Biden Finally Begins Evacuating Americans Out Of Sudan Days After Everybody Else

Finally, Evacuating Americans from Sudan: Biden Administration’s Incompetence

After days of delay, President Joe Biden and his team have finally started evacuating non-government official Americans out of war-torn Sudan. This comes after the rest of the civilized world began doing so. On Saturday, the Associated Press reported that buses carrying several hundred American citizens finally reached Port Sudan as drones overhead kept a watchful eye against any malign actors. Now, those Americans have to find their way out of the country on ships departing for peaceful land, but the U.S. government is reportedly working with Saudi Arabia to send a ship to the port to rescue the Americans.

Sudan has been under heavy conflict since April 15, and two Americans have already lost their lives. The U.S. was able to evacuate its embassy staff, but told thousands of other Americans that they were on their own if they wanted to flee the fighting. Incredulously, the White House could not explain this week why other nations were able to send planes to Sudan’s capital to evacuate their citizens, but the U.S. was caught flatfooted.

Pressing for Answers

On Thursday, a reporter pressed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for any kind of answer that could explain the disparity between America’s response and the rest of the free world. “Given the President’s direction and what you’re saying right now, a number of other countries have evacuated citizens over the course of the last several days and taken advantage of the ceasefire the U.S. helped put into place,” a reporter said during the daily press briefing. “The U.S. still has not. What is different about your risk assessment right now or security assessment than what other countries are looking at as they’ve gone in and gotten their people out?”

KJP chalked it up to intelligence briefings that weren’t available to the public. “And we have been clear on what the President — laying out, which is what I did — laying out, at the President’s direction, what we have done, how we move forward, how we worked with allies and partners to get Americans out,” Jean-Pierre said. “And we’ve been pretty clear about this for the past several months, for the past year, what — the situation in Sudan. And so, we’re going to continue to have those conversations.” She added, “I’m certainly not going to get into any — any intelligence or how that’s come about or how we come to certain — certain kind of intelligence, surveillance, or reconnaissance.”

Sign of Incompetence

It is unclear how the intelligence changed so much within 48 hours that the State Department decided they could send some assistance to the U.S. citizens stranded there. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems more likely that media pressure forced the Biden administration’s hand. Better later than never, but with thousands more to go, how is this worth celebrating? It is another sign of the incompetence and “Johnny Come Lately” decision-making of the Biden administration.