America Left the People Who Helped Them in Afghanistan For Dead
The US ditched its heroes because it just didn’t care enough
The Taliban for the past few days have quickly advanced through Afghanistan. Over the past few days, the Taliban have captured half of the provincial capitals and the second-largest city, Kandahar. At the time of writing, they’ve entered Kabul, leading the US to send 3000 troops back into Afghanistan to evacuate their embassy staff. The US has advised all other Americans to evacuate the country.
But while the US is evacuating its own Americans, we’ve ditched the thousands of Afghans who were paramount to the war effort for dead.
The People
The US war in Afghanistan wouldn’t have worked without the countless Afghans who assisted in the war effort. There are tens of thousands of people serving as interpreters, clerks, and translators who bravely assisted American troops and contractors in the fight against terrorism. But as the Taliban start taking over the country, the US isn’t pulling its weight.
There are currently 20,000 Afghans who are applying for Special Immigrant Visas, the visa for Afghans who helped the US government and the military. Due to the long and laborious process, it’s reported to take nearly two years from submission to approval, that’s way too much time considering the Taliban's quick advances in Afghanistan. During this time, Afghans are stuck in Afghanistan and vulnerable to Taliban retaliation.
Because of the Taliban advances, the US has allowed applicants to evacuate before they get their visas, but it’s not enough. While the US is evacuating applicants out of the country, evacuation flights are only happening in Kabul, meaning that Afghans have to make it to Kabul themselves. It was already difficult, dangerous, and expensive to trek to Kabul from rural areas in Afghanistan, but now it’s impossible because the Taliban control the roads in and out of Kabul. It basically means that Afghans cannot evacuate and are stuck in Afghanistan.
But more outrageous is that the Special Immigrant Visa only includes people who were employed directly with the US government. Afghans who worked for NGOs, US-funded programs, and US media, were only able to apply for US visas a few weeks ago. They also have to get out to a third country themselves in order to apply. Escaping Afghanistan is incredibly difficult, not only because it involves having to find a country willing to accept them, but also because people can hear shots being fired from Kabul airport, where people are being evacuated from Afghanistan.
For the Afghans who’ve helped us but couldn’t leave, the US has essentially left them for dead. The Taliban have threatened to kill the Afghans who worked with the US government, and with the US leaving Afghanistan, the Taliban will likely kill the Afghans who worked with the Americans.
It Could’ve Been Avoided
What’s more infuriating is that this could’ve all been avoided if the US would’ve planned earlier. They knew that it would take a long time to process their visas and that the Taliban would likely retaliate against the translators and interpreters, but they didn’t do much. The US didn’t start evacuations until July, when the Taliban were already making massive gains across the country.
We should’ve started quickly expediting the visa process, but the US government dragged its feet. Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, couldn’t even give an answer as to whether they were going to expedite processing visas in April, when the US was in the midst of their troop withdrawal. The State Department didn’t even start a task force on the evacuation of Afghans who assisted us until July 19th. This isn’t an oversight. This is intentional neglect by the US government.
If we started earlier, the US would’ve been able to start evacuation flights in places other than Kabul, making it easier for Afghans to evacuate Afghanistan. But now, because the Taliban have already captured those areas and bases, we can’t fly people out of there. If we focused on speeding up visa applications earlier, we wouldn’t have a several thousand visa backlog, holding up evacuation to America. If the US government would’ve allowed Afghans who worked with US contractors, media organizations, and NGOs to apply for visas earlier, they would’ve been able to get their visas and leave for the US, without having to escape to a third country.
These things could’ve all been resolved, but because of America’s apathy towards the Afghans who worked for us, we’ve left tens of thousands of Afghans who’ve helped us for dead. This is an absolute embarrassment to the United States. It destroys our credibility on the world stage, which has already been jeopardized. The US has had numerous instances of mistreatment of civilians in Afghanistan, they’ve failed to hold Edward Gallagher accountable, and now they’ve failed to evacuate the people who risked their lives to help us. It sends a signal to everyone around the world that even if you help us, we won’t help you in return.
This isn’t about whether or not you agree on the war, or whether we should stay in Afghanistan. It’s about not letting the people who’ve helped us down and holding our end of the bargain. The American government should’ve done so much better for the Afghans who’ve helped us, but because we’ve dragged our feet, we’ve left many of those Afghans who helped us dead, and that is truly deplorable.