For the better part of a decade, the Washington Free Beacon has been chronicling the trials and travails of our Afghan allies, who have struggled to secure visas to travel to the United States—and to safety. The Obama and Trump administrations failed these men and women. Now, President Joe Biden has abandoned them to almost certain slaughter.
Over the past few days, however, these brave Afghans have found a new source of support in "Squad" members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., New York) and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) as well as their hangers-on, such as congressman Mondaire Jones (D., N.Y.).
AOC declared that we have a "moral obligation to the Afghan people. … We must waste no time or expense in helping refugees safely & swiftly leave Afghanistan." Omar announced that the United States "must hold the airport in Kabul and lead a multinational airlift operation."
To which we ask: How, exactly? The "Squad" wanted an end to endless war. They got it.
In July, Omar introduced an amendment calling for an accelerated end to the Afghan war, alleging that the United States had wrought "a generation of devastation." AOC has for years called on Congress to yank war authorization and in 2019 argued that the United States' invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 was "a mistake."
The chaos, fear, and reprisals that have swept Afghanistan are the result of the "Squad" members' favored policy in action, implemented by a craven and apparently remorseless Biden administration.
The Taliban now control Afghanistan, save one runway surrounded by heavily armed jihadists. Refugees elsewhere in the country have no way to get to Kabul, while those in Kabul face Taliban checkpoints to get to the airport. The Taliban have lists of those Afghans who have aided the United States and who now fear summary execution. How does the "Squad" propose we help our friends now? They don't say.
Rep. Seth Moulton, the Massachusetts Democrat and Afghanistan veteran, was asked whether military operations might be necessary to extract our beleaguered friends. To his credit, he conceded the truth, if reluctantly: A military operation to extract our allies is "certainly an option that we have to consider—it's a terrible option, considering that a mere week ago we controlled much more of the country, or at least the allied Afghan government did. We really missed the boat here."
The former CIA analyst and Afghanistan war veteran Matt Zeller may be the country's foremost expert on the problem of exfiltrating our Afghan allies. He noted that while the Biden administration claims to be a "profound champion" of human rights, "sometimes human rights have to be defended at the barrel end of a gun."
If we are to save any of these brave men and women from the fate to which Biden has callously consigned them, it will take American men, matériel, and violence. The coming days will tell us whether Squad members have the courage of their convictions or whether their demands to save our Afghan allies are simply a rhetorical coverup for a crime in which they are complicit.