While Joe Biden is no longer in office, the fallout from his Afghanistan failure continues to endanger the United States and the world. President Donald Trump has taken decisive action to address that threat, even as liberals denounce his efforts.
According to a recent report published by Etilaatroz, a respected Afghan newspaper that moved its offices to Washington, D.C. following the United States’ chaotic withdrawal in 2021, more than 17,000 jihadi schools have opened in the country over the past four years, enrolling some 330,000 students. The Taliban have financed this project – effectively a nationwide brainwashing campaign – with foreign aid, including funds from the World Food Program and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Mohammed Mohaq, a religious scholar who served as a member of the curriculum board of the Afghan Ministry of Education from 2006-2007 when the government was under U.S. rule, has warned that the Taliban is aiming to transform Afghanistan into an “ideological military garrison.” He specifically noted that Taliban schools are training mullahs and military fighters to threaten neighboring countries and wage a global jihad.
While this development has created cause for concern throughout the West, it has also highlighted the threat from Afghan jihadists who have already infiltrated the United States and much of Western Europe. As the United States and its allies accepted refugees who legitimately feared for their lives with the Taliban back in charge, lax vetting procedures allowed extremists to slip in amongst the evacuees.
Last October, for instance, the FBI announced the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old Afghan national residing in Oklahoma City who had reportedly obtained firearms and ammunition with the intention of conducting a terrorist attack on Election Day in the name of ISIS. Tawhedi entered the United States in September 2021 as a supposed “refugee.”
In Germany earlier this year, another Afghan asylum-seeker stabbed and killed two people in a public park, including a two-year-old child. Just weeks later, another Afghan asylum-seeker rammed his car into a crowd of people in an apparent terror attack, wounding 30. Last year in France, yet another Afghan refugee stabbed a 15-year-old boy to death.
To be sure, many of those who fled the Taliban in 2021, particularly those who fought alongside the United States and served as translators, were deserving of asylum in the U.S. and elsewhere. But conservative warnings that those migrants were not properly vetted have now proven prescient.
In total, between August 2021 and August 2024, nearly 150,000 Afghan migrants resettled in the United States. 90 percent of them were admitted via humanitarian parole, which grants them temporary legal status, protects them against deportation, and allows them to work but does not provide a path to citizenship.
Then, in 2023, the Biden administration launched Operation Enduring Welcome, a new policy offering many Afghans “a direct pathway to permanent legal status in the U.S.” This program was estimated to cost $2 billion this year, including housing, education, and healthcare for covered individuals.
Along with raising legitimate concerns about inviting in Islamic extremists, critics of Biden’s approach noted the glaring conflict between Islamic culture and Judeo-Christian values upon which the United States was founded. According to Pew Research, which surveyed Muslims in 39 countries, 99 percent of Muslims in Afghanistan favor making Sharia the official law in their country. Even more alarmingly, 39 percent said suicide bombings are “often/sometimes justified.” 61 percent of Afghan Muslims also said it would be justified to impose Muslim laws on non-Muslims.
Seemingly confirming these findings, last year in Australia reports surfaced that Senator Fatima Payman, who emigrated from Afghanistan as a girl, had left the Labor Party with the intention of forming an Islamic political movement.
“Refugees who wish to enforce strict Sharia law may challenge social cohesion,” former Palestinian lawyer Dr. Amjad Younis told me in an interview. Younis currently resides in France and has converted to Catholicism. “Some Islamic preachers claim that their law takes precedence over the Constitution or any other national law.”
“The echo of this can be found in the wave of terrorist attacks in Germany, which believed it could alter these convictions,” Dr. Younis added. “Only the true God can reach these depths; man alone cannot.”
In response to the mounting threat from Islamic extremism, the Trump administration announced earlier this month that it will soon end temporary protected status for more than 10,000 Afghan migrants, requiring them to leave the United States. Those who served alongside the U.S. military will still have an avenue to remain in the country.
“The U.S. strived to help these unfortunate people, but good intentions lacked a solid foundation,” retired economist and sociologist Wolfgang Fliesbach, who advised high-ranking German politicians during the late 1980s, told me. “I did not see an assessment of the financial or national security burden that was present when they were admitted,” he added.
Balancing the moral imperative to provide safe haven to the truly persecuted with the practical necessity of protecting national security is one of the most difficult tasks any government faces. Refugee programs undoubtedly have a place in American policy, particularly for allies who stood with the U.S. in times of war. But when humanitarian instincts override common sense, or when ideology clouds judgment, the results can be deadly.
The unfortunate truth is that even a small number of extremists slipping through the cracks can wreak havoc on a free society. A government’s first and most sacred duty is to safeguard its citizens. President Trump’s more cautious, security-first approach reflects that reality – and it’s a course correction long overdue.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
Must that pulverized straw be trashed over and over, we know that going to Afganistan without having a resolve to wring Taliban’s neck was futile, army was not allowed to fight the enemy, because it was hiding amongst civilians , no uniforms or insignia. They were there to make friends, their superiors consorting with “elders” only to be ambushed later, Bin Laden progeny galivanting around the world shopping on Bond street and Ginza. Someone made a tidy profit I am sure, it was nor the soldier. 20 years of money down the drain and not one person in charge charged with the debacle of the century, not one fat cat court marshaled or held responsible for sending men in with their hands tied only to come back maimed or in coffin. Shame. But then there was Vietnam and Korea.
biden destroyed everything he touched.
Joebama, Austin and Milley (sp?) have blood on their INCOMPETENT hands, and Bozo Joe insulted the Gold Star families by checking his watch as the caskets of our fallen were being transferred. Was it past his nappy or ice cream time? Military equipment worth billions fell into terrorist hands. LEST WE FORGET….
And how much terror was financed using the billions in military equipment we left behind, without disabling it because there was no time!! Really would like to know who else besides Lloyd Austin was responsible for all the mistakes made. Names made public and they should be held accountable!!!!
Scary stuff ???? God help us ????
Wow Biden really screw things up! Must be his inner greed! Must been paid off!
When people fight for independence it teaches principle and the ultimate sacrifice. This lesson cannot be instilled to others when it costs them nothing. Our well intentions have proven time and again that until the oppressed rise up themselves our involvement has little or no meaning. It took a Declaration of Independence for this country and the willingness to die for it before France allied with America, and not the other way around. In the case of Afghanistan, it was a debacle and it cost everyone involved dearly. Is it any wonder that the factions were so easy to move back in?
All this misery brought on the west and why? Because of the United States forever-warring across the globe. We spent well over a trillion dollars and some 20 years screwing goats and shooting civilians in Afghanistan before we tapped out. Yes, we left clumsily under Biden but had serious plans on leaving when President Trump was in his first term. We never should have been there in the first place and to this day I cannot find a politician that can tell me why the heck we were there in the first place. Some mumblings are sometimes half heartedly given regarding 9/11…..but that was a Saudi national who simply may or may not have spent time in Afghanistan. Strangely he was killed in Pakistan…….a proxy of ours similar to Ukraine and being now used as Ukraine was in a conflict with India in some weird method of forcing India to buy our obsolete crap military equipment the Russians have proven to be worthless.
Time to stay home, fix the roads and bridges. Modernize airports, fix the rails the trains fall off of weekly. CLEAN UP THE CITIES and for goodness sake, get rid of the illegals and stop just talking about doing so.
If one reviews the history of Afghanistan, you will find that no one has fared well in fighting the Afghan people.
Because the Democratic Party couldn’t care less what they destroy or who they rape or murder, as long as they vote Democrat.
This has got to be the most crazy nonsensical string of comments i’ve ever seen.
Trump also planned on pulling out of Afghanistan, but I am positive that he would have done a lot better and smooth exit than Biden. Trump needs to take a different stance on the people that fled to the US at that time, as they were allies of USA & they should be vetted & allowed to stay in USA if they are good people.
Another great accomplish by the U.S. government. Well done Washington.
I agree that Biden bungled the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021. But to call it “Biden’s Afghanistan failure” is ridiculous. Trump brokered the deal with the Taliban in 2020 to leave Afghanistan. Trump also reduced U.S. troop levels and allowed the Taliban to bring al-Qaeda terrorists into their leadership. So blame Trump for Afghanistan becoming a “terrorist hotspot.” Vetting refugees, yes. But to ask them all to “self-deport” is slap in the face to U.S. military members who depended on many of these people to stay alive.