A Humanitarian Response, Please

 There are days when I wake up and wonder “Is Donald Trump still in the White House?” Today is one of those days.

The seizure of $7 billion dollars belonging to the people of Afghanistan by the US government is case and point. After twenty years of war in Afghanistan, which killed over 240,000 people (more than 71,000 of whom were civilians) and which totally devastated the economy of one of the poorest countries in the world, the US is continuing its war on the Afghani people by economic means, potentially causing untold misery and death.

Let’s be clear about the facts:

·         The US is seizing the reserves of the Afghan National Bank, which serves a role similar to the US Federal Reserve. Both are independent of the government of their countries and are critical to the functioning of the economy.

·         Both this action and others taken by the Biden administration will further the economic crisis facing the Afghani people and, unless reversed, result in the death of tens of thousands of people, a large percentage of them children, from starvation and related health crises.

·         The consequences of seizing the reserves of the central bank are similar in Afghanistan to what would happen in the U.S. if the Federal Reserve was suddenly shut down. Businesses have been unable to secure loans, depositors have been unable to access money held in banks, importers have been unable to fund imports, the currency has collapsed, and prices have soared. By comparison the financial crisis of 2008 and the pandemic economic crisis of 2020 are are child’s play.

·         The US actions are apparently designed to “punish” the Taliban for the attacks on 9/11; one-half of the seized funds are supposedly going to be used to settle a law suit against the Taliban by families of those who were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

·         But the Taliban were NOT directly responsible for the 9/11 attacks! Al Qaeda was and the large majority of attackers were from Saudi Arabia (which receives billions of dollars of US military aid to this day).

Here’s where it gets even more worrisome. It turns out that an attorney, who worked until January at the Biden White House on Afghanistan issues, is also a lead attorney for some of the families of 9/11 victims who sued the Taliban. Lee Wolosky, co-chair of the litigation department of the law firm Jenner & Block LLP, was, according to the White House, specifically recused and walled off from any and all discussions related to any litigation by the victims of 9/11. But …?

It should be noted that if this long shot law suit is settled with the money from the seizure of the reserves, Wolosky and his law firm will most likely get millions in fees. Is that evidence of corruption? If it looks like sh__, and smells like sh__, do we have to taste it to be sure?

For 20 years the most powerful nation on earth waged war against a poor country and its people, first overthrowing its government and then attempting to impose on Afghanistan a government rife with corruption, which fell within days of US troop withdrawal. Having lost another war, it’s time that our country try to repair some of the damage it has done, not pile on more suffering.