During and after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Republicans roundly blamed President Joe Biden for leaving our Afghan allies vulnerable. This was a valid, though highly hypocritical, criticism, since the peace deal negotiated by the Trump administration would have walked away from these allies even sooner.
After the Trump administration betrayed and abandoned our Kurdish allies in Syria two years ago, many were slaughtered and none were evacuated by the United States. ISIS was strengthened, and Trump defended the decision as one he had to make to get us out of forever fighting in the Middle East. The only difference, in other words, is that there was no effort, before, during or after our withdrawal, to protect those we were leaving behind.
In leaving our Afghan allies unprotected, Kansas U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner said that we had “let down our allies and significantly damaged our presence on the world stage.”
But if you agree, as most Americans do, that we could not stay forever, and you also believe, as LaTurner said, that our allies deserve better, then what exactly is our responsibility to them?
Ask that natural follow-up question and suddenly those wonderful Afghan allies whose terrible treatment you were just bemoaning are recast as diseased potential terrorists. And no, that doesn’t add up.
On Thursday, after reports that about 500 Afghan evacuees will be resettled in Kansas, Ty Masterson, the Kansas Senate president, sounded this warning: “It could be dangerous to have them in our state.”
The evacuees, he said, could come with COVID-19 infections. (Every evacuee who comes into the United States is set to go through health screening. Anyone 12 and older will get the COVID-19 vaccination as a term of their status here. And not only are they are all being vaccinated, but that’s an odd objection for someone who doesn’t think Kansans should have to protect themselves and others by getting the shots.)
Masterson said that while he’s “all for taking care of those in trouble,” he stripped that sentiment of any meaning by warning that some refugees may be terrorists. Like all refugees, those from Afghanistan will arrive after being fully vetted. The Biden administration has said each evacuee will go through a Department of Homeland Security-coordinated process of security vetting before being admitted to the country.
About 1,200 Afghans are expected to settle in Missouri.
Nothing hospitable can come from calling evacuees “dangerous.” It sows seeds of discrimination.
