Tuesday marked one year since the US completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan. While violence has significantly dropped in the country, millions of Afghans are facing starvation as the US maintains sanctions and refuses to release billions in Afghan central bank reserves.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian chief, urged donors to raise $770 million for Afghanistan aid and warned that six million Afghans are facing famine in an address to the UN Security Council.
Griffiths said that more than half of Afghanistan’s 39 million people need assistance and that close to 19 million people are facing acute food shortages. He said that humanitarian aid alone “will never be able to replace the provision of system-wide services to 40 million people across the country.”
Among the problems Griffiths said need to be addressed are the country’s banking crisis and the extreme difficulty of international financial transactions. Both are a result of the US policy of seizing central bank reserves and maintaining sanctions on the Taliban, who now lead the Afghan government.
The US froze $7 billion in Afghan central bank reserves when the Taliban entered Kabul last year and have refused to return the funds. The US has reportedly decided to continue talks with the Taliban on the reserves, but so far, no progress has been made. There has also been no progress on the US potentially recognizing the Taliban-led government.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin marked the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal on Tuesday in a memorandum to Pentagon personnel. He said that the US’s “work is not done” in the country.
“We must keep a relentless focus on counterterrorism—and we are,” Austin said. His memorandum came not long after the CIA launched a drone strike in Kabul, which President Biden claimed killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. It marked the first US airstrike in the country since August 29, 2021, when the US killed 10 civilians, including seven children, in a drone strike in Kabul.
While the US has only launched one known airstrike in Afghanistan since the withdrawal, the Taliban has said US surveillance drones continue to fly over the country.
Title should be…. One Year After Afghanistan Withdrawal, Millions Of Afghans Facing Starvation As US Maintains ILLEGAL Sanctions…
😀
How heart-warming, the generosity of the Neocon-Merka, who tried to give them freedom & democracy. And this same pol-scum, so exercised at those Jan. 6th handful who dared a sacrilegious assault on their sacred house.
Just one more country the US foreign.policy has destroyed.over the years.in search.of power and.profit.for Capitalism.
I shake my head at some of the things done in our name.
Here are more details on the humanitarian situation found in Griffith’s report
https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator-martin-griffiths-remarks-un-security-council-humanitarian-situation-afghanistan
Both the Red Cross and the Red Crescent are doing what they can there.
I am deeply ashamed by what is done in my name and all our names.
The Ugly American never really left, he was always there.
One thing we’re good at is making people suffer because we don’t like their government.
How many Americans thought it was a good idea to invade Afghanistan in August of 2001? By the end of September 80% of Americans were all for it. Barbara Lee was the sole “no” vote in Congress against the 2001 AUMF, “…because I believed it was a blank check for endless war.” How right she was.
I was an alternate on the Libertarian National Committee at the time. When they came up with a milquetoast, weasel-worded resolution that neither supported nor opposed the invasion (when our platform clearly required that we oppose it) and I asked why we’d do such a dumb and purposeless thing, one member told me “80% of Americans are for it, we don’t want to marginalize ourselves.”
My response was “20% of Americans is 40 times as many as usually vote for our presidential ticket. We’re already ‘marginal,’ so why not be right too?”
I disagree that the invasion was a “dumb and purposeless thing.” It had been planned months before 9/11. The Taliban had all but eliminated opium cultivation by 2001. By 2005 the CIA had brought heroin production up to being 90% of the world’s supply.
I disagree that the invasion was a “dumb and purposeless thing” too.
What was “dumb and purposeless” was the resolution I was referring to.
The AUMF did enable the Pentagon to, as Lesley Clark reported shortly after 9/11, invade 7 Moslem nations in 5 years. The timing was off with Iran. The USA and Israel are still working on that one.
But why chose Afghanistan to launch the mid-east conquest?
ob.dic., Gen. Wesley Clark
Remember The Hunt for bin Laden?
But nothing to do with 9/11.
Libertarians, marginalize themselves? Too funny not a hint of irony
What Biden is doing is a war crime. Crimes against humanity, and no one around him opposed him or had the decency to resign. Criminals before Biden and there will be criminals after him in Washington, for money they do anything even starving children to death. Shame on the nation for they act in our name. We are guilty too.
Renate, I’m sure that some member of the Amerikkkan regime will eventually utter “Yes, it was worth it”.
Notice the “defense” minister lord (sic) Austin really cares about Afghans.
Starving people and killing people will be the legacy of Joey Biden!
If you read history whenever there is a weak, senile, angry, or insane person installed at the head of a nation chaos ensues as underlings run amuck withing the government of that empire. Unfortunately with Joey Biden you get senile, angry, and weak all at once.
“Unfortunately with Joey Biden you get senile, angry, and weak all at once.”
Or, to put it a different way, “new boss — same as the old boss.”
“The US has reportedly decided to continue talks with the Taliban on the reserves, but so far, no progress has been made.”
YOU rob a bank and then YOU decide when it’s time to start talking about giving the money back.
The new Golden Rule is when you have the gold, you make the rules. Remember that quaint little narrative that every president since 9/11 has to parrot, that we invaded Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden? His picture and that of the 19 supposed hijackers were plastered all over the New York Times within hours of the attacks, way before any evidence-based investigation could possibly have been done.
This is frigging terrible and the USA bears the blame. We are deliberately collapsing what is left of their economy it would seem out of pique. Even if you are an Afghan living in Italy you can’t send money for food to your family thanks to the good ole USA. Time to accept that for better or worse the Taliban is the government, release the funds and hope they do the right thing. If they don’t the famine is on them not us.
Does that include the women, who we said we were so so so concerned about?