American left a mess over in Afghanistan. The chaos on the ground is reportedly incredible. We must pray for these dear people—those fellow Americans, fellow Afghanistan Christians, and Afghan allies. Dads, moms, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts—people just like you and me.
Editor’s Notes: The following update on Christians in Afghanistan comes from a report from Jim Geraghty a senior political correspondent of National Review. He reports on Jean Marie Thrower and others whose groups are currently volunteering in Afghanistan. Thrower is a former U.S. Army’s 82 Airborne Division transportation officer, who left her job to work with the Afghan Rescue Crew (ARC), a private group of U.S. veterans and civilians volunteering to save as many left behind Americans and vetted Afghans as possible. My notes are in italics below, the rest is from Geraghty.
Update on Christians in Afghanistan—Geraghty Writes:
The good news for ARC is that they have so far rescued “hundreds” and transported them to third countries safely. The bad news is that the organization says that it has a list of thousands of at-risk Afghan allies still in its system. Thrower disputes the U.S. State Department’s characterization of about 100 Americans being left on the ground; she said that as of a few days ago, the figure her group had was closer to 1,000 — although she noted that every group making a rescue effort has its own list, potentially leading to overlap with one another in certain cases. The 1,000 figure may include U.S. green-card holders, too, which the State Department is putting in a separate category. The Taliban continues to call people to tell them they are coming for them. My guess is to both keep them in fear and hoping they will make a mistake while they systematically go about searching for and finding them. Thrower said that her organization has moved a certain number of endangered Afghans to safe houses, and is essentially telling them to stay in place until further notice. “But they’re running out of food and water. They’re afraid to leave the house for the past ten, twelve days. But the cost — the cost is, for some of our groups, $10,000 to $15,000 a week. We have people in our organization paying, and I’m sending them money through Western Union. If I don’t give them money, they won’t be able to stay in this hotel for another week.”
Conditions on the Ground
Thrower reports that her organization has “people who are going missing and getting killed every day.” Her group hears accounts from Afghans who made it out, as well as the horrifying accounts they’re told by those who were left behind.
She describes the case of an American child whose Afghan uncle was recently killed by the Taliban. “We have had people shot, beheaded. They’re taking the kids. If you’re on the run, and they find your family, they’ll hurt your family and put the word out in the neighborhood that ‘we’ve got your brother or son or daughter.’ They cut off the heads of two boys that were nine and ten.”
