Small Wars Journal

Don’t Let the U.S. Abandon Thousands of Afghans Who Worked for Us

Sat, 05/14/2016 - 11:17pm

Don’t Let the U.S. Abandon Thousands of Afghans Who Worked for Us by Ryan Crocker, Washington Post

The House will soon consider the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual piece of legislation that sets policy for the military. If the bill becomes law in its current form, the United States will break faith with the Afghans who served with U.S. troops and diplomats.

This is a very personal issue for me. I was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009 and the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012. I observed firsthand the courage of the citizens who risked their lives trying to help their own countries by helping the United States. During my time in Afghanistan, I had the pleasure of working with the 859 Afghan staffers at our embassy who risked their lives every day to work for the betterment of their country and ours. It takes a special kind of heroism for them to serve alongside us…

The need for help is particularly great this year as the U.S. military has reduced its presence in Afghanistan…

Read on.