One of the most insightful reports I’ve seen about the state of evacuation outside of a Clarissa Ward segment on CNN. David Fox works in Kabul, is married to an Afghan woman, and has a young son with her. One would think that would make them a priority for evacuation, but there’s a problem: The crowding outside Karzai International Airport is so chaotic that they simply can’t get to a gate to make contact with troops or diplomats within. Fox says he was told to approach the north side of the airport, where a contact on the inside would be waiting to shepherd him through. But he couldn’t get any closer than 10 feet away, with his son in his arms and a mass of humanity jostling around him. And the Marines either didn’t see him or didn’t see a way to get him inside.

Eventually he and a friend had to give up for fear that they’d pass out and be trampled.

Another option was to head for the British-controlled gate since the British (unlike the Americans) are working with the Taliban to maintain an orderly process in their area. But for some reason American citizens aren’t being admitted in the British zone. And since U.S. troops are apparently under “strict orders” not to leave the airport and retrieve Americans stranded in the city, Fox has no way at the moment to actually leave.

As of now he’s hoping to wait out the evacuation and hop aboard a commercial flight out once they resume. If they resume. And if the Taliban will let him.

There’s a moment of dark comedy toward the end when Fox describes the document the State Department is asking people to bring with them to the airport as proof that they’ve been prioritized for evacuation. I won’t spoil it, except to say that the crush of people at the gate very conclusively disproves Biden’s bizarre talking point from a few days ago that plenty of Afghan “friendlies” didn’t want to leave for the U.S. but instead wanted to make a go of it at home. Experts who deal with refugees have scoffed at that claim all week. “Since the moment that we announced we were fully withdrawing, I have not heard of a single human being that was like, ‘Oh no, I want to stay and hedge my bets with the Taliban,’” said one congressional aide to the Daily Beast. “That’s insane.”

A burning question at this hour: If our European allies understood the situation on the ground well enough to have begun processing evacuations for “friendlies” weeks ago, why didn’t we?

But refugee advocates note that many of America’s NATO allies had begun evacuating their own interpreters and vulnerable Afghans months before the United States’ withdrawal kickstarted the government’s collapse, with no apparent “crisis of confidence” that hastened the country’s fall into Taliban hands.

“Germany was the first—one month, maybe two months before everything went bad, saying ‘Hey we’re gonna evacuate 300 interpreters and staff.’ Italy had more people, and they flew their people out. Then Britain came along and said ‘Hey we’re gonna move as many interpreters out as possible,“ said Miervaldis. “NATO allies started this process earlier and the question is, why hasn’t the United States jumped on that effort, or followed their lead?”

No wonder Ward is getting this reaction from people on the ground over there:

When asked if the people there want to hear from Biden, Ward makes it clear that he’s damaged America’s reputation on the world stage: “I had a few people make comments to me like America is supposed to be the greatest superpower in the world what is the hell is going on here?” pic.twitter.com/rLT7qzbrEZ

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 20, 2021

“There are tens of thousands of Americans and Afghans literally at the gate,” said the director of a nonprofit refugee to the Times, relating an experience Fox can confirm. “This could have been completely avoided if evacuation was part of the military withdrawal. This was avoidable, and we’re at the 11th hour now.”

Watch Fox, who describes being whipped at one point by a Taliban goon with a rubber hose to keep him moving along. And then read this feelgood story about a mother of 11 in Oklahoma with expertise in international relations who flew to Kabul herself on August 9 and evacuated 10 members of the Afghan girls robotics team. They should put her in charge of the larger evacuation effort. She has no experience, sure, but how could it be worse at this point?

Update: An excellent point via our own John Sexton: The problem at the airport that Fox describes below is the same problem at the border, no? In both cases Biden has signaled to those abroad that if they can just reach a certain geographic point they’ll be allowed entry into the United States. In both cases that’s catalyzed a gigantic, unmanageable swarm of people and left U.S. authorities struggling to maintain order. You’d think there’d be a lesson for him here, but no.