{"id":65156,"date":"2022-08-30T13:33:59","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T13:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/08\/30\/a-year-later-vets-accept-that-they-cant-save-every-afghan-ally\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:05:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:05:36","slug":"a-year-later-vets-accept-that-they-cant-save-every-afghan-ally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/08\/30\/a-year-later-vets-accept-that-they-cant-save-every-afghan-ally\/","title":{"rendered":"A year later, vets accept that they can\u2019t save every Afghan ally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has been about a year since Phil Caruso<\/a> and other veterans spent frenzied, sleepless weeks scrambling private flights into Kabul\u2019s international airport to shepherd America\u2019s Afghan allies out of the country before the Taliban reasserted control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gone are the days of last summer, when Marine Corps veteran Jeff Phaneuf<\/a> called other Marines at the airport\u2019s Abbey Gate, vouching for the Afghans he could vouch for, even as the rest of the huddled masses\u2014without connections, or connections they could reach in their moment of need\u2014were left to broil in the August 2021 heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt felt like playing God in a way I\u2019d never wish to do again,\u201d the former infantry officer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it had been during most of the war, Afghanistan is no longer in American headlines today, or on the minds of most Americans like it was at this time last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Caruso, Phaneuf and others with the non-profit No One Left Behind<\/a> and other groups, the emails, texts and DMs from Afghans seeking salvation are still coming in. Getting those people out could take a decade or more, Caruso said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t