Bhubaneswar: The last few weeks have been harrowing for the world with the Taliban’s invasion, infestation and possession over Afghanistan. The United States of America (USA) is facing criticism for withdrawing its forces from the troubled land, a move regarded as the effective end of America’s longest war, where as India has resorted to a “wait and watch” policy.
Meanwhile, Odias in America have shared their views on the chaos in Afghanistan as well as the US President Joe Biden’s decision as well as.
Rajesh Panda of Naperville, Illinois said that the withdrawal of US troops should not be surprising as the negotiation of withdrawal agreement happened early last year and the work towards it had started much earlier. The long war has taken the lives of so many US servicemen and servicewomen and has cost US a trillion dollars.
He added, “I agree with our President’s decision of pulling out from the long war. But we could have done better in correctly reading the intelligence about the imminent collapse of the Afghan government and armed force. I can never forget the disturbing pictures of people clinging on to airplanes at Kabul airport in a desperate attempt to escape the Taliban. Citizens from various countries including USA are still stuck in Afghanistan. We have a long way to go but I have confidence that with our President’s leadership and support from other countries, we will successfully come out of this difficult situation.”
Sadyasnata Pattanaik of Chicago said, “The US and other superpowers have been depleting Afghani resources for about 50 years now. And US involvement, contrary to popular belief, is much longer than just 20 years. Our government helped create the Taliban.”
Castigating the recent move of the US, She added, “I don’t support US occupation of Afghanistan at all, but we left the wrong way. We owe safe asylum to Afghan refugees, especially to those who helped the American army. We needed a safe evacuation plan for as many men, women and children as possible. That was not done and now thousands and thousands of innocent lives are at the mercy of extremist groups these western nations helped create. Unfortunately, this isn’t even unique to Afghanistan. We’ve seen this in Vietnam, Korea and multiple other countries. And I don’t see this behavior stopping anytime soon as long as other counties have resources for the rich ones to deplete.”
Sarmishtha Satpathy from California said, “What’s happening in Afghanistan is terrifying and unfortunate. There was a semblance of democracy for a while and then everything changed overnight. There are Afghans who were helping the US troops, who were interpreters, who will now be prime targets of Taliban. Women especially will suffer death and worse, their education will actively be used to target them. The situation is complex and it is not just that the current administration took a rash decision. This has been initiated by the previous administration and has been in the works.”
She further commented, “I’m sure the international community can do something collectively but it is beyond any individual. Right now, seeing people die and await their death is heartbreaking. Although the Taliban have mentioned in a press conference that they intend to be more respectful towards women and human rights, their actions speak otherwise.”
Kuku das, member of Odia Society of America (OSA), termed the unfortunate fold of events as a very big loss for humanity. Civilians don’t deserve to go through such atrocity, she added.
Arindam Ganguly, OP