I can't help but feel like this is exactly what Biden wants. They're holding these funds in hopes that people will rise up against the Taliban if I had to guess, which is really disingenuous because it will do nothing but cause sickness, hunger, and death.

“All of the foreign exchange reserves that are in the U.S. and Europe belong to the Afghan people,” said Shah Mehrabi, an economics professor at Montgomery College who serves on the central bank’s supreme council.

This is exactly how I see it too. Theft, plain and simple.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's basically a siege where they want to starve the country into surrender.

[–] olive@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

A tactic as old as time. That's essentially the backbone of what sanctions are. Attack the people in hopes they will revolt against their gov't.

[–] 14specks@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

It can be an effective tactic (not that I approve of it) if the people are already fairly close to revolting. If they aren't interested, then the sanctions just go on indefinitely for decades (Cuba) to no real political effect.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

exactly

[–] ArchimedesTesseract@lemmy.ml -2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But if you delivered those funds to the Taliban, wouldn't you be giving it to actual mass murderers?

[–] const_void@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago

But then there would be one less thing to blame Biden for.