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Afghans make their way through a flooded street toward a nearby airport entrance to try their chance at evacuating out of the country in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 25, 2021. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
America’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal left thousands of brave Afghans who stood with America for two decades stranded under hostile Taliban rule.
Hudson Senior Fellow Luke Coffey [[link removed]]’s new policy memo [[link removed]] explains how offering America’s Afghan allies a path to safety and stability in the United States serves America’s moral, practical, and strategic interests. Read how below.
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Key Insights
1. America should live up to its commitment to evacuate Afghans who helped US troops.
Leading up to the withdrawal, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said, “We must remain faithful to those Afghans who risked their lives to help the United States troops and personnel.” Doing right by Afghan allies is a matter of national honor. The way America treats people who helped it, especially when they are in peril, says a lot about its values as a nation. Helping the Afghans who helped America is morally the right thing to do.
2. Creating a legal path to citizenship for skilled Afghans would aid American security and prosperity.
Afghans evacuated to America could play a role in improving the US economy and filling key shortages in the labor market. According to one report, more than 10,000 Afghans evacuated to the US have at least a college education. Additionally, 28.5 percent of these have master’s degrees, and 5.8 percent have advanced medical training. Adjusting the legal status of Afghans in the US using legislation could also save the US taxpayer tens of millions of dollars’ worth of asylum adjudication hearings and improve the vetting process of Afghans on humanitarian parole.
3. Aiding Afghan allies furthers America’s strategic interests in the region and beyond.
Afghanistan and the broader regions of Central and South Asia will remain a focus of US foreign policy and counterterrorism. Policymakers should take long-term needs into account and think creatively. Afghan evacuees form a talent pool of linguists, cultural experts, and proven patriots whose service America might someday need again. Additionally, proving that American promises will be kept would make future local and indigenous partners more willing to work with the US.
Quotes may be edited for clarity and length.
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US Has an Opportunity to Support the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan [[link removed]]
Since the Taliban’s return to power, one credible and non-extremist group has been willing to take up arms in opposition: the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. Hudson Senior Fellow Luke Coffey [[link removed]] makes nine concrete, realistic suggestions on how the US can help in this policy memo [[link removed]].
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Beaten for Eating Ice Cream: The Experience of Afghan Women under Taliban Rule [[link removed]]
On CNN [[link removed]], Hudson Visiting Fellow Adela Raz [[link removed]]—the former Afghan ambassador to the US—recounted the extreme oppression that Afghan women suffer under Taliban rule.
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The US Has No Afghan Policy . . . It Badly Needs One [[link removed]]
Hudson Senior Fellow Luke Coffey [[link removed]] explains in Arab News [[link removed]] that “instead of pointless talks with the Taliban, the US should be working with international and regional partners to develop a comprehensive and coherent strategy for the country before it is too late.”
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Africa's Recent Contagion of Coups [[link removed]]
China and Russia capitalize on developing nations’ instability to threaten American interests. Hudson Senior Fellows Josh Meservey [[link removed]], Peter Rough [[link removed]], and Michael Doran [[link removed]] discuss the shifting international influence across Africa on the latest episode of Counterbalance [[link removed]].
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