U.S. military veterans who served in Afghanistan and trained local partners on the ground are calling on President Joe Biden in a new letter to speedily evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters and other allies from the region as they continue to face the threat of revenge attacks from the Taliban.

What You Need To Know

  • U.S. veterans who served in Afghanistan are calling on President Joe Biden in a new letter to speedily evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters from the country

  • The group of more than 50 veterans includes retired Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, and all are former members of the AFPAK Hands program, an effort to train local partners on the ground

  • The White House confirmed it has authorized an evacuation but that the details are still in the planning stages, and the timeline and scope of the evacuation are still unclear

  • Advocates and veterans gathered in a rally outside the White House Thursday to call for more details and highlight what they say is an urgent need to bring Afghan allies to safety

The letter, which was published Thursday, includes the signatures of retired Generals David Petraeus, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Stanley McChrystal, former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command.

“We frequently worked, lived, ate, and fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghan counterparts,” the group of more than 50 veterans writes in the letter, which was first reviewed by Spectrum News. “None of that would have been possible without Afghan interpreters at our sides.”

All of the men and women who signed the letter served in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (AFPAK) Hands program, in which they served as advisers to senior Afghan officials on the ground after training in local culture, language and special tactics. 

The program, which was founded with the help of Petraeus and McChrystal, ended in 2020. 

As the U.S. military continues to withdraw from Afghanistan ahead of Biden’s deadline of September 11, veterans, advocates and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for the evacuation of interpreters and other Afghan allies amid increasing threats from the Taliban. 

“We respectfully join the call for the U.S. to accelerate emergency action to protect the nearly 18,000 Afghan interpreters —and their immediate families — who took enormous personal risks to support our mission and troops,” the letter reads. 

On Thursday, advocacy groups and veterans held a rally outside the White House to call for answers about what the evacuation of Afghan allies will look like and to highlight the need for urgency.

The White House has confirmed that an evacuation is in the works, but administration officials have said the details are still in the “planning stages.”

“I have not seen a plan yet. Nobody, to my knowledge, on Capitol Hill has seen a plan,” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., told CNN Thursday morning. “I need an assurance from the White House that, no matter how long it takes, we’ll see the mission through.”

Meanwhile, advocates who spoke outside the White House Thursday said that an evacuation is more pressing than ever, as more U.S. soldiers leave and the Taliban gains local control.

“There is no more time,” said Kim Staffieri, the co-founder and executive director of the Association of Wartime Allies, voicing the concerns of interpreters who say they fear for their lives.

“Once the U.S. is gone in one month, you'll never hear from me again,” one man told her. “Because I'll be gone.”

 

There are more than 18,000 Afghans who have applied for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) to seek safety in the U.S., according to the State Department, but the processing of their visas often takes years. An evacuation would allow the U.S. to finish processing the SIVs while applicants wait in a third country or U.S. territory like Guam.