Marines Forced to Wipe Clean Taliban Abusive Messages They'd Written on Kabul Airport

A US Marine revealed that members were forced to remove obscene messages insulting the Taliban and ISIS written on the walls of Kabul Airport. 

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Three examples of the insults were shared to social media - with one showing a serviceman in front of a tiled wall at Hamid Karzai Airport sprayed with the phrase 'F*** ISIS + Taliban' in black paint, as well as an image of a penis and testicles sprayed in purple.

Another photo showed 12 troops with guns in front of an outdoor concrete barrier which had been sprayed with 'F*** ISIS, AFG 2021'.

And a third showed three troops stood outside toting a cardboard sign saying 'F**k the Taliban.' 

But an unnamed Marine stationed at Hamid Karzai said the graffiti painted on walls was removed at the orders of bosses, saying: 'My boys had to go … pick up every last piece of … trash for who? The Taliban?' a Marine told the Washington Post. 'It was a slap in the face to us.'

That order was part of an edict which also saw troops ordered to pick up trash they'd strewn around the airport to frustrate the Taliban's takeover. 

Marine spokesman First Lt. Jack Coppola said that the cleanup was enforced to prevent delaying any flights leaving the airport.

But it is unclear why the graffiti was also removed. 

Troops were given the green-light to destroy military equipment, including helicopters and armored trucks to stop the Taliban using them.

Many said they found that experience cathartic, particularly in the wake of the August 26 ISIS-K suicide bomb at one of the airport's gates, the Abbey Gate, that killed 170 Afghans and 13 US service personnel.  

The troops had witnessed the tragedies of Afghans attempting to flee the country through the Abbey Gate at the airport.

Many of these troops were tasked with securing the airport to prevent the attacks and ensure the safety of the Afghans and the Americans that were in the country. 

Abbey Gate provided a gateway for these refugees to gain access to the airport as Taliban members did not operate in that particular area.

The bodies of dead children were found along the pathway to Abbey Gate in sewer canals lined with fences, with US service personnel sharing their horror at seeing them. 

Gunshots could be heard from a nearby Taliban post. Servicemen and women said they learned to recognize the difference between warning shots and shots being fired to kill people, with the latter starting, then stopping.  

'We wanted to be there,' a Marine told Washington Post. 'And then we realize that maybe I don’t want to be here, watching these people wade through this s--- river and wave papers, and I have to tell them no.'

The Washington Post's dispatch also offered fascinating details on how the airport coped after being overrun with Afghans after the country's former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country on August 15, effectively handing control of his government to the Taliban.

That saw Hamid Karzai inundated with thousands of Afghans desperate to flee. They trampled on runway lights, forcing US service personnel to place water bottles in front of flashlights to create large pools of light along the edge of the landing strip.  

President Biden, who had received criticism for his withdraw plans, announced he planned to pull both civilians and U.S. citizens from the country by August 30.

The criticism drew from the fact that Biden deployed thousands of US troops to Afghanistan which only kept more American citizens in the country and doubled the number of troops already present. 

 The Taliban had taken over the Afghan government on August 15 which was two weeks before Biden was to withdraw the remaining troops home. 

Within a near two-week span, however, about 124,000 people were evacuated from the country in C-17's. 

Around 79,000 of those, including 6,000 civilians, were rescued directly by the US airlift, with the remainder flown out on charter flights supervised by the military.

The last official US military airlift left Afghanistan on August 30. 

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'There is no greater honor for a Marine to be called to save Americans,' Captain Geoff Ball posted on Facebook. 

'To be the last on deck as those who need our help are pulled to safety. To lay down our lives for others. That is what my Marines did. They will always be my heroes.'

This article has been adapted from its original source.