There are singular events in history that will haunt people for generations to come. The U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 is one of those moments. The world watched a U.S. Air Force cargo plane take off as several dots were seen dropping from the sky. To the horror of the world, those were not just dots. They were human beings, holding onto the plane out of sheer desperation to escape the violence they would face.
As they fell to their death, so too did the promise of American foreign policy. The promise that the U.S. helps make the world a safer place. The promise that working with Americans would guarantee protection for your family and children.
After 20 years of occupying Afghanistan, the U.S. withdrew their troops in one year. The withdrawal occurred from Feb. 29, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2021, after the Doha agreement was signed between the U.S and the Taliban — an agreement that is widely criticized as a betrayal to the Afghan people. That entire year was despair and fear for many Afghans but the very last month of the withdrawal was beyond comprehension.
From civilians dropping from the skies to mother’s desperately throwing their infants over barbed wire at soldiers while being beaten by the Taliban. Countless tragic stories about families who worked for decades with the U.S. military and were promised a better life in America, only to be be turned away and abandoned, a literal death sentence for some.
Parallels in the dehumanization
The three-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan brings back a flood of emotions for many people, myself included. As an Afghan American who witnessed the tragedy unfold through news reports and phone calls from relatives on the ground, it was really devastating to see how everything transpired.
Adding to the pain, was the inhumane, apathetic response from our leadership in the U.S. There was also a great deal of racism, hate, and ignorance spread around the media, making light of a developing tragedy. It is a constant reminder that people from war zones are systematically dehumanized by our media, our leadership, and even some members of our community to such a great extent that it allows us to see their deaths, their suffering, and their tragedy as a form of entertainment. It severs our emotional capacity toward other human beings, enabling us to isolate, alienate and otherize entire communities.
Those who have experienced forced migration are in a unique camp because they are forced to deal with a particularly difficult set of challenges, often feeling rejected by both the communities they left behind and the new communities they enter into. No one understands this struggle more than the Vietnamese and Afghan Americans.
Vietnam and Afghanistan have both been regarded as hostile nations to the U.S. historically, each one dehumanized and vilified by the Western media, with locals broadly painted as barbaric, violent, and uncivilized while their respective immigrant population living in the U.S. have been portrayed as deceitful, untrustworthy, and anti-American.
Building solidarity
Despite all of the challenges the people of Vietnam and Afghanistan have faced and despite the widespread dehumanization these two communities have experienced, they did not let all the darkness dim the light of their humanity.
After the withdrawal, an influx of Afghan refugees were relocated to the U.S., many of whom carried nothing with them but severe trauma, fear, and uncertainty. They needed support. They needed humanity. They needed empathy. They got all of that and more from members of the Vietnamese American community who embraced them with open arms and worked tirelessly by sponsoring refugee families in need, fundraising to help refugee resettlement, offering vacant property for resettlement programs, and working on immigration cases for families.
A benefit concert was held by Vietnamese and Afghan artists that was titled “United with Love” and the sole purpose was to raise money to support Afghan refugees. But perhaps the greatest support that members of the Vietnamese American community have given to the Afghan people is their unwavering solidarity and a sense of obligation in helping those who they see as mirror images of themselves.
To the Vietnamese American community: Thank you for your solidarity. Thank you for your humanity. Thank you for being a pillar of resilience that gives the rest of us hope.
