behind. 

EDIT: Representative Mullin has reemerged and is safe. 

My Comment:

This is a breaking news story and there is not a lot of detail of what is going on. It's unclear if Mullin made it to Afghanistan or not or if he is in some kind of jeopardy. What I write here could be rapidly overtaken by events, so keep that in mind. 

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I think this is an incredibly brave thing to do. It's clear that the Biden administration has written off the people that were left behind and we owe those people a chance to get out. By trying to facilitate that Mullin is doing a good thing. And by putting his life on the line to do so is even braver. 

But I do think that there is a decent chance that this goes terribly wrong. If Mullin is actually in Afghanistan, which is still a war zone, there is a good chance that he could be killed or captured. And as a US Congressman he is a prime target for the Taliban or other terror groups.

And I have no idea if his plan would even work. Flying a helicopter throughout Afghanistan to evacuate one family seems like it has a million possible failures. They could get shot down, the people they went to rescue might not be there, they could be attacked on the ground, they could even have a mechanical failure. If Mullin manages to pull this off it will be legendary. 

Still, none of this should be necessary. Biden should have gotten everybody out and failing to do so is going to cause blowback, and it could even get this Congressman killed. All of this is Biden's fault and I again say that he should resign in disgrace.