On Monday, Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance disgracefully said that the United States should deprioritize the evacuation of Afghans who assisted the United States in Afghanistan.
In a video posted to Twitter, Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, ranted about how the U.S. needed to focus on Americans first. His implication: The U.S. should not simultaneously evacuate Americans and our Afghan allies, and, presumably, that U.S. military flights should leave half empty.
Here is my message to Ben Sasse and other establishment Republicans who seem to care more about bringing 30,000 unvetted Afghan refugees into our country than getting our own people out safely. pic.twitter.com/PSfoc2swdC
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) August 23, 2021
Vance is wrong.
The U.S. can and should be doing what it is now doing: simultaneously rescuing both Americans and the Afghan translators and others that helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan. There is no moral excuse nor logical reason why we should hold up the evacuation of our Afghan allies until all Americans are evacuated. Time is of the essence with the Taliban in charge of Afghanistan and an Aug. 31 evacuation deadline looming. To be derelict in this evacuation duty would be un-American and immoral.
It also bears noting that many of the Afghans who have assisted U.S. forces have already been vetted. The Special Immigrant Visas that these Afghans received require them to go through another thorough vetting process. For those who haven’t been fully vetted, this will be completed in a safe environment, such as a U.S. military base.
Vance disregards the fact that there is a difference between Afghan refugees who helped the U.S. in Afghanistan and Afghan refugees who didn’t. The former should be welcomed with open arms, while the question of what to do about the latter is a fair discussion.
Jackson Richman is a journalist in Washington, D.C. Follow him @jacksonrichman.
