The United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and suspension of aid to the country sent ripples across the globe that are still making impacts today. The situation is “verging on humanitarian catastrophe,” Washington Post Foreign Affairs Columnist David Ignatius told Jim Braude on Greater Boston.
President Joe Biden cut off foreign aid to Afghanistan and froze billions in foreign reserves for the Afghan government after the U.S withdrew.
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“The Taliban is not making it easy for the world to help Afghanistan, but I think there have got to be ways to get aid to the country without the Taliban’s hands on it so that the level of starvation, suffering, just the human cost through this winter is reduced as much as possible,” Ignatius said.
Afghans who risked their lives to work with the United States on a failed goal of defeating the Taliban have been largely abandoned, with flights out of the country very limited, said Ignatius.
“The idea of just abandoning it now, to its fate, I think strikes a lot of people as wrong. It certainly strikes me as wrong. So I hope people will be creative as they can in finding ways to get money to people who are suffering and need it,” Ignatius said.
Watch: America’s impact on foreign affairs
