After 20 Years, Media Still Surprised Afghans Exist Outside US Control
The Al Jazeera headline screams 'Major fallout for Afghans in US after National Guard shooting,' following an incident in DC involving a 'suspected Afghan national.' The immediate jump to collective punishment, or at least collective implication, for an entire diaspora—many of whom fled the very US war that destabilized their country for two decades—is telling. Funny how 'major fallout' wasn't the
headline when the US spent trillions, dropped uncounted bombs, and left behind a trail of generational trauma in actual Afghanistan. One might wonder where this sudden interest in the 'fallout' on Afghans was when the US withdrew, leaving millions vulnerable, or during the 20 years of 'nation-building' that, according to the Afghanistan Papers (Washington Post, 2019), was largely based on lies.
Now, one individual's alleged actions become a convenient political bludgeon against an entire community, allowing media to pivot from critiquing failed interventions to scrutinizing immigrant populations, without ever asking if the invasion itself might have had some 'major fallout.'