One Year Later: The Crisis Worsens In Afghanistan

ONE YEAR LATER, THE DISASTROUS HUMANITARIAN EFFECTS OF BIDEN’S BOTCHED WITHDRAWAL ARE OBVIOUS

One year after Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, an economic calamity, and a complete reversal of women’s rights under Taliban rule.
Biden left America’s Afghan allies behind to be tortured and murdered despite promising to relocate them before withdrawing.
While the crisis in Afghanistan grows worse every day, Biden went on vacation for the second year in a row.
- Biden did not even release a statement or tweet about his botched withdrawal, avoiding taking ownership over one of the worst foreign policy failures in American history.

BIDEN ABANDONED OUR ALLIES

As a result of his botched withdrawal, Biden left America’s Afghan allies at the mercy of the Taliban.
- Thousands of Afghans who put their lives on the line to assist the U.S. were left to face death, torture, and uncertainty.
- As U.S. planes departed from Kabul, Afghans could be seen clinging to the planes and some even falling to their deaths to escape Taliban rule.
- Almost immediately, Taliban leaders began targeting Afghans that helped the U.S. by executing them in the streets and forcing women to become “wives” for Taliban fighters.
Despite widespread knowledge of the Taliban’s human rights abuses, the Biden administration decided that the Taliban’s vow to uphold basic human rights would simply be “watched and observed over time.”

THE TALIBAN CELEBRATE AS AFGHANS FACE DEATH, STARVATION, AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

The Taliban marked the one-year anniversary of their takeover of Afghanistan on Monday with celebrations and parades while children begged for spare change in the streets and women hid in their homes.
Back in January, Afghanistan was ranked as the country most at risk of a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The situation turned from bad to worse – since the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan has fallen into a deep economic collapse with a 70 percent poverty rate.
- In February, the White House admitted that the Taliban’s takeover of the country made the “already frail economic situation worse.”
- Nearly 19 million Afghans face “potentially life-threatening” hunger and up to six million face “near-famine conditions.”
- Some reports say more than 120,000 children have been sold since the Taliban took Kabul.
Foreign policy experts have warned that this worsening crisis emboldens China and Russia to say the U.S. is an unreliable ally.

CHRISTIANS LIVE IN CONSTANT FEAR

The situations for Christians in Afghanistan has grown “ever more perilous” as many are now forced to practice their faith in hiding.
- One spokesperson said, “they [Christians] are deeply afraid and heavily targeted by the Taliban. If they are caught, their lives and that of their loved ones are at immediate risk.”
- Most Christians in Afghanistan are converts from Islam and, if discovered, face almost certain death.
The Taliban has been conducting targeted killings of Christians found using public transportation, as well as executing anyone found with Bible software installed on their cell phones.
Many Christian families in hiding “are in quite a serious situation, with the Taliban conducting sweeps of entire neighborhoods or districts.”
- Christians reportedly are receiving threatening phone calls and letters saying, “We know where you are and what you are doing.”
Taliban leaders have denied the very presence of Christians in Afghanistan, making it extremely problematic and risky to raise the topic of evacuating Afghan Christians.

THE TALIBAN HAS KILLED, TORTURED, AND JAILED AFGHANS

While Biden completely ignores the one-year anniversary of his disastrous withdrawal, the Afghan people are facing discrimination, violence, and death under Taliban rule.
- Restrictions on daily life and freedom are controlled by the Taliban, with armed Taliban members able to show up announced at people’s homes to rifle through them and search their phones at checkpoints across the city.
Women are once again suffering under Taliban rule.
- There is no access to education and employment for many women, with the Taliban closing girls’ secondary schools indefinitely.
- Women are now required to be covered head to toe out in public.
- The Taliban have outlawed girls playing sports.
- Women cannot travel any far distance without a male relative with them.
There have been reports of numerous disappearances of and violence against female activists.
Journalists have been detained, beaten, and jailed by the Taliban.
Music has been banned, and thousands of artists have tried to flee Afghanistan after facing threats.
The Taliban is also cracking down on minorities as hard as they have on women.
- There have been numerous reports of attacks against Shiites and their meeting places.
- Since Biden’s botched withdrawal, the Taliban and ISIS have displaced or massacred hundreds of Hazara Shia, the country's largest minority.
- The Taliban have cut the internet in many areas of the city where minorities live.