RASC News Agency: Retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who previously commanded U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has sharply criticized former President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Afghanistani refugees, calling the move “deeply disappointing” and damaging to America’s credibility among its global partners. In a recent televised interview, General McChrystal stated, “I personally disagree with this decision. It sends a troubling message to those whom we hope to stand beside us in the future.” He emphasized that many of these Afghanistani refugees had served alongside U.S. and allied forces during the two-decade conflict, risking their lives in the fight against extremism. “We owe them more than abandonment,” he added.
McChrystal, who led the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. troops in Afghanistan during a pivotal phase of the war in 2009, underscored the strategic and moral consequences of turning away those who had trusted and supported the United States. “Our national character should be bigger than this,” he said. “We can and must be better.” His remarks come in the wake of an announcement last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), confirming that TPS protections for Afghanistani nationals many of whom fled the country following the collapse of the previous government in August 2021 would expire on July 12. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem justified the decision by claiming there had been “security improvements” in Afghanistan and cited concerns about potential fraud and security risks within the TPS-eligible population.
However, critics have forcefully rejected those justifications, describing them as detached from reality. Shawn VanDiver, president of an American NGO advocating for Afghanistani refugees, responded bluntly: “To say the security situation in Afghanistan has improved is nothing short of madness. These are people who stood by our side. Deporting them now is an act of betrayal.” The TPS program, initially introduced under President Joe Biden’s administration, aimed to shield thousands of Afghanistani refugees from deportation, particularly those who had assisted U.S. operations during the war or faced credible threats under the Taliban regime. That threat, human rights organizations argue, has only worsened since the Taliban’s return to power.
Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan has transformed into a dystopia marked by ethnic cleansing, gender apartheid, intellectual repression, and religious extremism. Ethnic minorities, particularly Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks, have been systematically marginalized and persecuted. Meanwhile, women and girls have been stripped of their rights to education, work, and public life. Former allies of the U.S. are being hunted, detained, or executed. The idea that such individuals could safely return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is, according to observers, not only unrealistic but inhumane. Human rights groups and refugee advocates have urged the Biden administration to immediately intervene and extend the TPS protections, warning that deporting Afghanistani refugees would not only endanger lives but undermine America’s moral standing and national security interests.
In a time when the Taliban continue to dismantle the social fabric of Afghanistan and erase entire communities from public life, America’s treatment of those who once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with its troops is a litmus test of its values. As General McChrystal’s words underscore, the stakes are far greater than immigration policy they touch the very core of trust, loyalty, and justice on the global stage.
