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Biden Can Redeem His Mistake
In 1975, he failed to see what America owed the Vietnamese who had bet their lives on American promises.
In Afghanistan the interval will be even less decent;
the takeover by the Taliban after the withdrawal of American and other NATO forces will very likely happen much faster.
We should assume that Afghan cities could fall within months or weeks and that Kabul will soon become a bloody battleground,
as it was in the early 1990s, during the civil war that followed the departure of Soviet troops.
We should also assume that the Taliban will be no more merciful toward women, girls, religious minorities, civil-society activists, political opponents, and perceived infidels and spies than during its years in power before September 11, 2001.
Biden has a relevant personal history.
In April 1975, as a first-term senator, he was an outspoken opponent of using American money and risking Americans’ safety to rescue the tens of thousands of South Vietnamese who had bet their lives on American promises.
“The United States has no obligation to evacuate one, or 100,001, South Vietnamese,”
As South Vietnam fell, 135,000 endangered Vietnamese were evacuated through the heroic efforts of American officials, military veterans, and private citizens. Ford later said, “To do anything less would, in my opinion, only add moral shame to military humiliation.”
Those refugees and their descendants are now Americans. I doubt that Biden would wish it otherwise.
Biden failed to see a moral obligation in 1975. Today he can learn from the mistake and redeem it.
Seventeen thousand Afghans who have worked for America in Afghanistan, along with tens of thousands of their family members,
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...-chance/618586
Trash also denied entry to Iraqis who had helped failed US military lose that war.
Qhris
