The Nightmare of Afghanistan

"There are tons of people waiting outside the civilian camp [at the Kabul airport]. They just sent the same email to everyone to come here because there is a flight today."

"They [U.S. authorities] promised to open the door at 8 a.m., but they didn't open it."

"We are going home. No other choice."

UN employee, awaiting airlift out of Afghanistan

 

"The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army."

"They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy of the United States from Afghanistan." 
U.S. President Joe Biden, July 8

Afghans inside a U.S. military plane waiting to leave the country from Kabul’s airport on Thursday.  Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

British, American, Canadian and other NATO-allied Western governments have promised Afghans who had committed over the past two decades to assisting and working with them as interpreters, aides, administrative assistants and locally engaged filling all types of positions useful to the foreign diplomats and troops, that none of their former allies would be left behind with the departure of Western nationals. All saw it as their obligation to return the trust and help given them by Afghans by helping them to depart the country, now under control of the Islamist extremists known to much of the world as a terrorist brigade.

 

The Taliban both in the past when they ruled Afghanistan under strict sharia law interpreted to the letter of human-rights-abusive oppression and vicious punishment for any perceived sharia-interpreted infractions, and at present, known to have committed atrocities against unarmed civilians and armed national police and military alike, is held to be preparing for a vituperative bloodbath against all those whom they consider to have been betrayers of Islamist values -- Taliban values as fanatical Islamists.

 

The desperation of Afghans who know the fate that awaits them at the hands of the Taliban led thousands of Afghan civilians to follow the example of the national police and military -- to seek haven abroad, to be safe from the malevolent revenge of the Taliban. Thousands gathered inside the airport hoping for a place on an outgoing plane, many carrying documents of proof of their claims, others appearing with none including passports, hoping for a humanitarian gesture to award their trust.

 

The thousands of Afghans who performed work for Western forces, NGOs, humanitarian groups and representatives of civil authorities giving aid to Afghanistan desperately begged for rescue from the fate that would be theirs on the departure of the Western presence in their country. Britain had airlifted over 500 of their own nationals, Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy applicants for their resettlement scheme on RAF transport aircraft.

 

"U.K. military personnel are helping to maintain security at the airport in Kabul to allow hundreds of eligible people to safety depart every day", stated a Foreign Office spokesman. And then there are those trapped between the airport perimeter and the airport where Taliban security guards 'keep order' with the butts of rifles and whips. "We have all these documents, but now we have been here for eight hours in this crowd. Will we gt inside the airport?" queried Masoud Zamani showing passports and U.K. visas for himself and family.

Khalil Haqqani, a leader of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, delivering remarks after Friday Prayer at the Pul-i-Khishti Mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday.  Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

 

Seated on American Humvees they've taken possession of, the Taliban wear the fatigues taken from the Afghan army they dispatched in defeat mere days ago, maintaining stern vigil over growing crowds around the airport perimeter. The Taliban shout at the crowd to "move back", looking out for cameras, interrogating anyone holding a cellphone. One woman speaks of her sister telling her the Taliban were "throwing hot water on women" waiting at the airport's eastern gate.

 

The surging crowd packed outside the airport passed small children, hand to hand, to lift them over the perimeter wall into the hands of U.K. and U.S. soldiers, hoping their children would be taken to safety. Earlier in the week, young Afghan men had clung to the fuselage of a U.S. C-17 military jet as it flew American personnel out of Afghanistan at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. As the plane rose, the men fell to their deaths. 

 

How desperate? That desperate. 

A man hangs a Taliban flag after Friday prayers in Kabul.  Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times