We all benefit from saving as many Afghans as we can

“We have done so much during this time. It didn’t go to waste,” an Afghan student studying in the United States told me Wednesday.

The fear and chaos gripping the Afghan capital of Kabul require that the young person I interviewed be referred to as “the student.” The fall of Kabul last weekend exposes hundreds of thousands to immediate Taliban vengeance. Prolonged misery awaits millions.

Members of the student’s family are on the run from the Taliban. They have been able to find safe houses for hiding, but they know they will run out of those before the Taliban’s bloodlust subsides.

The student’s family welcomed Americans into their home after the liberation of Kabul. Friendships ensued. Americans mentored children in the family. The student’s family was not unusual. There are thousands like them. All are in danger.

Cellphones have allowed Afghan students here to communicate with their families in Afghanistan during this harrowing week. One of the student’s siblings in Kabul has at times been “catatonic” with fear since

Kabul fell.

COVID-19 travel restrictions caused some students studying abroad to become trapped in Afghanistan while visiting their families. They too are targets for the medieval madness of the Taliban.

The student knows what families face. When armed Taliban fighters arrive in a neighborhood, they hunt for people who worked for or with coalition governments or nongovernment organizations. A Taliban soldier holds a gun to a neighbor’s head and demands to know who on the street cooperated with Americans. The victim starts pointing at other people’s homes. It is suicide not to flee.

VICTOR J. BLUE/THE NEW YORK TIMES Armed fighter jets are making passes over Kabul in an effort to secure the massive evacuation of American citizens and allies from Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Thursday.