By Scott Graber
For The Island News
It is Saturday and its still dark. This morning I’m lying on my couch listening to NPR wondering about Ukraine and its war weary people. As I lie in the darkness my mind shifts from Ukraine to Afghanistan.
By June, 2021, we had decided we were tired of the bloodshed in Afghanistan. Led by Donald Trump, the United States had come round to the notion that Afghanistan had been a colossal waste of men, women and treasure. But it was everyone’s best guess that we were leaving behind seasoned, well-trained soldiers who would keep the Taliban at bay.
We knew that the Taliban, who had governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, were tough, resilient fighters who embraced sharia law. We also knew they had a contempt for women, and still believed in videotaped beheadings for those who violated their Islamic principles.
But we thought it was time for our troops to come home.
As early as July, 2021, we knew there had been a miscalculation in terms of the Afghan army. We knew that Kandahar, Herat and Kabul were in trouble. That the Afghan Army was quickly losing control of its provincial capitals and that high ranking Afghan officials were heading for Iran, Uzbekistan and Europe.
In the United States we realized we had been in this place before. We had watched Walter Cronkite confirm the advance of North Vietnamese troops as they approached Saigon. We had watched our embattled embassy, seen the people trying to climb the embassy fence, and felt a palpable sense of desperation as the South Vietnamese Army evaporated.
But the scenes that stayed with us — and remain with many Americans to this day — was the scramble of the Vietnamese civilians to get out of the country. A scramble was first focused on the Tan Son Nhat Airport; then on the embassy helipad where overloaded helicopters left for off-shore aircraft carriers.
By the middle of August, 2021, President Biden knew that he had to get every American out of the country by the end of the month. He also decided that hundreds of thousands of Afghans had assisted American troops and they would be killed if not evacuated. And there were others — women in particular — who had spoken-out against the Taliban. One of these women, Homeira Qaderi, was particularly vulnerable to retribution.
Homeira Qaderi had published several novels, written children’s books and done a residency at the University of Iowa. Now, at 30, she lived with her young son in Kabul and taught literature at Kabul University. Beyond being a published author (Dancing in the Mosque), Homeira was active and outspoken in her promotion of women’s rights and her opposition to the Taliban.
As the situation in Kabul deteriorated Marly Rusoff — Homeira’s literary agent — watched her television with growing horror. Rusoff, who lives at Newpoint, in Beaufort, had been Pat Conroy’s agent and had been a frequent visitor to Beaufort County. After Conroy’s death in 2016 she and her husband, Mihai, moved to Beaufort and were instrumental in the creation of the Pat Conroy Literary Center.
Rusoff made numerous calls — one to an old boyfriend, Sam Heins, who had served as Ambassador to Norway in the Obama Administration. Rusoff asked Heins if he still had contacts in the State Department who would help get Homeira and her son, Siawash, out of Afghanistan. Heins, now retired, had served with a deputy, Jim DeHart, in Norway. Now Jim DeHart was the deputy to the American Ambassador in Kabul.
And so it came to pass that in the midst of the chaos — huge crowds were now assaulting the airport gates — DeHart forwarded Rusoff’s e-mail to Sam Aronson.
Aronson, a young diplomat sent from Nigeria to help out with the evacuation, found himself making life-or-death decisions about who got on board the overloaded C-17s that were departing Kabul.
Aronson — who’s heroism will be detailed with the publication of “The Secret Gate” later this spring — had a problem with Homeira. She wanted 14 seats for her extended family; and he only had two.
Then Aronson called Rusoff (who was awakened at 5 a.m., in her Newpoint home) explaining that chances of getting Homeira out were “one percent.” Rusoff launched into an impassioned plea but Aronson reiterated the gates were closed, there had been a massive explosion, but he would do everything he could.
I won’t reveal how this turned out. But if you see Marly Rusoff at Publix you should thank her for her persistence, and her own heroism.
Scott Graber is a lawyer, novelist, veteran columnist and longtime resident of Port Royal. He can be reached at cscottgraber@gmail.com.
