Folks, I have been posting about the foundations of character, competence, and moral courage. I will continue that line of discussion in my next post, but this week’s news forces me to change the subject to Afghanistan and America’s limited time to act. And it’s a great lesson in moral courage.

With America’s troops all but gone from Afghanistan and 31 August set as the date for a total military withdrawal, the Taliban are ratcheting up their battlefield pressure against the Afghan Army and district, provincial and national governments. This weekend they rocketed Herat and Kandahar airports as they fought on the outskirts of three provincial capitals, both Herat and Kandahar as well as Lashkar Gah. It is only a question of time before these and other provincial capitals fall to the Taliban.

This military action is squeezing the urbanized and educated Afghans out of their homes and cities. Thousands have fled Afghanistan already, heading north, west, east and south, which will compound the refugee problems in Turkey, Europe and Pakistan. We in America should lend our diplomatic and financial support to those Afghans and those that help them. They built a life over the past two decades based on the freedoms and individual rights we and our NATO allies guaranteed, and that way of life in Afghanistan is in clear and immediate danger now.

There is a special group of Afghans and their families we owe much more to: those that served America’s military on the ground in combat as interpreters and advisors. They are already targeted by the Taliban, and some three hundred have been killed in revenge for helping America. The thousands that remain and the tens of thousands of their family members are in mortal danger, and we – WE – must get them out of Afghanistan. Along with the Afghans that make up priority group two – those that worked for US-based aid organizations and US non-governmental agencies, the numbers are significant, and we are WAY behind. Just two hundred interpreters and family members have been flown to the US as of Friday, with another flight arriving today. With the Taliban controlling highways and threatening local airports, just getting to a US flight in Kabul will be highly dangerous, and the longer we move at such glacial pace, the more people will die. These were our partners, advisors, and yes, friends. We must do what is right, NOW.

As you know if you read this blog or my book Marathon War, moral courage is the willingness to speak up and then stand up through our actions for what is right. It is time America does so!