In July 1995, I joined about a dozen other demonstrators at the fence in front of the White House protesting US and UN abandonment of the Bosnians who had sought refuge in the UN-declared "safe area" of Srebrenica. It was the day that 8,000 men and boys were executed by the Serbs while UN soldiers stood aside. The abandonment of Srebrenica certainly could have been prevented by President Clinton by supporting reinforcement of the UN mission during the days and weeks leading up to the massacre. Everyone knew it was coming. The warnings were in the media long before the massacre. Clinton had learned no lesson from his failure to intervene in Rwanda a year earlier.
Now, President Biden is following in President Clinton's shameful footsteps, leaving up to 18,000 translators who formerly worked with the US military, along with 40-50,000 of their family members, to be executed, likely beheaded, between now and the day that Kabul falls to the Taliban. The killing already has begun, according to Major Matt Zeller, co-founder of No One Left Behind.
Perhaps one more translator was beheaded last week. I heard the report on the news, but have been unable to confirm it on the internet.
Major Zeller, with Rachel Maddow, points out that the obvious and quickest evacuation route is to Guam, which served also as a transit camp for evacuating thousands of Kurds and tens of thousands of Vietnamese after conflicts in decades past. Major Zeller reported that use of Guam is being obstructed by officials in the Department of Homeland Security who argue that the translators not yet receiving visas (only 2,500 have been approved over a period of months), who have risked their lives serving in the US military, could be dangerous. Instead, evacuations to third countries are planned to begin at the end of July - by which time several more translators almost certainly will be killed.
In his July 8 speech on abandoning Afghanistan, President Biden stated to the translators "There is a home for you in the United States if you so choose and we will stand with you as you stood with us. " click here
The promise rings hollow. In fact it is the worst sort of mendacity and hypocrisy, as revealed in this follow-up the next day on the Rachel Maddow show: "Biden administration officials have been locked in an internal debate over plans to evacuate Afghans who worked for the U.S. military, with some officials arguing against taking the evacuees to U.S. territory where they would have more legal rights once they arrived, two congressional aides and three people familiar with the matter told NBC News."
If these reports are true, Secretary Mayorkas of DHS and Secretary of State Blinken ought to fire forthwith the obstructing officials. If they are unwilling to step in, then President Biden ought to fire them. The time for decisive action to save tens of thousands of lives is now, today, not next week or next month. Mayorkas and Blinken ought to be fired anyway, for their roles in mismanagement of housing of migrants seeking to enter the US from Mexico, and in failing to end US support for Saudi atrocities in Yemen, respectively. If thousands of translators and their families, or even dozens, are executed on Biden's watch, his promise to them will live in infamy.
