US Sanctions Starve Afghans While Funds Flow Elsewhere
ABC News alerts us that 'Millions facing acute food insecurity in Afghanistan as winter looms,' a humanitarian tragedy that conveniently sidesteps how those millions got there. The article highlights UN warnings, yet breezes past the crippling sanctions—specifically the freezing of approximately $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets by the US government after the Taliban takeover in August
2021—that directly fueled this economic collapse and subsequent food crisis. This isn't a natural disaster; it's a policy choice. One might wonder if the headlines would change if these same 'frozen' billions were instead allocated to, say, foreign military aid. That money, unlike the Afghan people's, always seems to find its way through. According to the Congressional Research Service, the US
provided roughly $3.9 billion in military aid to other nations in Fiscal Year 2023 alone, no questions asked.