SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — Two military veterans who served in the Middle East are now watching the same images of the chaotic situation in Afghanistan from afar.
They are both advocating for more assistance to the refugees.
“We need to remove the caps on the refugees that we are taking from Afghanistan,” Danny Garza said.
Garza was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy after six years of service, including two deployments to the Persian Gulf for both operation enduring freedom in Afghanistan and operation Iraqi freedom.
“What they want is humanitarian aid right now, and they deserve it after we completely destroyed their infrastructure and government,” Garza said.
Garza now spends his days in Sacramento.
He is a member of the non-profit organization “About Face: Veterans Against the War”, a group of service members and veterans who are against all post-9/11 wars.
He says the fall of Afghanistan was inevitable.
“We did lose this war, and the American dream of democracy in Afghanistan is an imperialistic dream of us overthrowing someone else’s government, saying you don’t know how to run a government, we’re going to put our government for you, and look what happened — it fell in days. Why? Because it wasn’t their government,” Garza said.
“What is happening now. It’s just simple math,” Chuck Tyler said. “I mean, it was either going to happen now or five years ago, or five years in the future.”
Tyler agrees with Garza. Tyler is also a member of About Face and is based in Washington D.C. He is a U.S. Army combat veteran, honorably discharged after a deployment during the Gulf War and another during operation Iraqi freedom.
He says he is proud of the work done by the military, but at this point, the focus should be on the refugees and allowing as many of them into America as possible.
“Making them welcome. Helping them to assimilate and be involved in the United States as a home,” Tyler said.