With the last days of summer behind me, there is a lot I could be doing to prepare for my classes. However, as I get my apartment ready and buy new school supplies, I cannot stop thinking about how different my life is compared to that of a young woman in Afghanistan. 
While I write in my agenda and plan events for this semester, these women fear for their lives under the newly reinstated Taliban rule. Terrified mothers relinquish their babies to U.S. soldiers over barbed wire fences, clinging desperately to the hope that their children will face a future brighter than Afghanistan’s.
These scenes of hopelessness were avoidable. The Biden Administration’s plan—or lack thereof—has caused an absolute humanitarian crisis. Regardless of your political affiliation, it is clear that the withdrawal from Afghanistan has been an utter disaster.
Leaving Afghanistan is undeniably the right decision, but there is a right way to do it.
The last administration made their plan very clear—first, we evacuate every American expatriate. After that, our military equipment comes home and lastly, our military. It seems like common sense, but to President Joe Biden it is not. 
We currently have an estimated 10,000 Americans still stranded in Afghanistan. According to a memo released by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, “the U.S. government cannot guarantee [the] security” of Americans fleeing Afghanistan, meaning Americans must navigate alone through streets patrolled by the Taliban to make it to the Kabul airport.
One U.N. report warned of the Taliban going house to house to kill and torture people who have collaborated with the U.S. Yet, according to Biden, the American government has made “significant progress” in evacuating its citizens. 
The horrendous planning of the Biden administration allowed terrorists to overtake Afghanistan in a matter of days. Now, these terrorists are armed with billions of dollars worth of assault rifles, helicopters, ammunition and more—all paid for by American taxpayers.
Perhaps empathy and open communication would have made this crisis more bearable. However, we have gotten neither from the Biden Administration this week. 
On Aug. 13, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby described Kabul as “not…in an immediate threat environment.“ Two days later, the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban. 
All the while, Biden has offered little explanation of his administration’s movements out of Afghanistan. Biden blamed former American administrations, Afghan political leaders and military forces—but not himself—at an address on Aug. 16. The following Wednesday, he gave an address on the pandemic, not once mentioning the crisis in Afghanistan. 
No communication. 
There is now a viral video of Afghans clinging to the body of a U.S. C-17 plane. Many fell to their deaths in a vain attempt at attaining a better life abroad, a life like the one I am blessed to have in the United States. When confronted about this scene in an interview with ABC News, Biden dismissed it as being “four days ago, five days ago.” Why that matters, I wish I knew. 
No empathy.
Twenty years, over 20,000 wounded, over 2,000 dead. May we never forget the sacrifices of these brave men and women. 
Elizabeth Crochet is a 20-year-old political communication junior from New Orleans.