A bookend and a beginning
I was a reporter in Kabul in 2009 and 2010, and the 11 years that have passed leave me unqualified to provide analysis on the situation aside from a very brief comment on what I believe the Taliban’s takeover means for us all, here at home, now.
I was disappointed in the Biden Administration’s apparent lack of preparedness in evacuating refugees, but in fairness, the evacuation process now seems to be back on track. I hope tens of thousands of Afghans reach our shores in the coming months, and for reasons other than simply our obligation to provide these people a safe home. A new wave of immigrants into the United States could come at just the time we need them. The Census last week found that our under-18 population shrank during the last decade. That’s a remarkable finding. To support economic expansion, basic math tells us we need more people. I hope the events of the last few months will force folks to mute racist commentators on the Fox News Channel and instead welcome refugees from Afghanistan and Central America — if not because welcoming migrants is a part of our most sacred traditions and core American values, then simply for economic reasons.
The Kauffman Foundation finds that immigrants in the U.S. are twice as likely to become entrepreneurs as native-born American citizens. A spike in immigrant entrepreneurship in the 2000s began a few years after a spike in new refugee settlements in the 1990s. A possible explanation for all of this? A willingness to embrace risk that immigrants demonstrated in coming to the United States in the first place.
My view is that the pullout from Afghanistan will mark a turning point in American history unlike any we’ve seen in our lives. I can’t tell you how the history books will view President Biden’s decision, but I can tell you how the American people view the decision, if public opinion surveys are to be believed. And instead of trying to mold public opinion to fit our views, we should take this opportunity to listen more to the opinions of folks who never climbed to the top of a meritocracy. It seems plain to me that a bunch of our neighbors who questioned the wisdom of spending trillions of dollars on the post-9/11 wars — dismissed by many in DC as unserious — are a real source of insight as we struggle to make sense of what has happened in Afghanistan.
As a young man I found purpose after Sept. 11, 2001, enlisted in the military after college, and served in Iraq. Recently I’ve struggled with the legacy of the post-9/11 generation, with the 20-year anniversary weeks away. The “War on Terror” is now seen as a moral obscenity to some, a failure to most.
Yet I hope those entering the workforce appreciate this moment in history and do better. As we turn inward, we might soon be spending several trillion dollars rebuilding our infrastructure and social safety net, advancing our R&D base, confronting climate change, and building a more equitable society for women and Black Americans. We could also be sending billions of vaccines across the world to end this pandemic, demonstrating American strength in the same way we did with the Marshall Plan and PEPFAR.
I hope this last week and Sept. 11, 2021, bookends a time in our lives where we made a bunch of mistakes, but through those mistakes, gained clarity.
