Fleeing Afghanistan and abandoning allies repeats the worst of US history

Newspapers around the world carried the dreaded headlines many Afghans thought they’d never have to read again. “Fear Spreads in Kabul as Taliban Take Charge.” “Taliban Take Over Afghanistan.” The morning of August 15, Afghans in Kabul woke up to a new grim reality.   

Forty eight hours prior, a street artist was painting a wall mural of a scene from the movie Titanic. The artist’s precognition is baffling. For starters, he proved the American president wrong. 

The situation in Kabul on Sunday was no different than the Titanic. As the city sank, its richest and most connected got the first flight out. President Asraf Ghani and his associates fled the country, followed by the well connected, foreign ambassadors at consulates and embassies and foreign journalists and workers. 

As in the Titanic, the ones left high and dry to scramble for seats on the life raft (airplane in this case) are the ones in the lower deck. In this case: women, children and poor Afghans. Ironically, they will be the most vulnerable to the Taliban’s brutality if left behind. A female university student in Kabul summed it up in a heartbreaking essay for the Guardian describing the chaos outside of her dormitory following the takeover: 

“[T]he men standing around were making fun of girls and women, laughing at our terror. “Go and put on your chadari [burqa],” one called out. “It is your last days of being out on the streets,” said another. “I will marry four of you in one day,” said a third. I left my desk with tearful eyes and said goodbye to my colleagues. I knew it was the last day of my job.”

At this time, there are numerous analysts and researchers debating the reasons for the Taliban’s success. Granted, there could be multiple reasons — America’s newfound love of isolationist realism over liberal internationalism, the lack of political will on the part of the U.S. to take concrete action on Pakistan for tacit support of the Taliban and its proxy war in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, Afghan forces choosing not to fight, rampant corruption and several other reasons. 

However, given the panic that is ensuing Hamid Karzai International Airport, and the recent ghastly reality that has been forced onto the most vulnerable Afghans, analysis of the past and future should wait a week or two. 

There have been several comparisons of the ongoing crisis in Kabul to other historical events. One such is the airlifting of Americans from the consulate in Saigon in 1975 and America’s war in Indochina. Based on events unfolding at Karzai Airport, there are multiple similarities. In Laos, it was the Hmong that helped the American forces who were left high and dry. In the case of Afghanistan, it is interpreters, journalists, aid workers and everyone who bought into America’s liberal democracy promise. American workers were airlifted from the consulate in Saigon, as in Kabul, while the city was under siege. One sincerely hopes that what unfolded after the fall of Saigon is closer to what’s happening in Afghanistan than what happened in Cambodia after U.S. departure — The Khmer Rouge. The world’s actions, or inactions, will decide whether Afghanistan follows Cambodia’s way. 

President Biden has flown in more than 5,000 troops to Kabul to evacuate Americans. Unfortunately, with the closure of the Bagram Airfield earlier this year, the Karzai airport is the only way out of the country by air. And once again resembling a scene from the Titanic, Americans took control of the airport, prioritizing their own over thousands of Afghans who had booked tickets and were desperate to leave. Warning shots were fired to disperse Afghans surrounding the American airplane. Unfortunately that did not stop them. In one video posted to social media, men clung to the undercarriage of planes taxiing along the runway, then fell one by one as the plane took off. 

It is worth noting that through the Doha Accord signed last year, the Taliban had pledged not to attack Americans and they have so far agreed to keep their promise. However, Afghans do not have the luxury. They cannot return home and take the next flight out. When the Taliban gained control of the presidential palace and began policing the streets, and Americans took over Kabul Airport, desperate Afghans caught in the middle scrambled for a way out.  

It is certainly a dystopian reality when observers have a hard time deciphering who has the moral high ground between the Taliban and the U.S. — the theocratic terror outfit that has captured the country, or the foreigner who captured the only way out of the misery.  

At this critical juncture, before analysts and strategists jump to discuss the geopolitical implications and the great power game being played out in the region, people in the U.S. and around the globe should call their elected representatives and take to the streets to be voices for Afghans in need. They should pressure nations to open their doors to the flood of Afghan refugees coming in and welcome them with open arms. 

This should be no time for partisan bickering between Democrats and Republicans, or for politicians to engage in virtue signaling and moral posturing. Afghan lives matter. 

Akhil Ramesh is a non-resident Vasey fellow at the Pacific Forum. He has worked with risk consulting firms, think tanks and in the blockchain industry in the United States, India and in the Philippines. His analysis has been published in The South China Morning Post, The Diplomat, Asia Times and the Jerusalem Post. Follow him on Twitter: @akhil_oldsoul