On Wednesday, a senior State Department official stated that :
‘The majority’ of Afghans who worked for the United States during its two decade military campaign were likely left behind in the chaotic and rushed evacuation from Afghanistan.
Even with the right visas, for many, it came down to getting to the airport. Zach Disbrow, a former Army captain had arranged passage on a U.S. military flight for a man and his family who helped his command, said they could not make it to the Kabul airport to catch the flight.
‘There is really no way out,” said Disbrow. ‘We should absolutely celebrate every single human being we got out of Afghanistan as an incredible victory, but the mission’s only halfway over. We’ve still got a moral responsibility to get these people out.”
While the state official said they did not have a specific count of the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants and family members who did not make it onto evacuation flights, he added “but I would say it’s the majority of them, just based on anecdotal information about the populations we were able to support.”
As the Army captain said, we do have a moral responsibility to get these Afghans out before the Taliban hunts them down.