The Promises the Afghanistan War Left Behind — The Diplomat

U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, load passengers aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), Afghanistan, Aug. 24, 2021. “It felt almost like you were playing God with their life at that moment,” recalled Joe Laude, executive director of the Operation Allies Refuge Foundation (OAR), reflecting on the final days of the U.S. evacuation from Kabul. A Marine machine-gunner with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines who served at Abbey Gate during the evacuation in August 2021, Laude witnessed firsthand the impossible choices facing Americans as approximately 123,000 people were evacuated and thousands of Afghans sought a way out. Every decision – to let someone through the gate, to turn someone away – carried life-altering consequences. When the last U.S. aircraft departed Kabul on August 30, 2021, those decisions lingered. For people like Laude, the uncertainties remained: Who could he have helped? Who was left behind? And what did it mean to feel responsible for people he could not protect? Psychologists describe these experiences as moral injury, the psychological and ethical harm that occurs when individuals witness, participate in, or are unable to prevent actions that violate their deeply held moral beliefs and values. In the aftermath of the United…