'We have a moral obligation to help those who helped us'

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'We have a moral obligation to help those who helped us'

August 19, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'The fundamental ethical reality'

It's like handing extra lifejackets to those who already have them.

That was how a senior World Health Organization official described the idea of offering third Covid-19 shots to those who are already fully vaccinated, while billions of people around the world are desperate for their first doses. But President Joe Biden's administration is going ahead anyway in a decision that will further widen the gulf between rich nations and the rest of the world in a pandemic that will end only once everybody is protected.

The White House just announced that Americans who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine will be eligible for a third, booster injection eight months after their second one, starting next month. Government scientists said that while the vaccines still provide strong protection against serious illness, hospitalization and death, there are signs that their resistance to infection begins to wear off over time. The vaccines are also slightly less effective against the Delta variant of the virus that now dominates US cases. They say they want to keep ahead of the virus and that giving third shots is the best way.

This news is, of course, welcome to the millions of Americans who enthusiastically rolled up their sleeves on the first round. But it does raise lots of awkward questions. To begin with, millions more Americans are refusing to get their first vaccine, and the prospect of a third shot is hardly going to make them more eager. And the conspiracy theorists who already falsely claim that vaccines don't work will have a field day.

Then there is the question of America's obligation to the rest of the world. Hoarding doses for already-protected Americans does look like another case of Biden's America First approach — especially when the protection against serious disease remains high.

The President disagrees. "We can take care of America and help the world at the same time," he said, pointing out that while dispensing 50 million doses stateside in June and July, the US gave 100 million shots to other countries. But it's simple math: Every dose one person takes means there's less for someone else.

"The fundamental ethical reality is we're handing out second life jackets while leaving millions and millions of people without anything to protect them," said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization.

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America's top military officer General Mark Milley tackled one of the key questions of the Afghan crisis on Wednesday: Why did the army that the US spent billions to train collapse so fast?

Afghanistan's war dead are being maligned.

The now-conventional wisdom that the country's armed forces simply gave up without a fight while surrendering to the Taliban dishonors their years of sacrifice and misses important context on the history of the war.

In justifying the US troop withdrawal, Biden argued that American forces should not be expected to fight a war the Afghans won't wage for themselves. Makes sense -- but it's not as if the armed forces that the US and NATO helped build in Afghanistan haven't been pummeled by the Taliban for years. Below are estimated figures for Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police forces killed in the years from 2014 to 2019, according to the Brookings Institution. These dwarf the death tolls among US and coalition soldiers in the same period.

2014: 4,400
2015: 7,000

2016: 8,000

2017: 7,000-9,000

2018: 7,000-9,000

2019: 10,900

According to CNN figures, these are the equivalent deaths for the same period for US and coalition forces involved in the mission to train and advise Afghan forces:
2014: 68

2015: 25

2016: 12

2017: 16

2018: 19

2019: 25

General Milley admitted Wednesday that he had not foreseen the stunning collapse of Afghan forces within a few days last week. But consider the message those forces received: Biden has been saying for months that the war isn't worth fighting, like President Donald Trump before him. And the ex-President's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, actually negotiated with the Taliban behind the backs of Afghan leaders.

"We abandoned the Afghan military," Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois told CNN. "We took off. We left," he said.

Biden's maligning of Afghan soldiers is playing into a broader critique of his handling of the evacuation of Kabul and is tarnishing his reputation among US allies abroad. In a moving speech in Britain's House of Commons on Wednesday, Tom Tugendhat, an MP who served with the British Army in Afghanistan, lambasted the US President's comments.

"To see their commander in chief call into question the courage of men I fought with, to claim they ran. It's shameful," Tugendhat said. "Those who have never fought for the colors they fly should be careful about criticizing those who have."

'We have a moral obligation to help those who helped us'

As it became apparent Wednesday that the Taliban were blocking many Afghan civilians from reaching the airport for evacuation, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted that the US has "a moral obligation to help those who helped us." "All of this is very personal for me," added Austin, who served more than 40 years in the military. "This is a war that I fought in and led. I know the country. I know the people. And I know those who fought alongside me."