As an American, I am ashamed: Angelina Jolie slams US's Afghanistan exit
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Los Angeles: Actress-filmmaker Angelina Jolie slammed the US government over the decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan, which led to the falling of the Afghan government to the Taliban.
Expressing her anger and despair at the attacks in Afghanistan, Joli wrote in an op-ed for Time magazine: "As an American, I am ashamed by the manner of our leaving. It diminishes us. We have lost leverage to influence what now happens in Afghanistan."
"Whatever your views on the war in Afghanistan, we probably agree on one thing: it should not have ended this way," Jolie said.
Jolie, who has completed humanitarian work as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, opined that the withdrawal of Afghanistan has created a new refugee crisis as nearly a quarter of a million Afghans displaced within the country since May wherein 80% of them women and girls.
"Giving up the idea of a peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban, appearing to cut and run, and abandoning our allies and supporters in the most chaotic way imaginable, after so many years of effort and sacrifice, is a betrayal and failure impossible to fully understand" She added.
The 46-year-old actress is also concerned about the women in Afghanistan as the Taliban are notorious for mistreating females.
"We lack a strategy to monitor and support women and civil society in Afghanistan, who the Taliban have a history of targeting - banning girls from school, confining women to the home, and inflicting brutal physical punishments, including public lashing, on any woman perceived to have stepped out of line." she wrote.
"After all the bloodshed and effort and sacrifice and time, America seems to have lacked the will to plan this transition in a managed way. It was never going to be easy or perfect but could have been better, more decent and safer" she commended.
