^^^I think it is unfortunate that the ready brigade of the 82nd Airborne has not been airlifted into the airport to serve as needed.
The Immediate Response Force is a Battalion that rotates through one of the Brigades of the 82nd. I'm pretty sure they IS the Army force on ground, along with some Marines out of whatever MEF is embarked in the Indian Ocean right now.
It take a bit longer to get the rest of the Brigade wheels up and deployed.
As far as going and getting our folks, sure, we can do it. Right now the Taliban is not trying to overrun the airport, or take out Americans because we have a cease-fire, that is predicated on not engaging. So, sure, let's go kinetic and get the American Civilians that were too stupid to leave last month. How much fuel is at Kabel airport. We have some gunships from the 160th, but no real air support. How many CH47 sorties can we run with the POL on hand? What's ammo look like? Defense against indirect fire? Basically every American in Afghanistan right now is living on the end of a logistics line that relies on the runways at Kabul taking C17's. If those runways get mortared, everyone there dies. We probably HAD CRAM's there, but are they still there, and how much ammo do they have? Or is the plan to drop the entire 82nd on a combat drop to retake Bagram or Kandahar?
Pakistan won't let us use that ground line to start another war with the Taliban. The Northern Distribution network is mostly shut down and on the wrong side of the country.
So what's the plan? How many troops do you think the Taliban will let us build up in the airport before they cut off that line of support?
I fully agree, I'd like to see MH-60's and CH-47's going out like the Brit's Pumas and picking people up, but remember that is possible ONLY at the whim of the Taliban. If they say no, we can't do it, because that airport is completely indefensible on any kind of timeline.
this is one of those lack of having a plan gotcha's. As long as we were doing the deliberate withdrawal, we had maneuver options, and some logistics. Now we functionally have neither.