Leaving Afghanistan in Shame

By Phyllis Chesler

#Biden‘s Administration abandoned #Afghanistan three years Ago tomorrow. I remember it well. I will never forget it. On that very day, I was called into action by my friend and colleague, #Mandy Sanghera, to co-organize a rescue mission for Afghan women. On the phone, on Signal, on What’s App, encouraging desperate women making a run for the airport, under a gauntlet of #Taliban whips and guns, some falling behind, some giving up because their mothers or sisters or children could not keep up. Intense, exhausting, round the clock work.

I remember getting a large number of people involved. Orthodox rabbis, Christian fundamentalists, grassroots feminists, anti-trafficking experts, former military veterans, aid workers, lawyers, academics. I remember being on the phone contantly, I remember beginning a fundraising campaign by writing my heart out. I remember countries making promises they would not keep. I remember the anxiety associated with not knowing if a particular woman made it out, whether a specified Embassy gate admitted her or not, whether her plane took off or not.

I remember having to fend off pimps who wanted photos of the Afghan “girls”–after which they then promised to send private planes for them. Having to fend off self-rightous anti-trafficking feminists who did not want to believe that these men posed any danger, that’s until said men began harassing them too. I remember our single feminist “war profiteer,” taking money for services that, thanks to the Biden administration, would go nowhere-and I remember the other feminists who defended her and supported her right to do so. This I will never forget in a thouand lifetimes.

But most of all I remember the frustration and the shame. First, of not being to get out so many other women out, those without passports or any kind of documentation; those who could not afford to travel to another country (one of many requirements); those who would not leave without their entire families; those who had never worked with a Western power in Afghanistan (another possibe route out); those who had already been torture-murdered by the Taliban. I remember the shame of how Biden’s administration chose to leave Afghanistan. The stupidity, the cruelty….leaving behind so much military equipment. Shutting down both airports. Leaving behind all those who were exceptionally vulnerable to the mad mullahs. Not even leaving a small contingent of Marines. Not rescuing our allies–all those who had worked for America.

And to what end? We now have versions of ISIS breeding, festering in Afghanistan, beginning to launch terrorist attacks in the Middle East. We have an entire country locked into a medieval version of Hell. Nice going, Joe. Nice going Barack. Nice going Kamala.