U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton is calling for the United States to speed up its efforts to evacuate Afghan residents who helped American troops, saying that the president has failed so far to sufficiently help the country’s allies there.
In a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Moulton talked about the American departure from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the capital in Kabul.
“We said, ‘We got you, we got your back and we’re not going to leave you behind,’ yet the course we’re on today suggests we’re going to leave a lot of people behind,” Moulton said. “The president has promised to get all American citizens out by the end of August, but we don’t have a clear plan to do so, and (the president) notably hasn’t said we will get all of our Afghan allies out before we leave.”
The panel, moderated by CNAS Chief Executive Officer Richard Fontaine, also included Ambassador and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program Lisa Curtis.
During the discussion, Moulton, who himself served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Middle East, said that he was glad that the United States military was withdrawing from the country, but criticized the method by which the evacuation was carried out.
Earlier this year, Moulton began asking for allies to be evacuated before the country’s official withdrawal date of Aug. 31, even submitting his own evacuation plan to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in June.
The main issue, he said, lies with the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program for Afghans who aided the U.S. military. While the program is designed to help them get out of Afghanistan safely, it has had a backlog for years, and the process is reportedly slowing down now that everyone is trying to flee at once.
He added that, in addition to remaining in Afghanistan until “the mission is complete,” the U.S. should be focusing on getting its allies out of the region and sorting out the paperwork later.
“Someone could be denied entry to the airport, denied a flight out of Kabul, literally due to a typo in their paperwork,” Moulton said. “No one should ever die because of a typo.”
He went on to say that while he was overseas, he was able to convince locals to work with the American military on the promise that they would be able to come to the United States later on.
“The next time someone tries to make that promise … anywhere in the globe, people are going to look at what’s going on in Afghanistan today when they decide whether or not to work with us,” he said.
