Opus 2021-263: Headlines: The Dangers of “Over the River and Through the Woods...”

I heard about the 14 students from the San Diego area that were stuck in Afghanistan and then I heard that they had made it out.  I was a bit mystified when my wife told me there were 30 students still stuck in the land of the Taliban.  Something was not adding up.  Today I saw some click bait that referred to the 30 students so I decided to fall for it.

The headline at Legal Insurrection clarified some of the mystery.  

“Almost 30 Students From Sacramento Remain Trapped in Afghanistan”

This was a different group of students.  As I kept reading I found that they were not your typical group of students.  

“With about 1,400 students of Afghan origin within the district, Bassanelli said it’s normal for these students to go visit their home country every summer.”

Okay.  It seems that we already have a large group of emigrants who have settled in the Sacramento area.  A bunch of them decided to go home to visit granny.  Since they are public school inmates they probably paid no attention to what was going on in the world around them and are now finding it hard to get a ride home.  Or not.  

Then we have this,

“‘We realized that we had about 144 students of Afghan origin who were not presently in our schools but yet enrolled,” Bassanelli explained…’”

It seems there are 144 students unaccounted for, not just 30.  Since I taught in Southern California I am used to the idea of large blocks of students going home to Mexico for the Christmas/New Years holidays.  It is an annual event.  You learn to roll with it and never did we blame the President of the United States for their absence.  I would wonder how they know that 30 are in Afghanistan.  Is that an actual count or a reasonable guess?  From the information that we seem to be given it sounds to me like they are spread all over the country with relatives.  That means they may be in no danger, or at least no more danger than anyone is that cesspool of violence is facing.

I think this is a lot of hysteria about what may be no problem.  I grant it might be.  It is possible that they will be used as hostages or the targets of political murder.  It is hard to tell at this point.  It is also a bit late to say, “What were they thinking?”  There biggest sin is that they believed what the Biden administration was telling them about conditions in Afghanistan.

In any event I don’t think this is any reason to be sending in the troops.  These may be American citizens because they were born here after their parents arrived or they may have actually been born in Afghanistan.  Either way I doubt if their hearts are in America and their values are rooted in the Constitution.  I wish for them the same safety I would wish for any other human being.

homo unius libri