'Hungry, thirsty, tired and scared' – one man's story of fleeing Kabul

+ policymakers' flawed thinking on Afghanistan; mask mandates and local control US Edition - Today's top story: An Afghan American scholar describes his fear-filled journey from the chaos at Kabul airport to a plane bound for home in the US [View in browser]( US Edition | 19 August 2021 [The Conversation]( This week, an email from Kabul turned into a story. One of the editors on the politics desk, Catesby Holmes, sent a message to an Afghan scholar, Hanif Sufizada, who lives in the U.S. and with whom we’ve worked in the past. She asked Sufizada if he was OK, because we understood that he had been visiting Afghanistan. We heard back from him on Tuesday night that he wasn’t, with details of his increasingly desperate attempts to be evacuated from the Kabul airport and home to Omaha, Nebraska. I read his account – describing hours of begging American officials for help, and feeling “hungry, thirsty, tired and scared” – and was of course concerned about his welfare. I also had a journalist’s response to it: Could we turn this into a story? A first-person dispatch about the conditions at the Hamid Karzai International Airport and the desperation felt by one of the thousands of people trying to flee the Taliban would surely help advance readers’ understanding of what was going on in Afghanistan. I then read it to my husband, who is a hard-nosed news guy who doesn’t get visibly excited, and he got visibly excited. Fortified by his judgment that I was neither crazy nor being exploitive, I sent emails to editors above me and we had a back-and-forth to discuss whether publishing this was appropriate for us, because we normally publish scholarly analyses from scholars – not their emails. We decided that there was ample justification to publish. I wrote to Sufizada, who was in flight and in fear for his survival, somewhere between Kabul, the airport, an airplane out of the country, Qatar and the U.S. I asked him for his permission to publish the dispatch. I was clear: depending on what he decided, “I will either (a) leave you alone or (b) start preparing your piece for publication.” To my relief as a human being, he wrote back the next morning that he had finally gotten out of Afghanistan and was in Qatar. To my gratification as a journalist, he said we could use his dispatch. He's not yet home: He’s still awaiting passage out of Qatar and, as one of my friends said, “Never did Omaha look this good.” I’m sure Omaha’s beautiful, [and we have Sufizada’s story – and the photos he sent us –]( so you can understand what it took for him to get just one-third of the way home. Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Society The author was in this crowd, finally boarding a plane to leave Kabul. Photo: Hanif Sufizada [An Afghan American scholar describes his fear-filled journey from the chaos at Kabul airport to a plane bound for home in the US]( Hanif Sufizada, University of Nebraska Omaha Hanif Sufizada got caught in Kabul as the Taliban took over. A scholar and resident of the US who works at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Sufizada describes his experience trying to leave. Thousands of Afghans rushed to Kabul’s airport trying to flee the country as the Taliban seized power. Wakil Kohsar / AFP via Getty Images [America’s moral responsibility for the tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan]( Michael Blake, University of Washington A political philosopher argues why the current situation in Afghanistan should weigh heavily on the American conscience. Forced from their homes by fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces, thousands of families seek refuge in a Kabul park. Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images [Afghans’ lives and livelihoods upended even more as US occupation ends]( Abdulkader Sinno, Indiana University When the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghans had endured 22 years of war. The Taliban were on the rise. Little has changed after an additional 20 years of war and suffering. - [Afghanistan only the latest US war to be driven by deceit and delusion]( Gordon Adams, American University School of International Service Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US Afghanistan pullout is not a repeat of failures in other recent wars. “This is not Saigon,” he said. A seasoned foreign policy expert disagrees. - [Why did a military superpower fail in Afghanistan?]( Arie Perliger, University of Massachusetts Lowell It may be attractive to think that promoting democracy in occupied foreign countries is an appropriate moral and effective path for restoring security and stability. But it’s not accurate. - [Who has the power to say kids do or don’t have to wear masks in school – the governor or the school district? It’s not clear]( Jennifer Selin, University of Missouri-Columbia If it sounds like the law is all over the place on school mask mandates, that’s because it is. The nation’s schools are subject to a complex web of local, state and federal laws. - [Afghan government collapses, Taliban seize control: 5 essential reads]( Catesby Holmes, The Conversation The Taliban ‘expect a complete handover of power.’ Experts explain who the Taliban are, what life is like under their rule and how the US may bear responsibility for Afghanistan’s collapse. - [The US is taking a bite out of its food insecurity – here’s one way to scrap the problem altogether]( Craig Gundersen, Baylor University An economist explains what it would cost to give SNAP benefits to all Americans in households earning up to about $100,000 per year – and why it would be worth it. [The Conversation]( You’re receiving this newsletter from [The Conversation]( [Forward to a friend]( • [Unsubscribe](