The Russo-Ukrainian war has been anything but ignored. With the whole world mobilizing to aid Ukrainian refugees in its time of crisis, billions of dollars are being poured into relief packages. Various countries are also taking a stand on the issue. With over 65.9 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine approved by Congress alone, Ukrainian refugees have (rightfully) received support and have been welcomed with open arms to this country. And while this was the right move in this time of war, there remains a larger, more pressing issue to be addressed.
On August 30, 2021, the Biden Administration withdrew from the two-decades-long war in Afghanistan. Following the 9/11 attacks, US troops were first deployed to Afghanistan in 2001 under President Bush’s several measures to combat terrorism. These initiatives included invading Afghanistan and launching attacks on the Taliban, one of the largest terrorist groups based in the country. For a while, the US troops in Afghanistan helped secure its capital Kabul, promote democracy, and provide forms of relief to the population, but as the forces of the Taliban rose and fell and a violent insurgency took place, “U.S. goals in Afghanistan remain[ed] uncertain.”
For 20 years, Afghanistan’s future lay uncertain — as the population continuously faced violence, poverty, hunger, and terrorism, US forces were their only hope. New US soldiers began fighting a war that had started before they were even born. Afghan aid started to break down as a result of failed international aid agreements and a changing and unsteady role for US troops. Under the Trump administration, a deal was signed with the Taliban to withdraw all US forces by May 1st, 2021. After President Biden took over, he tried to delay this deal by a few months — but after the last American troop was removed, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban within days.
The withdrawal seemed inevitable as there were ethical, moral, and safety issues at play, especially for our troops. The biggest issue, though, has been the selectivity of American aid that came after.
For Ukraine, the Atlantic reports that “under its Uniting With Ukraine program, the Biden administration is waiving all fees associated with applying for humanitarian parole. By contrast, IRAP says the U.S. government charged more than 40,000 applicants from Afghanistan as much as $575 to seek similar protection last summer. The government is also scrapping requirements that Ukrainians submit evidence that they were specifically targeted by the Russian military or President Vladimir Putin, whereas Afghan applicants must provide proof of individualized, targeted violence against them by the Taliban.” Ukraine has undoubtedly received preferential treatment on all levels — which many correlate to the fact that it houses a predominantly white population, with Afghanistan and a majority of South Asia still being labeled as “third-world” countries.
When the US finally withdrew from Afghanistan, it was only able to take a handful of Afghans with them. When asked about airlifting the Afghan population, the White House responded — “I can tell you that we have no plans for evacuations at this time,” a National Security Council spokesperson said. “The State Department is processing SIV applications in Kabul. They are focused on ensuring that the system functions quickly and consistent with U.S. security and other application requirements.”
Even from a military standpoint, US troops wouldn’t have been able to operate in Afghanistan without significant aid from Afghan forces and many brave civilians. According to Carter Malkasian, who worked as an advisor to the US military for several years, it was imminent that after the US withdrew its troops, the lives of all the Afghans who had provided significant counterterrorism intelligence and proved instrumental to the troops would now be in grave danger. From 2021 to now, several of these Afghan aids have been massacred, have had their homes destroyed, and their families killed. Worst of all though, “No law required the U.S. government to save a single one—only a moral debt did.” Since then, the government has done little in bringing back the Afghans who stood as our allies.
Matt Zeller, a former Army Captain in Afghanistan, is the co-founder of No One Left Behind, an organization seeking to extend these special visas to interpreters from Afghanistan and Iraq who served in the US army. In a CNBC interview, he underscores the vital importance these interpreters carried, commenting on how “the Taliban used to shoot at them first in firefights because they understood just how critical they were to our efforts.” He elaborates on how it would have been impossible to communicate to the local population where the US army was stationed, establishing the interpreters as “the most critical asset on the battlefield.” In what he calls the “biggest airlift since Berlin” in 1948, Zeller confirms the best course of action would have been evacuating the refugees, namely by flying out “71,000 of our Afghan wartime allies…to Guam,” a direct flight from Afghanistan and one that would keep them safe from deporation and facing the Taliban again. He suggests the severe impact of not evacuating these interpreters on US troops — “if we don’t keep our promise [for evacuation], people like me in future wars are not going to have the allies that they need to watch their backs, that means we’re going to have to accept higher casualty rates.”
Let’s take a look at how the American system supports refugees who could make it. The system has become a local issue too, as Fremont (known as Little Kabul) now houses the largest community of Afghans in the United States — anywhere between 5,000 (from official reports) to 30,000 (unofficial reports). Unfortunately, California’s housing system prevents many from finding affordable housing. While the Biden administration “is taking an aggressive stance on getting more homes built in places that need them...these long-term initiatives to bring greater housing affordability won’t affect refugee resettlement in the immediate future.” Furthermore, many California laws seem to work actively against helping affordable housing, especially for families. As a report from the Atlantic comments, “more than 75 percent of the urban land in California bans multifamily housing, the key to reducing household overcrowding, particularly among large, multigenerational, and extended-family households.”
So what’s all this to say? The US government has been seen as a faithful ally, aiding Afghanistan after departing for the safety of American troops. In reality, the presence of American troops rendered much of the Afghan population dependent on them for safety for years, and their sudden departure has left the civilians to deal with the aftermath on their own. The build-up to Afghanistan’s current situation took place over the course of 20 years, but there are a plethora of ways we can support the population now. Aid to help refugees has been discriminatory, misguided, and inefficient. While Ukrainian support has been globally mobilized, Afghans still wait for theirs.