Content warning: violence, warfare, distressing images
At the podium of one of his characteristic rallies, Donald Trump told his audience in Alabama:
“Can anyone even imagine taking out our military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our country and who should be allowed to seek refuge?”
This saving face by the 45th President, whose Administration signed the highly criticised Doha Agreement, is too little too late. Kabul has fallen, President Ghani has fled, and hundreds-of-thousands are trying to flee potential persecution before Coalition forces leave by the 31 August deadline. Many have been evacuated. Most will remain to confront an uncertain future which will see 20 years of Western liberal efforts evaporate.
Beyond the political ramifications, we need to consider that Afghanistan has a face. The men, women and children of Kabul and the provinces are what have been left behind to confront a new reality. You and I look around and we see our loved ones. We worry when they are hurt. We cry and mourn when one of them dies. And when one is in pain, we are all in pain. Now for a minute consider you were in Afghanistan and your mother, father, brother, sister, and everyone else near and dear to you is now being subjected to an unknown fate, to be determined by a group known for militant behaviour, terrorism, mass violence, and grave human rights violations.
Imagine your parents, aging and scarred from memories of past atrocities, anxious again over what is to come and too old to fight crowds of people for a few spots on a flight to asylum. And even if they do escape, they will need to restart their lives again in what may be their final years.
Picture your sister, a woman desiring to be educated and have a professional career, terrified she will be hunted down by forces for what are considered progressive and incognisant thoughts. You encouraged her to do this but never thought it would cause threats to her life. She has travelled to Spin Boldak on the border with Pakistan to try and cross to safety.
Now think about your brother, with his young family. His wife is six months pregnant. He helped Coalition forces as an interpreter. He battles for days to flee the country he loved as Taliban forces try to look for him. However, he cannot get through due to countless checkpoints while he and his family are prodded by guns every time they try to bypass guards. He returns to Abbey Gate near the airport for the eighth time, only to be turned away yet again.
These may be hypothetical scenarios, but they are what many Afghans are now going through on a daily basis, fearful of what is to come next, and trying at all costs to flee.
The breakdown of Afghanistan’s national order is unparalleled in recent memory. You only need to look to images on major news networks to see the havoc experienced by most people. Hundreds of thousands have fled the capital while others are pouring across borders to seek asylum in neighbouring countries. Even prior to the offensive in Kabul, 270,000 Afghans had been displaced due to strife in the country’s north. Around 90% of them have sought refuge in Iran and Pakistan.
Besides the instability already caused by the Taliban’s takeover, Afghans also have to face harm from ISIL-K, an offshoot of ISIL. Already they have caused mass violence since the Taliban takeover of Kabul with a bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday which killed at least 95 people and wounded around 150 others. These were people trying to escape the country, with 13 U.S. servicemen also killed in the bombing who were providing security and protection to fleeing Afghans. If this is a sign for the future, there is little hope for the safety and wellbeing of Afghans.
As already demonstrated, the initial victims of the Taliban’s rule will be the individuals who supported Coalition forces during the war. This is in addition to those who were harmed in the cross-fires of war in Taliban attempts to take control of the provincial capitals (being in the wrong place at the wrong time), and the hundreds of thousands fleeing but dying due to harm from the Taliban or mere exhaustion. You only need to look at images of the streets of Kabul to see how difficult it is to escape to Hamid Karzai International Airport and get a flight out of the country. Waiting days on end would be difficult for the youngest and most fit . If you are a little child, sick, elderly, or pregnant, your chances are slim.
When Western forces decided they would leave Afghanistan, they failed to adequately consider the humanitarian impact. Officials may debate this but if they properly considered this issue, they would have ensured individuals at high risk were evaluated earlier and would have planned in the initial stages of their departure how to help civilians should the Taliban initiate a violent and bloody coup. There were signs that this was a possibility. If the Trump Administration had read and put into practice The Art of the Deal (a book not even entirely written by President Trump) they would not have put all their cards on the table and would not have left open such a major vulnerability as the people of Afghanistan themselves. Even in recent months we could see that the Taliban were much more robust, avoiding previous mistakes by taking provincial capitals gradually before reaching the capital on the east of the country. The writing was on the wall much earlier, the international community just did not want to read it.
The intention of this article is not to place blame on individuals or countries for their past actions. It is supposed to put a face to this conflict and show that millions of innocent people will suffer for the decisions of a few. This tends to be the nature of most international disputes. The people to pick up the pieces are not usually those in command. It is those people who go about their private lives to make ends meet and do not have any major say in affairs of state that cop it. If we consider the leaders of the countries involved (including Afghanistan), they have all been in privileged positions of protection and do not have these worries. Before Kabul could be taken, President Ghani and his family were able to flee to the United Arab Emirates. This is in contrast to the many helpless citizens (including former President Hamid Karzai) who do not now have access to such resources. Now ordinary people need to fight for their lives with much of their support having disappeared.
Coalition forces have now subscribed to the view that the war has ended and so has their time in Afghanistan. Australia has evacuated around 4,100 people, and more broadly around 111,000 people have been transported out of the country. However, this is a fraction of those in danger, with the 31 August departure symbolising an abdication of human rights in the region and the care for Afghans who projected Western liberal values. For many countries, this will be another page in their messy history in the Middle East. Yet, behind every conflict are countless people who have been left to confront a new normal which they did not ask for or deserve.
The author wishes to express appreciation for the Australian Defence Forces and the military personnel on the ground in Afghanistan who risked their own lives to save thousands of people. They are ordinary soldiers who did not make political decisions. Their dedication to service and tireless efforts during the evacuations should be commended by all.
MIAS has compiled a helpful list of resources for those wishing to engage further with the situation in Afghanistan: https://linktr.ee/MIASAfghanistanResources
