SAN ANTONIO – His students should know by now that their English teacher at Rawlinson Middle School has a harrowing story of escaping Afghanistan, long before the Taliban finally seized control the country.
With 9/11 as the catalyst, Haroon said he wrote “A Refugee’s Story,” a book about his family being smuggled out of Afghanistan soon after the Russians invaded decades ago, and the journey they took to reach freedom in the U.S.
“Remember, America did go in 1978, and we left in 1988 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, thinking it was done,” Monis said.
Instead, he said Afghanistan became a haven for terrorists, including Osama bin Laden.
Soon after 9/11, he said the United States returned to Afghanistan, vowing to find bin Laden, but then stayed after he was found and killed.
Operation Enduring Freedom began on Monis’ birthday, so he’d jokingly tell friends, “President Bush gave me my present. Maybe Afghanistan will see peace in my lifetime.”
Yet soon after President Joe Biden ended America’s longest running war, the Taliban quickly seized control of Afghanistan.
“Twenty years later, it seems like deja vu,” Monis said. “It seems like we are turning our back on the country again.”
He said the Taliban were the ones who welcomed terrorists in Afghanistan.
“Some might say they’re, in fact, terrorists themselves,” Monis said.
He said the United Nations, NATO and others have to step in to help stabilize the country, otherwise, “I don’t even want to think about what might happen to the rest of the world.”
Or for that matter, he said, what could happen to the people of Afghanistan.
Monis said, “The women and children and those who are being left behind, who are clinging on to the backs of our cargo planes are the ones who are going to suffer.”
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