{"id":205328,"date":"2022-02-21T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=205328"},"modified":"2022-02-17T03:38:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T03:38:59","slug":"why-is-the-white-house-stealing-7bn-from-afghans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/02\/why-is-the-white-house-stealing-7bn-from-afghans\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is the White House Stealing $7bn from Afghans?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To take Afghan money to pay grieving Americans in order to punish the Taliban is nothing less than larceny as collective punishment.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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16 Feb 2022 – <\/em>L<\/span><\/span>ast week, the White House issued an executive order<\/a> announcing the theft of some $7bn. Shocking, to be sure. But more shocking still was when that same executive order also identified the thief: the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a move that can only be described as brazenly immoral and utterly unconscionable, the Biden administration has begun a process to seize the more than $7bn of assets that the Central Bank of Afghanistan<\/a> has on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Since the Taliban gained control of the war-ravaged country last year, that money has been frozen in place. Now, the administration has concocted its own mega-grift, planning to spend half of the money \u2013 not their money, lest we forget \u2013 for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, while reserving the other half of the funds \u2013 not their money \u2013 for the relatives of the September 11 victims who have brought claims against the Taliban for the 2001 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Did I mention that this is not their money?<\/p>\n

These funds belong to the people of Afghanistan and must remain with the people of Afghanistan. The fact that this must even be stated is mind boggling. There are ethical and practical reasons why Biden\u2019s plan must be abandoned.<\/p>\n

First, why must ordinary Afghan citizens who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks have their savings confiscated and their lives immiserated by bureaucrats in Washington? (Reports indicate<\/a> that the Afghan assets in the Central Bank are composed of foreign exchange funds, the reserves of Afghanistan\u2019s commercial banks, and ordinary people\u2019s savings.) Without rehashing the story of how the Taliban came into existence in the first place, we can all agree that no one voted the Taliban into power in 1996. Why should the people of Afghanistan be held responsible for that group\u2019s actions? Nor did any of the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks come from Afghanistan. The truth is that the Afghan people have overwhelmingly been the victims of the Taliban and of al-Qaida, and to take Afghan money to pay grieving Americans in order to punish the Taliban is nothing less than larceny as collective punishment.<\/p>\n

And why does this kind of first-world financial hostage taking only move in one direction? After all, don\u2019t the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UK and many other states also bear significant responsibility for the thousands upon thousands of civilian deaths<\/a> in Afghanistan? The money allied forces occasionally offer in condolence payments<\/a> is peanuts relative to the destruction they have caused. Once we conclude that the September 11 families deserve justice for their losses, which they do, then shouldn\u2019t we also look for redress for the Afghan victims of allied violence?<\/p>\n

And yet, the idea that Afghans could seek legal means to abscond with the US Treasury due to the death of their people and the US role in the destruction of their country is laughable. This painful asymmetry illustrates the enduring colonial nature of international politics. Whatever legal wrangling about lawsuits and default judgments that this executive order is ostensibly meant to address, the message it sends is clear: American lives matter more than Afghan lives, and American tragedy looms larger than Afghan pain.<\/p>\n

But that pain is ongoing. From a Soviet invasion that thrust ordinary people into the middle of one of the hottest zones of the cold war, Afghanistan has endured 40 years of devastating turmoil, starting with the United States and the Soviet Union conscripting Afghans into their global conflict. (We\u2019re approaching the 40th anniversary of Ronald Reagan proclaiming 21 March 1982 as Afghanistan Day<\/a>.) Then, after 9\/11, Afghans were soon subject to systematic torture at the hands of Americans at Bagram airbase<\/a>, merciless American drone attacks<\/a>, murderous night raids<\/a> and so much more.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Taliban also bear enormous responsibility for their extraordinary violence and brutal repression, and helping them rebuild their power would be disastrous. But stealing the money of Afghanistan and distributing it as you see fit hardly furthers the interests of justice. It\u2019s simply shocking that anyone, let alone the US government, thinks that it could.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, the people of Afghanistan are currently facing an economic collapse that is gargantuan in scope. A prolonged drought, the ravages of the pandemic, and the freezing of western aid since the Taliban seized power last year has left the country in shambles. At least 95% of households<\/a> in the country are not consuming enough food to sustain themselves. One million Afghan children face acute hunger. Over three million suffer from malnutrition. Almost three-quarters of a million people were displaced from their homes from last year\u2019s fighting, in a country where four million people had already been internally displaced<\/a>.<\/p>\n