Opinion: We can still salvage honor from debacle in Afghanistan. Let's embrace the refugees

When we speak of our country, we often use words that remind us that it is a shared endeavor.

We speak of our “republic” (from res publica, the “public business”), our “union,” or our “commonwealth.” These terms all invoke the idea that we are in it together to make our government work.

They also imply something that is too often left out of modern political discussions: we not only share in the decision-making, but also bear responsibility for our collective decisions, even when they go wrong. Like with Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a boondoggle that lasted through four presidents of both parties. We are all to blame.

George W. Bush refused to accept the Taliban surrender in 2001. Our reconstruction efforts under Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump lacked strategy and could, as the inspector general reports, be “described as 20 one-year reconstruction efforts.”

Trump then announced that we would leave effectively without conditions, and Joe Biden oversaw the horrifyingly unplanned evacuation.

Throughout, we the American people let it happen.

Since it’s clearly too late to prevent this generation’s Saigon, it is our common responsibility to mitigate the damage. That means helping the people who bought into America’s promise for Afghanistan and put their lives on the line to help us. And helping refugees is a case where we can do well by doing good.

There are certainly economic arguments for bringing refugees into our state. The most obvious is our labor shortage, driven in part by the millions of immigrants who were locked out of the country by COVID-19 restrictions.

There are also new businesses created by refugee entrepreneurs. The people who would work with America in Vietnam or Afghanistan and who had the initiative and skill to make it out of Saigon or Kabul, tend to be the kind of people who can make things happen for themselves and their communities.

If you’ve ever gotten to know refugees, you’ll also know they are some of the most pro-American people in the world. Refugees help us remember the wonders of America by showing them to us again through fresh eyes. While we certainly have real problems and should work to remedy them, our refugees help remind us of all of the things that we take for granted, from food to safety to schools.

And that brings us to a better argument for doing the right thing, another on that long list of things we take for granted about America: our common duty. Accepting refugees allows us to salvage some honor from an enterprise gone bad and is good for us as a society.

Honoring our commitments by helping those who helped us is something that liberals, conservatives, and everyone in between can take pride in. Right now, our country could use a few more points of shared pride.

While we all wish that Saigon had not fallen as it did, it’s hard to deny that adding new Americans from Vietnam improved our communities, gave us neighbors that we would not otherwise have met, and gave us the opportunity to eat phở along with fast food. We likewise wish that Kabul had not fallen as it did, but should welcome the chance to welcome new Americans from Afghanistan to our communities. Former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray led the way; let’s follow in those footsteps.

There are opportunities for each of us to shoulder our responsibilities and help mitigate our collective errors in Afghanistan. Here in Iowa, nonprofits like USCRI Des Moines need resources to settle refugees and help them become independent.

If you are a part of an organization or have sympathetic friends or neighbors, you can also sponsor refugees through the Sponsor Circles program. Through this program, you would help potential future American citizens by doing the legwork of locating housing or jobs. These programs are an impactful and direct way to take up your part of our collective responsibility to our Afghani partners.

Writers’ Group members Kelcey Patrick-Ferree and Shannon Patrick live in Iowa City. And biannual time changes must be abolished.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Opinion: America can still salvage honor from debacle in Afghanistan