Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger commented on the disastrous situation unfolding in Afghanistan Tuesday, and speculated about what could have happened if Bagram Air Force base had not been shut down.
Kinzinger praised the crew of a C-17, a large military transport aircraft, for violating air force regulations and packing people into the plane to evacuate them.
“I hope there’s awards that are going to go to the crew of that C-17 because they violated basically every air force regulation in packing that many people in there, and in the long run that’s going to end up saving a lot of people’s lives,” Kinzinger said in a video posted by The Hill. (RELATED: People Are Clinging To American Planes Leaving The Kabul Airport)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “How did this get so mismanaged? I don’t understand. Keep in mind… just a few months ago, we shut down Bagram Air Force Base. Bagram was a secure military installation with a gigantic airfield. Can you imagine if we still had that?” pic.twitter.com/wkc7biK675
— The Hill (@thehill) August 17, 2021
The representative said that Bagram Air Force Base, which was unceremoniously shut down at the beginning of July, could have been used to process Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs). SIVs are given to people like translators and interpretors who worked with the United States government.
“How did this get so mismanaged?” he asked. “I don’t understand. Keep in mind … just a few months ago, we shut down Bagram Air Force Base.”
“Bagram was a secure military installation with a gigantic airfield,” he continued. “Can you imagine if we still had that? We vacated that in the middle of the night, we surprised the Afghans when they woke up and we were gone.”