America and the Taliban: The need for transparency and accountability.

Over 170 people died in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021— 13 of them were Americans. Congress needs to investigate what happened and why.

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to Afghanistan. There’s a past. We funded and trained the Taliban to fight the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s. And for the last 20 years, we trained Afghan forces to fight against the Taliban.

And there’s a present. The most important feature of which is the estimated 1,500+ Americans who now find it incredibly dangerous to even attempt to leave Afghanistan.

Our abandonment of over 100,000 Afghans who worked with the U.S. over the past 20 years, and whom the Taliban is likely to torture and/or kill is another major failure. These Afghans assisted U.S troops and were an essential part of the civil society in Afghanistan that the U.S. helped to build.

Then there are the hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who desperately want to get out of Afghanistan. Many are women and children who will be forced to live under Sharia law and/or be raped, beaten, and killed by men who have little or no regard for women or human life.

America needs to reassess our foreign policy objectives, our actions, and our inaction.