Ottawa must not give up in face of Afghan disaster

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/08/2021 (1131 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So what was feared and predicted is now a terrible reality. Afghans who worked with Canada and other western countries over the past two decades are now trapped inside the country, exposed to retribution from the victorious Taliban.

Their supporters in Canada had warned of this for many weeks They pleaded with the government to do everything possible to smooth the Afghan allies’ path to safety. There was no time to lose, they warned.

Yet the government was painfully slow to act. The Biden administration announced its timetable for pulling all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan back in April. But it wasn’t until July 23 that the Trudeau government announced details of an emergency resettlement plan for Afghans who worked with our military and diplomats, along with their family members. And even then the program was plagued with missteps and confusion.

And now here we are, less than four weeks later, and the doors have suddenly slammed shut. The Afghan government has evaporated, its military didn’t even bother to put up a struggle, and Taliban fighters are posing for photos in the presidential palace. The United States and its allies are left begging the Taliban to at least keep Kabul’s airport open to allow those who want out to leave the country.

This is a humiliation for the U.S. and especially for President Joe Biden. As recently as July 8 he was dismissing the prospect of a complete Taliban victory as “highly unlikely.” The American military withdrawal, he said confidently, was “proceeding in a secure and orderly way.”

Instead, we have scenes of chaos at Kabul’s airport as desperate Afghans cling to a departing military plane, with some falling to their deaths. Those who worked with the U.S. and other foreign forces were told they would never be abandoned, yet for many that’s exactly what’s happening.

There’s plenty of blame to go round. It was the administration of Donald Trump, after all, that negotiated a deal with the Taliban last year to pull all U.S. troops out of the country by May 1, 2021. Biden just extended the timeframe by a few months.

But the utter collapse of the government propped up by the U.S. and the rest of the west at a cost of something like a trillion dollars, not to mention the lives of thousands of soldiers, is catastrophic. As is the obvious failure of American intelligence; the prospect of a Taliban takeover was always in the cards, but it was supposed to happen in perhaps six months, not six days.

Western governments that were part of the U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan, including Canada, must do what they can to salvage something from this disaster.

Fortunately, some Afghans connected to the Canadian presence there have made it out. On Monday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said 807 have been evacuated, and 500 of those have already been brought to Canada.

Canada must work with its allies and the United Nations to pressure the new Taliban authorities to allow flights to continue out of Kabul, and allow Afghans who want to leave to do so. Ottawa should do everything possible to help those seeking refuge to get out; security checks and other paperwork should not be allowed to get in the way.

And Ottawa must do all it can to fulfil its promise to bring some 20,000 Afghans who have ties to Canada or are from vulnerable groups like women leaders and human rights activists, to come to this country.

The Taliban’s sudden takeover in Kabul clearly makes that very difficult. Canada has evacuated its embassy in Kabul, and may have to work through allies who still have a presence in Afghanistan. But the government should not give up; at this point it’s a matter of national honour.