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The SFI Blog

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Our communities can’t continue to carry the burden of war in Afghanistan: SFI volunteer published

Ariana Basilias Bring troops home from Afghanistan

Secure Families Initiative volunteer Ariana Basilias was published in The Seattle Times.

“Twenty years — that’s how long U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan. I’ve been with my spouse for nine years. It would be a wild understatement to say that our family has been affected by the longest war in U.S. history.

But the Biden administration has the chance to change the status quo. May 1 is the deadline for President Joe Biden to decide if he will extend U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, or if he will take the Doha agreement offramp and finally bring troops home.

Every time Afghanistan comes up in the news, I think about last year when my wife, Stephanie Basilias, a U.S. Army Reservist based in Seattle, deployed to the Middle East. Chronic anxiety already comes with the territory of loving someone in uniform overseas. One day, I remember being at the gym when a Twitter alert popped up on my phone, announcing military action that spelled unrest in that region. It hit me like a punch in the gut, and I immediately thought of the worst.”

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