Almost exactly a year ago to the day, the last US soldiers left Kabul. Veterans who worked tirelessly to get their Afghan allies out of the war-torn country feel the federal government left them and their partners behind.
Retired Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who served in the Middle East as the US Army’s Green Beret, told he had a “very deep sense of betrayal” that the Biden administration and military leaders had not done more to help to help those who did fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan for two decades.
“When I look at the moral injuries inflicted on our people, our veterans, our volunteers, and the national security implications of this task at every level, it really makes me — I really want to see some responsibility,” Mann said.
“I feel like the Biden administration was really trying to just get over it.”
Exactly one year ago on Monday, the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban in a lightning-fast offensive, just four months after President Joe Biden announced he would honor Donald Trump’s agreement with the Taliban for a full military withdrawal.
Amid the chaotic evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport, current and former military personnel and other government officials came together to help vulnerable Afghans escape. These largely voluntary groups received very little formal help from the federal government.
Mann is the head of one of the best known – dubbed “Task Force Pineapple” for the symbol that evacuees would flash at the gates of the crowded, volatile airport before being escorted over the walls to safety.
He documents his commitment and the harrowing experiences of Afghan refugees and other volunteers in the forthcoming book, Operation Pineapple Express, due August 30 from Simon & Schuster.
Task Force Pineapple is the nickname of one of several volunteer groups who worked to help vulnerable Afghans escape Taliban takeover (pictured is a group of Afghans who were successfully helped within the confines of the airport by Task Force Pineapple were conducted in Kabul).
“Shepherds,” some personally but the vast majority distant, guided Afghans through security checkpoints and into Hamid Karzai International Airport in the middle of the night (pictured is another successfully rescued group inside airport borders).
An Afghan girl seen crying after her father was beaten by the Taliban and a bomb exploded nearby last year
Her family is pictured in this Task Force Pineapple photo in the aftermath
He and other military personnel worked remotely as “herders,” guiding Afghan special immigrant visa applicants — and other vulnerable groups — from thousands of miles away to various checkpoints in the middle of the night, with the goal of reaching Kabul airport.
They did this with their own money and little communication or government funds.
But according to Mann, hundreds of people are still left without refuge — particularly Afghan commandos who don’t qualify as SIVs because they weren’t employed by the US government or related organizations. These fighters would be valuable Taliban targets for their advanced military knowledge from American troops.
“There is almost no way for an Afghan commando,” Mann said, adding that the US State Department had “no visible interest” in helping them.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t, you know – I still feel a very deep sense of betrayal,” the Green Beret told .
“I have a feeling that our institutional leaders — they not only have the ball on the — and that includes military leaders, senior leaders — have dropped the ball on withdrawal, but only on the full surrender of our partner forces, particularly ours.” Special Operations Partners and the [Afghan National Mine Removal Group]and then just turn the page like it never happened.”
Mann said getting these groups out of Afghanistan was “not a priority at all” for the Biden administration.
Retired Lt. Col. Scott Mann is a US Army Green Beret who has toured in Colombia, Iraq and Afghanistan
He has authored a new book about his experience with Task Force Pineapple called Operation Pineapple Express The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan.
Mann is pictured here with his friend Nezam, an Afghan commando whose harrowing experiences fleeing his homeland will be detailed in the forthcoming memoir
“I think it’s safe to say that the president has a history of not really looking into things like that, going back to Vietnam when he was a senator,” he said, citing the insistence of lawmakers at the time from Delaware against other military involvement in this conflict months before Saigon fell to the Viet Cong.
But the failure goes deeper than just the government, Mann believes, explaining that the Pentagon has failed Afghan veterans “100 percent” by abandoning their allies.
“Just look at the extent of the moral injury,” he said.
Mann cited a study last year that revealed that since 2001, when the US began retreating after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Where are the generals? Where are the Pentagon leaders, the senior special operations leaders, stepping up and saying, “Okay, we clearly have a problem here. There is a massive moral injury that has been inflicted on our people and we will start working on it.” Do you hear about it? You don’t hear about it,” Mann ranted.
Taliban fighters parade in the streets as they celebrate a year since they occupied the Afghan capital Kabul, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, August 15, 2022
Mann told that the US government’s withdrawal and “betrayal” of its Afghan ally is causing a serious “moral injury” to American veterans
He said many Afghan commandos and other special forces fighters are still in their country – with Taliban targets on their backs
“And that, in my opinion, is the biggest flaw in our community, in our military. Our active service and former senior leaders are not stepping forward to address this moral violation.’
In his forthcoming book, Mann describes both the life-threatening situations Afghans face as they try to escape and the psychological – and even financial – toll their allies in the US have taken trying to help them.
“It is as my friend Duke says; He says this is an Uncle Sam-sized problem that veterans are trying to solve with their personal checking accounts,” Mann told .
While some refugees found safety and comfort in the United States, the memoir also makes it clear that others weren’t so lucky — including those implicated in the ISIS-K suicide blast that killed nearly 200 people, including 13 US soldiers.
As the pages progress, it becomes clearer that the volunteers realized they were going through the monumental task of planning escapes without government help.
Mann himself is no stranger to putting his military experience down on paper.
The US military ended its withdrawal from Afghanistan two weeks after the Taliban captured the country’s capital
One of his other works is a stage play about his Middle East tour entitled Last Out: Elegy of a Green Beret.
But for Operation Pineapple Express, Mann described a writing process that was at times “cathartic” but at other points “brutal” — given that he began the book shortly after the events.
“I was ready to get back into my life. And to write a book of this caliber, and of this fair weight, I just – my God, you know? And my wife and I had to have a really long conversation about it. But what really mattered was that I was able to really tell the stories of Afghans and their herdsmen in a way that I felt could be compelling,” explained Mann.
He refers to each person in the memoir, including himself, in the third person to “tell their stories,” such as “the Afghans who are still stuck over there… herdsmen who have lost people they brought to the explosion and were just filled with guilt.’
“The interviews were brutal and lasted about 45 days, and then the writing, but there was a catharsis in the writing. Because I felt like telling their stories,” Mann said. “I am the storyteller.”