{"id":28410,"date":"2012-01-22T05:29:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T09:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=28410"},"modified":"2012-01-22T05:29:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T09:29:32","slug":"those-in-the-know-are-running-for-the-exits-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=28410","title":{"rendered":"Those in the know are running for the exits in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press is reporting<\/a> that Afghans are seeking to get off that sinking ship at the fastest rate since the war began despite proclamations from the Obama administration that all is well.<\/p>\n

More Afghans fled the country and sought asylum abroad in 2011 than in any other year since the start of the decade-long war, suggesting that many are looking for their own exit strategy as international troops prepare to withdraw.<\/p>\n

From January to November, more than 30,000 Afghans applied for political asylum worldwide, a 25 percent increase over the same period the previous year and more than triple the level of just four years ago, according to U.N. statistics obtained by The Associated Press ahead of their scheduled publication later this year.<\/p>\n

Many Afghans are turning to a thriving and increasingly sophisticated human smuggling industry to get themselves \u2014 or in most cases, their sons \u2014 out of the country. They pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to cross into Iran or Pakistan to more $25,000 for fake papers and flights to places like London or Stockholm.<\/p>\n

Thousands of refugees also return each year, but their numbers have been dwindling as the asylum applications rise. Both trends highlight worries among Afghans about what may happen after 2014, when American and other NATO troops turn security over to the Afghan army and police.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ll avoid insulting both the intelligence of TAH readers and the plight of the Vietnamese by drawing too many comparisons to that country circa 1974-75 but the signals coming from those on the ground are clear: the Afghans have lost faith in both the willingness of the United States to finish the job started in 2001 and the Karzai regime’s ability to remain in power once the last vestige of hope departs on a UH-60. That country, and all out interests there, are circling the drain but the people holding the stopper seem too busy lining up donors and making speeches for the 2012 campaign to pull it back from the brink.<\/p>\n

1,886 dead Americans and counting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press is reporting that Afghans are seeking to get off that sinking ship at … Those in the know are running for the exits in Afghanistan<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,84,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-policy","category-military-issues","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/619"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}