The shameful and chaotic retreat of Western forces from Kabul, which currently appeared as a real escape, is causing, as it was predictable even to the uninitiated, real human dramas.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of Afghans and military personnel who have collaborated with our troops in the country over the last twenty years have been cut off by the evacuation carried out in forced stages and under blackmail by the Taliban.
Our Afghan collaborators live in fear and are hunted by the Taliban under the orders of the terrorist Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and on whom hangs a bounty of 5 million dollars; they change their hiding place every day for fear of being identified and taken at arms.
Some, we learned, were already on boarding lists. But after two days of waiting in the human crush, the last Italian plane took off without them.
Our soldiers had done everything possible, indeed certainly more than possible, but the cowardly international policy, supine to Taliban blackmail, did not allow them to save everyone without leaving anyone behind.
We have left at the mercy of the cutthroats people who had trusted Italy and who, out of gratitude, Italy, but also the other defeated nations, has abandoned in a circle of hell from which they must, to save honor and dignity, remove them as soon as possible.
It is said that evacuation plans are being studied and that there would be coordination between Defense and Foreign Affairs, but nine days have already passed since the withdrawal and we can no longer wait.
If you have any idea how to act, Foreign Minister Di Maio and Defense Minister Guerini, act. People are dying in Afghanistan.
Minister Di Maio, during your hearing before the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committees you said “the fragility of Afghan institutions is there for all to see, but in these 20 years we have contributed to maintaining regional stability, fighting terrorism, promoting more education, rights and freedom for the Afghan people”. It is this realization that spurs us to do all we can to ensure that those rights are not now brutally erased. We owe it above all to the Afghan men and women, and to the many Italians – diplomats, military personnel, civil society workers – who have worked tirelessly and even sacrificed their lives to offer a better future to Afghanistan. To them goes our remembrance and gratitude.”
Minister Di Maio, the new Afghan Minister of the Interior, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is an international terrorist on whom hangs a bounty of 5 million dollars, remembrance and gratitude are words, the facts are others.
Get them out of that hell where we left them.
Michele Santoro