Another Betrayal In The Making

The American Embassy in Kabul recently suspended the Special Immigrant Visa program which allows Afghans who worked for two years with American forces to relocate to this country with their spouses and children.

While most American and coalition troops will soon be out of Afghanistan, the thousands of Afghans who more often than not worked as translators are in danger of being left behind.

While no American will be left behind, this belief seems to now not apply to our Afghan allies.

The State Department’s action and President Biden’s inaction on this subject put almost 18,000 Afghan applicants in mortal danger.

Knowing that it has won the war, Taliban forces are taking back the country, and as they do they take their revenge on those who worked with the Americans.

The Taliban have specifically targeted translators and their families, killing hundreds. As they continue their sweep across Afghanistan, they will kill.

“These Afghans will have a bullseye on their backs from the moment we leave the country,” commented Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“If President Biden abandons them, he is signing their death warrants.”

He has a couple of choices.

The president can order the evacuation of the applicants to another country to allow the visa process to continue. Or, he can provide these Afghans with a humanitarian parole, which provides temporary permission for them to enter this country.

If the president chooses to do nothing, then he and his advisors will join the line of those despicable and cowardly individuals who betrayed the Hmong at the end of the war in Vietnam.

In the early 1960s, American officials sought out and recruited Hmong warriors to help fight against the North Vietnamese. In return for their service, they were promised that at the end of the fighting they and their families would be relocated to this country.

But in 1973 American officials broke that promise when they left Vietnam, leaving the Hmong who had worked with them behind. As a result, thousands of Hmong were singled out by the victorious communist governments of Laos and Vietnam, taken to concentration camps and murdered.

This nation’s betrayal of the Hmong remains as one of its most dishonorable acts. Now it appears that another American betrayal of trust will be committed in Afghanistan.

Take a good look at the photograph I made in January 2012 of an Afghan translator who worked with me and soldiers assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s then 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

She and her family were promised passage to this country in exchange for her work with and for American soldiers.

The words of trust spoken to this Afghan translator, and thousands like her, are no different than the ones spoken to the Hmong.

The president’s advisors know the fate of the Hmong. Are they willing to betray almost 18,000 Afghans to the same fate?