Between the U.S. military cordon around the Hamid Karzai Airport and the Taliban cordon around Kabul and outside the U.S. cordon, thousands of fleeing Afghans are now trapped with little sympathy from the Taliban. President Joe Biden, 78, has faced withering criticism for allowing Kabul and the rest of the country to fall to the Taliban, blaming it alternatively on former President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19, 2020 agreement with the Taliban and on the Afghan army for refusing to fight. What the U.S. intel community knew but refused to admit was that 80% of the Afghan military was infiltrated by the Taliban, waiting patiently for the U.S. to get out. When 72-year-old Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country Aug. 16 reportedly with oodles of cash, the U.S.-backed Afghan Government had collapsed, surrendering the entire country to the radical Islamic Taliban.
Afghan citizens who worked for the U.S.-backed Ghani government are now subject to persecution under Taliban rule, viewed, like Ghani, as traitors to the Islamic cause. All the panic around the airport clamoring to board U.S. military C-17 transport planes stems from the fact that Afghan citizens know what’s in store for them under Taliban rule. U.S. military is allowing anyone in the airport with ID to board aircraft to get out of the country, worrying about proper paperwork later. U.S. citizens with proper ID finds themselves first in line to exit the country, especially getting through Taliban checkpoints surrounding Kabul and the airport. While the Kabul airport is secured by 5,500 U.S. troops, there’s little protection anywhere else in Kabul. “I went to the airport with my kids and family . . . the Taliban and Americans were shooting,” said an unnamed Afghan who worked for a foreign NGO.
Biden been slammed in the foreign press largely because all thought the U.S. under the Ghani government had control of the country. No one dared leak the dirty secret that Ghani ran only a U.S.-backed government around Kabul, the rest of the country had long fallen to the Taliban. While it’s true the Taliban raised their flags recently over most of Afghan’s provincial capitals, it’s also true it was part of their low-profile strategy, waiting patiently until the Americans executed their exit strategy. When it became clear the Taliban had moved on Kabul, panic swept the Afghan capital, especially with Afghans seeking asylum. “Despite that, people were still moving forward [to get in] because they knew a situation worse than death awaited them outside the airport,” said the unnamed Afghan. Afghan citizens know more than any the brutal nature to the Taliban regime.
When the Taliban seizes total control of Afghanistan, they’re going to be strapped for cash because much of the assets in the Bank of Kabul are in foreign assets or with Special Drawing Rights with the World Bank, not accessible to the Taliban. Foreign holders of Afghanistan’s assets totally about $8 billion will not release the cash holdings and securities to the Taliban, leaving the government in dire straits. Taliban’s 53-year-old presumed Supreme Laader Abdul Ghani Baradar will have to go Warlords connected with the opium trade to borrow money or cut deals, much the same way the Taliban survived during the late Mullah Mohammed Omar’s reign from 1996 to 2001. When it comes to the current panic-and-chaos, the Biden White House could have kept a larger U.S. military contingent in Kabul and around the airport. Once Biden gave the orders to evacuate in May, the military worked hard to shut it down.
U.S. allies in the European Union [EU] and U.K. have been especially critical of Biden’s exit strategy that now threatens the lives of thousands of Afghan citizens. While American citizens will be given safe passage to the airport to evacuate, the same cannot be said for Afghans that worked for the Ghani government, local or foreign NGOs or in other capacities. Taliban fighters have been instructed by Baradar to escort all U.S. citizens to the airport for eventual removal. When it comes to Afghan citizens, they’re on their own, more than likely to be herded into concentration camps. France has opened the door to refugees, requiring only a name, cell phone and basic information on paper. “I was told that if I get my name and my details and my phone on a paper to the French embassy, they will take me,” said an unnamed Afghan, knowing that it’s difficult to get to the embassy with the Taliban roving the streets.
Thousands of Afghan citizens seeking asylum face detention, incarceration, torture and death by the Taliban. Afghan citizens panic understands the Taliban will not treat anyone who participated in the U.S.-backed puppet regime kindly. “We have seen reports that the Taliban are blocking Afghan wish to leave the country from reaching the airport,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters. “We expect the to allow all American citizens, all their-country national and all Afghans who wish to leave to do so safely and without harassment,” know the reality is otherwise. No Afghan national can get to the airport now without a special escort, paying off the right people to get through Taliban checkpoints. Because of the White House lack of advance planning, thousands of Afghans will probably disappear. It’s going to take a Herculean effort to get U.S. citizens out. All others face real uncertainty.
