Letter to Joe Biden, President of the United States - Meijer Joins Bipartisan Group of Colleagues Urging Biden to Keep Kabul Airport Open Past 8/31 Deadline if Necessary

Letter

Dear President Biden,
Yesterday, you announced to the American people that part of our remaining mission in Afghanistan is to evacuate our Afghan allies and other vulnerable Afghans to safety outside of Afghanistan, and that our troops are securing the airfield to ensure the continued operation of civilian and military flights for that purpose.
We write with a critical request: that the United States must do everything possible to securely hold the airport in Kabul until the rescue mission is complete and our citizens, allies, and vulnerable Afghans have had an opportunity to leave. We trust that the previous August 31st deadline you imposed on our military mission will not apply to this effort, and that we will stay as long as is necessary to complete it.
In furtherance of this mission, we will need to be clear with the Taliban that they must allow safe passage of Afghans needing evacuation to the airport, and that they will face grave consequences if they threaten our troops or impede our evacuation efforts. We also urge you to allow SIVs and vulnerable Afghans slated for evacuation to stage at the airport for as long as necessary until their turn comes to get on a plane, so that they are not forced to hide in Kabul and to brave Taliban checkpoints later.
We recognize that this is an extremely difficult endeavor. But it would be unconscionable and devastating to our credibility to leave our allies behind, given the commitments we have made. We should not consider ourselves bound to any past commitments we have made to the Taliban, who have never fully lived up to their part of the bargains they struck with us. All that should matter now is our moral obligation and strategic interest to help those who helped us, and to stand by the Afghans who bet their lives on the future we promised.