Kabul has fallen, Afghanistan is almost completely under Taliban rule now, and President Ashraf Ghani has fled. I wasn’t alive during the Vietnam war, but having seen the images of Saigon at the end of it, it’s impossible not to think of them when seeing the footage of Chinooks airlifting US embassy workers to Kabul airport. l cannot tell you how surreal it is to be watching the news from neighboring Pakistan, sitting next to my grandfather who has been alive for every change of government since the Brits left after the war.
History repeats and repeats and repeats, nobody learns a damn thing, and innocent civilians are the ones that suffer.
250 000 Afghans have left their homes. Many more are going to do so. And that’s just the ones who flee. Those who don’t will live under a conservative rule that is going to commit crimes against humanity on a daily basis, that is going to ruin the lives of generations to come.
The worst part is, I don’t know what else there is to be done at this point. I can only pray that my country will accommodate the incoming refugees, though I fear they won’t.
All I ask is that international community keep Afghanistan in their thoughts, and that everyone raises their voice against what is happening, both in terms of what the Taliban is doing, and how the actions of foreign powers led us to this point. The US, the UK, Pakistan, are all at fault, and must be held accountable
