Another American betrayal? Afghans who served alongside JBLM soldiers left in danger

The American Embassy in Kabul recently suspended the Special Immigrant Visa program which allows Afghans who worked for two years with American forces to relocate to this country with their spouses and children.

While most American and coalition troops will soon be out of Afghanistan, the thousands of Afghans who more often than not worked as translators are in danger of being left behind.

While no American will be left behind, this belief suddenly seems not to apply to our Afghan allies.

The State Department’s action and President Biden’s inaction on this subject put almost 18,000 Afghan applicants in mortal danger.

Knowing that it has won the war, Taliban forces are taking back the country, and as they do they take their revenge on those who worked with the Americans.

The Taliban have specifically targeted translators and their families, killing hundreds. As they continue their sweep across Afghanistan, they will kill.

“These Afghans will have a bullseye on their backs from the moment we leave the country,” US Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said at a recent hearing.

“If President Biden abandons them, he is signing their death warrants.”

Biden has a couple of choices.

The president can order the evacuation of the applicants to another country to allow the visa process to continue. Or, he can provide these Afghans with a humanitarian parole, which provides temporary permission for them to enter our country.

If the president chooses to do nothing, then he and his advisors will join the line of those despicable and cowardly individuals who betrayed the Hmong at the end of the war in Vietnam.

In the early 1960s, American officials sought out and recruited Hmong warriors to help fight against the North Vietnamese. In return for their service, they were promised that at the end of the fighting they and their families would be relocated to this country.

But in 1973 American officials broke that promise when they left Vietnam, leaving the Hmong who had worked with them behind. As a result, thousands were singled out by the victorious communist governments of Laos and Vietnam, taken to concentration camps and murdered.

This nation’s betrayal of the Hmong remains one of its most dishonorable acts. Now it appears that another American betrayal of trust will be committed in Afghanistan.

Take a good look at the photograph I made in January 2012 showing an Afghan translator who worked with me and soldiers assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s then 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

She and her family were promised passage to this country in exchange for her work with and for American soldiers. I don’t know if she was ever granted passage, but too many others have not.

The words of trust spoken to this Afghan translator, and thousands like her, are no different than the ones spoken to the Hmong.

The president’s advisors know the fate of the Hmong. Are they willing to betray almost 18,000 Afghans to the same fate?

John Simpson is a as a retired Air Force office, Pierce College history professor and photojournalist for The Ranger, an independent publication that covers JBLM. He resigned his seat on the Lakewood City Council in December and moved to Lacey.