Afghanistan: Seizing a starving nation’s funds
President Biden has again “betrayed Afghanistan,” said Michael Rubin in the Washington Examiner, this time through “theft.” After the Taliban took over following his botched August withdrawal of U.S. forces, his administration froze the $7 billion in Afghan central bank reserves held in the U.S. Last week, Biden announced plans to divert half of that sum to the families of 9/11 victims, with the other half going to a trust fund for humanitarian relief of Afghans. But all of those funds “belong to the Afghan people,” including those who assisted our troops and want no part of Taliban rule. This seizure will likely cause “huge numbers of preventable deaths,” said Chris Gelardi in The Nation. Afghanistan is already in economic free fall, and three-quarters of its 40 million people now face severe poverty and hunger. How is pushing them into starvation a form of “justice”?
The “desperate needs of the Afghan people” cannot be denied, said The Washington Post in an editorial, but handing the money to the Taliban “would be a mistake.” The extremist government has ignored “repeated admonitions” by the global community to respect human rights or face financial consequences, and has instead engaged in a campaign of beatings, killings, and abductions. Remember, too, that Biden is attempting a compromise here. A federal judge ruled in September that 9/11 families could be entitled to all $7 billion of the frozen funds. Biden is attempting to preserve half for monitored humanitarian aid for Afghans.
“What could be more cynical” than stealing someone’s life savings and giving back half as charity? said Cheryl Benard in The National Interest. The Afghan people put most of this $7 billion in the country’s central bank, and half of the country’s population wasn’t even born in 2001. The 9/11 families have already received $2 million in compensation per victim, and those who are demanding the Afghan funds should “reconsider whether they truly want to profit” from the country’s
“slide into total economic and social ruin.” Not surprisingly, Afghans are enraged by Biden’s funds seizure, which will surely help recruitment efforts by both the Taliban and more extreme groups such as ISIS-K. “In the name of benefiting the
9/11 families,” in other words, “we will be seeding the ground for the next 9/11.”