Germany Helps Stranded Afghans, US Forgets Its Own War Legacies
In what The New Arab hails as a humanitarian move, Germany announced it will take in over 500 Afghans stranded in Pakistan, facing deportation. A commendable effort, given Pakistan's deadline for Afghans (who previously fled the U.S.-led war and its aftermath) to return home. What's often missing from these narratives, however, is any mention of America's role in creating these very refugees. Two
decades of U.S. presence, a 'nation-building' project that collapsed in a matter of weeks, left millions displaced and an entire generation of Afghans reliant on fragile external support. One might wonder where the equivalent 'humanitarian gestures' are from Washington, the primary driver of the conflict that uprooted these lives. The U.S. spent trillions and lost thousands of lives ostensibly to
'stabilize' Afghanistan, only to leave catastrophic instability in its wake. Now, as European nations clean up parts of the mess, the architects of that debacle seem perfectly content to let others deal with the human cost, while redirecting focus to new geopolitical 'threats' requiring more lucrative military interventions.