On Tuesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) reacted to a report by the network on the slow pace of evacuating Afghan allies by stating that “It’s bureaucracy that’s killing people, that’s putting their lives at risk,” and blasting the suspension of flights of SIV holders for the World Cup.
Moulton began the discussion by criticizing the removal of the language extending the SIV program from the National Defense Authorization Act as a “betrayal, not only of our Afghan allies, but of our own troops, of our troops, like myself, who made that promise that if you come and work for us, if you put your life on the line for America, we will have your back. And so, when Sen. Grassley (R-IA) and folks like him who have no idea what it means to be in a combat zone, to have your life at risk and to put your life in the hands of someone else, they have no idea what that means, they’re not only breaking the promise that our troops made, they’re making it much more difficult for future troops in future conflicts to have that promise accepted by allies that we need. They’re risking lives, not just Afghan lives, but American lives, by this anti-immigrant, frankly, outright racist approach to this problem.”
After co-host Jim Sciutto asked about his report that evacuating SIV holders will take four years at the State Department’s current pace, Moulton stated, “Four years means four years for the Taliban to hunt down these Afghan and American heroes and kill them before they get to the United States. And the State Department, unbelievably, stopped flights a few weeks ago. Why? For the World Cup. Where are our priorities? Where is our moral compass, Jim? We have to do better.”
He added, “I can tell you that there are veterans on both sides of the aisle who are pushing the administration and have been pushing the administration and will continue pushing the administration because ultimately, the delays that you described [are] just bureaucracy. It’s bureaucracy that’s killing people, that’s putting their lives at risk, and ultimately, there are Afghans who just won’t make it here because we couldn’t get the damn paperwork done in time.”
Moulton concluded, “And right now, veterans feel like they are betraying our Afghan allies because we, we veterans, are being betrayed by our own government.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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