After two decades, the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is winding down, which is the subject of considerable political debate. There’s no shortage of voices celebrating President Biden’s decision, believing the war cannot continue indefinitely, just as there are plenty of critics who believe the White House’s policy will end in disaster.
As important as this debate is, there’s far less division over one key element of the administration’s decision: the United States needs to protect the Afghans who’ve worked alongside Americans under incredibly difficult circumstances.
In fact, as the New York Times reported, there was an important vote on the matter in the Democratic-led House yesterday.
Rushing to help Afghans who face retribution for working alongside American troops in their home country, the House voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to speed up the process that would allow them to immigrate to the United States.
“It is a life and death situation,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said yesterday. “It’ll be a black eye on the United States if we don’t do everything in our power to protect these allies.”
That’s an easy sentiment to endorse. At issue are thousands of Afghans who’ve partnered with the United States, working as interpreters and drivers, among other roles, and whose lives are in grave danger as we withdraw from the country.
The Times‘ report added that these Afghans “are stuck in a bureaucratic morass after applying for Special Immigrant Visas, available to people who face threats because of work for the U.S. government.”
With this in mind, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a decorated retired Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, introduced a measure to streamline the process — and likely save these Afghans’ lives.
The bill passed easily yesterday, but not unanimously: while every House Democrat supported the measure, 46 House Republicans — more than a fifth of the GOP conference — voted against it. As Rachel noted on last night’s show, the bill now heads to the evenly divided Senate, where there’s bipartisan support for the proposal, but where Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has resisted the larger effort. Watch this space. Postscript: Yesterday’s measure was packaged together with related provision to repeal war authorizations from 1991 and 1957. They advanced as one piece of legislation.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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