After 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan, the U.S. has withdrawn its military forces after the Taliban recaptured the nation. 

Ali Habibi, a local Afghan-American, said many of his friends and family live in limbo as a new regime begins. He spoke with "Inside the Issues" host Alex Cohen about his struggles to get his relatives out of the country.

"They were not expecting the Taliban to, unfortunately, take over the country completely, so now they're desperate to either leave or find an opportunity somewhere else, and this is very heartbreaking," he said.

What You Need To Know

  • The U.S. withdrew its military forces from Afghanistan after 20 years of conflict

  • Ali Habibi, a local Afghan-American, said many of his friends and family are living in fear and limbo as the Taliban regime begins

  • Habibi volunteers as a pro bono accountant with Code to Inspire, a nonprofit that teaches Afghan women to pursue careers in web development

  • He argued President Joe Biden's decision to remove all U.S. troops from the country by the end of August was a devastating miscalculation

Habibi was born in Afghanistan in 1985 and moved to Iran when he was 5 years old. In 2004, he moved back to Kabul with his family and later studied in India before ultimately moving to the United States in 2010. 

He has several displaced family members in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the government. Habibi fears they may be persecuted for their religious minority status.

"Everybody who asked me my feelings about what has been happening for the past two months, I said what I see is death, destruction and despair."

He argued President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from the country by the end of August was devastating for many Afghans, particularly among the country's large youth population.

"They see it as a mass grave being dug, where their dreams and aspirations and futures, they're all gone," Habibi explained.

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Habibi volunteers as a pro bono accountant with Code to Inspire, a nonprofit that teaches Afghan women and girls to code and pursue careers in web development. He hopes that as more Americans pay attention to the ongoing events in Afghanistan, people remember the widespread human losses happening in his home country.

"Every time there is a conversation about Afghanistan, there's either a talk of the dollar amount that we have spent or the number of troops," Habibi added. "Let's remember Afghanistan has a very vibrant civil society... we're talking about many millions of young people working for private companies as well as international organizations and government entities, who let's remember most of them they just lost their job overnight. And I believe, at any point, we never look at what the Afghan society is doing."

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