When I voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election, I thought he would be a breath of fresh air from the previous administration's populist, nationalist, and isolationist foreign policy. I thought that, at last, we would have a president who would stand up not just for human rights in America, but for human rights for all people around the world - and that we would fight to secure the human rights for people around the world from the malevolent forces of tyranny, oppression, slavery, and genocide.
So when President Biden began to withdraw troops from Afghanistan - a country where the US has fought a 20-year-long war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda - I was taken aback. But not only was Biden far more non-interventionist than I expected, but the manner of his withdrawal from Afghanistan was even worse than I could have imagined. In less than a week after withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban have completely toppled the Afghan government, reinstated the theocratic Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and have begun to massacre Afghan civilians who assisted the US and its allies during the war.
As I write this, a humanitarian crisis of untold proportions has unfolded in Afghanistan, as tens of thousands of Afghan civilians have crowded Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul - the last safe refuge for any anti-Taliban Afghan (for now) - as they desperately try to be airlifted out of the country that has collapsed to a regime notorious for committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. And the reaction from the United States - and from Joe Biden himself - has been absolutely, positively revolting.
I saw images of desperate Afghans clinging to transport aircraft as they took off from Hamid Karzai airport. I saw footage of these same desperate Afghans falling from those aircraft and plummeting hundreds of feet down to their deaths. And those horrific images have been burned into my brain forever.
Not only is the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan absolutely and utterly appalling; the worst part is that it was entirely and completely avoidable. Despite the Biden Administration's stubborn refusal to accept the utter failure of their haphazard withdrawal plan, the fact remains that there was absolutely no reason whatsoever to follow through on a phony "peace deal" that the previous administration signed with the Taliban in 2020. I have heard Biden and his supporters blame this mess on the Trump administration time and time again, and I would normally be the first to give Biden the benefit of the doubt.
But I can't do that anymore. Not at this point. Joe Biden has been president of the United States for seven months now. Seven entire months in which he has undone and reversed countless decisions made by Donald Trump. To blame this disaster on the Trump administration is dishonest, deceitful, and completely uncharacteristic of the ideas of personal responsibility and sensible, reasoned policy that the Biden Administration has touted as an antidote to years of Donald Trump.
But this isn't just about me. Oh, I feel betrayed by Biden, all right. I feel betrayed because I voted for him hoping that he would prevent such humanitarian catastrophes from unfolding in the future. I feel betrayed because I thought that Joe Biden would have the sense and the wherewithal to not kowtow to the rabid anti-war grifters and gremlins that infest the Democratic Party.
But above all, Biden has betrayed the people of Afghanistan. It is ironic that Joe Biden has expressed his opposition to the death penalty, because his latest decision has, in essence, sentenced 40 million Afghans to death at the hands of one of the most brutal and barbaric regimes the world has ever seen in recorded human history.
Between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban government ruled Afghanistan with an iron fist. Music was banned, women were subjugated, poverty, disease, malnutrition, and famine were rampant, children were sold into sex slavery, civilians were executed for "crimes" such as blasphemy and homosexuality, and the ethnic Hazara minority found themselves the targets of a mass genocide at the hands of their own government. The Taliban regime was almost unparalleled in its brutality, it's authoritarianism, and its contempt for basic human rights.
Now, Afghanistan finds itself in the hands of the very same people who nearly destroyed it. And so, it is no surprise that so many Afghan civilians are desperate to flee from the Taliban - even to the point of clinging to transport aircraft as they leave the country.
Over the past week or so, I have been in contact with an Afghan citizen who has become caught up in the calamity unfolding in his country - a man I'll refer to as "Hadir Ahmadi" for his safety and the safety of his family.
Hadir is a young athlete who lives in Kabul with his three younger sisters and one brother, the latter of whom served as an interpreter for US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Now, with Kabul all but fallen to the Taliban, and with Coalition forces rapidly withdrawing from the collapsing nation, Hadir is in fear for his life. The Taliban have already begun executing Afghans who assisted the United States, and have begun to kidnap and rape women and young girls, and if they identify Hadir and his family, the Ahmadis face certain death. One of Hadir's sisters has since gone missing, and Hadir now fears she has either been killed or has been taken captive by the Taliban and sold into sexual slavery - a fate perhaps even worse than death.
To add to the problem, the Taliban have, as of August 24, 2021, completely sealed off Hamid Karzai Airport, allowing no more refugees to enter. Hadir and his family now face an uncertain future - a future with bleak prospects.
There are few feelings worse than seeing an atrocity unfold and being utterly powerless to stop it, and I am at a total loss for what to do for Hadir and his sisters. I have given them what advice I can - using information I've gathered about the situation - but the fact remains that I alone cannot help Hadir. Only the United States government can.
And at this point, time is running out. All US troops are to fully withdraw from Afghanistan by August 31 - one week from the time I'm writing this - and President Biden has said he will not extend the deadline any further. If Hadir and his family do not make it to the airport by then, they will be left at the mercy of those who show absolutely no mercy.
To say this past week has been stressful would be the understatement of the century. I have lost sleep for days worrying about Hadir and the safety of the millions of other Afghans abandoned by President Biden. The Biden Administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan has proven to be a betrayal of epic proportions - a betrayal of everything I believe in and stand for, a betrayal of the Afghan people and our allies, a betrayal of the people who thought the Biden Administration would be a breath of fresh air from the Trump administration, and a betrayal of the concept of universal human rights itself.
And now, with just a week left before the American withdrawal is completed, Joe Biden is already writing the legacy of his presidency. There can be no whitewashing of this debacle, no diffusion of responsibility, and no excuse-making that can possibly make up for this catastrophic failure. As it stands, the legacy of the Joe Biden administration is proving to be one of indifference, chaos, isolationism, and utter incompetence.
These are the cold, hard facts. This is the situation we now find ourselves in. Unless President Biden reconsiders, reworks, or even fully reverses his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, the future of Hadir, his family, and over forty million other Afghan civilians holds nothing but darkness and despair.
Comments
Post a Comment