{"id":4911,"date":"2022-03-09T02:50:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T02:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=4911"},"modified":"2022-03-09T02:50:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T02:50:12","slug":"afghanistan-is-on-the-brink-of-famine-how-can-biden-just-forget-about-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2022\/03\/09\/afghanistan-is-on-the-brink-of-famine-how-can-biden-just-forget-about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan is on the brink of famine. How can Biden just forget about us?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2022\/mar\/05\/famine-afghanistan-joe-biden-reparations<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afghanistan has been in the news for such a long period of time, due to their tumultuous history with the state of their country and the recent reign of the Taliban. This recent rule by the Taliban comes after the US removed their military forces from the region. But because of Afghanistan and the US’s past interactions with each other, scrutiny has arisen over how much help the US really was to Afghanistan. The argument is that the US, specifically Joe Biden, has no real interest in helping the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the struggling region. Instead, the US’s interest in the region was due to an interest in the oil market, and an anti terrorist nationalism approach. Now that Afghanistan has unfolded into famine, with fears that many will not be able to afford food in the future, the US is nowhere to be found. In fact, Biden has taken funding from the country which may have been able to partially diffuse the famine and help restore the economy. The move by Biden was intended to be a repercussion against the Taliban, but it more so comes as a repercussion against the civilian men, women, and children who will suffer without food to eat for the coming months. The situation begs the question, how much does Biden, and the US, need the money they took? It cannot possibly be more than the people of Afghanistan do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the timing of this article is really important, because of its relation to the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis. The author really puts in perspective the difference in responses to each crisis- and highlights the difference in responsibilities for each. Primarily, I think the United States refuses to take accountability for the economic and humanitarian state of Afghanistan because of their responsibility in making it so. However, much like the way that the US has supported Ukraine from a distance, providing funding and equipment to help uphold the state of the country, Afghanistan needs the same. To be truly successful, Afghanistan needs support from Biden without relying on the US’s troops and intervention too heavily. More than that, however, I think the world needs to re-invigorate the interest we once had in the state of Afghanistan. Because the turmoil of the country has been so elongated, spanning much of the lives of today’s younger generation, we have forgotten the hits Afghanistan has suffered as a result of the economy and the Taliban. If Ukraine is any indication, the world has the ability to unite for a humanitarian cause. The question becomes if we will do it without intense advocating from said country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this is a prime example of how offshore balancing may be a beneficial strategy to not only the US but the countries that rely on us. Offshore Balancing would be for the US to stop promoting democracy as heavily in countries that do not possess it, and instead to let them determine their own state with the support of the US from afar. In Afghanistan’s case, Offshore Balancing may have prevented the collapse of the economy due to reliance on the US, and helped them to build a sustainable country on their own. This promotes lesser amounts of terrorism and the opportunity for a stable government. If, however, this were to go terribly wrong, offshore balancing would allow for the US to step back in and take control again. There may still be opportunity to instate this system, but it remains to be seen if Afghanistan will stabilize enough that Offshore Balancing is possible, and if the country will gather the attention and help it needs to stabilize in the first place. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2022\/mar\/05\/famine-afghanistan-joe-biden-reparations Afghanistan has been in the news for such a long period of time, due to their tumultuous history with the state of their country and the recent reign of the Taliban. This recent rule by the Taliban comes after the US removed their military forces from the region. But because of Afghanistan and the US’s past interactions with each… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4912,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions\/4912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}