Rolling Stones

A year after the messy withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the country is facing multiple natural and manmade crises that threaten the lives of millions ...

There is literally too little cash in the country for the economy to function; in some cases it’s not that food isn’t available, it’s that no one has anything with which to buy it. But because so many members of the Taliban government are sanctioned by the U.S. as terrorists, almost no one in the world is willing to do business with them in fear of violating U.S. policy on dealing with terrorists. The few who managed to beat the odds and jump through all of the hoops would often still be denied, told, for instance, that a part of their application had expired in the years it took the U.S. to process the paperwork and that they had to start the process all over again. Today in Afghanistan women and girls have lost many of the rights they gained during U.S. occupation. The U.S. government effectively promised relocation to the U.S. to many Afghans, only to then set up an impossible array of bureaucratic hoops for them to jump through to gain a visa. “Everyone knew the U.S. occupation [of Afghanistan] was going to end badly, but it’s still shocking just how bad it was,” Oliver said.