How much more absurd could it be to find the US robbing Afghanistan?

Is the seriousness of a crime lessened if it is publicly announced? This question is being asked following the decision of the US President Joe Biden to defreeze Afghan financial assets worth seven billion dollars in US banks and divert half of these—3.5 billion dollars—to help 9/11 attack victims.

For the record, the US spends 250 billion dollars a year on liquor and 778 billion dollars a year on military expenditure.

While everyone sympathises with victims of the 9/11 attack on America, but surely this should be done using USA’s own resources, at least till such time that definite involvement and responsibility of a foreign government is fully established.

For the record, 15 of the 20 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and none from Afghanistan. There is no firm evidence yet that the Taliban government then in power in Afghanistan had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attack, let alone evidence of their complicity. The only justification for the unusual decision appears to be the then Taliban Government hosting Osama Bin Laden and its apparent refusal to hand him over to the US.

But then the US did extract a heavy enough price by ousting the Taliban, bombing and ravaging the country over the next 20 years.

The US is by far the world’s biggest economy. So where is the need to steal 3.5 billion dollars from the poorest country faced with a serious humanitarian crisis and after a 20-year war on terror imposed on it?

During the last two decades the US spent 5,800 billion dollars on its so-called, deeply flawed anti-terror wars, 2,300 billion dollars in Afghanistan alone. There was no reason or urgency, therefore, for the US President to confiscate wealth that rightfully belongs to the people of Afghanistan.

The seriousness of the US crime increases further because Afghanistan faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis today, confirmed by UN agencies and other humanitarian agencies. Due to serious food and medical care shortages, lives of as many as a million Afghan children are threatened. Hunger stalks nearly two thirds of the population.

What is more, it is the ill-planned and hasty withdrawal of the US and allied forces last year which partly contributed to this crisis (this is not to draw attention away from the serious flaws of the Taliban regime which too is responsible for many of the problems the country faces).

The US government has argued that it has saved the other half of the assets for humanitarian relief in Afghanistan. However how useful this proves will depend on how quickly this is released and how fast this reaches the needy.

It is still not too late for the US President to withdraw his widely condemned and arbitrary decision and hand over the entire seven billion dollars to those most experienced in providing unbiased relief in Afghan conditions, with built-in systems of transparency and accountability to ensure that the funds are used in the best way possible to help the Afghan people.

There should be greater urgency in ensuring that funds, food supply and medical help reach Afghanistan as early as possible. It is truly a matter of life and death. Already there has been much delay and any further dalay will prove very costly in terms of the loss of human lives.

(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include ‘Man Over Machine—The Path to Peace’ and ‘Protecting Earth for Children’)

(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday)