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Original poster

Little girl handed over to US soldiers

230 replies

JardinVibe · 20/08/2021 14:22

Has anyone seen the video on the BBC website showing the little girl being handed over a wall to US soldiers at Kabul airport? She can only have been under 2 years old. I can't stop thinking about it. I wonder what on earth happened to her. I have a toddler myself and it's so upsetting (obvs upsetting regardless but the idea of feeling your only chance to save your child is to hand your baby over to a soldier is just terrifying).

Has anyone seen this or know any more if this story? Sadly I know it's just a tiny moment in a catastrophe full of horror stories.

OP posts:
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6
ohstopityourmakingitup · 20/08/2021 15:02

@MindyStClaire

I've never been one of those "I can't watch the news now I'm a parent" types, and I never cry at the news, but I've full on sobbed at this more than once in the past 24 hours thinking of my 3yo and 1yo girls. Horrific.
Yes me too. I read something about a three year old little girl before and its deeply disturbed me. Cant stop thinking about it.
MotionActivatedDog · 20/08/2021 15:02

They KNOW whats coming.

Yeah. Exactly this.

Imagine what it would take for you to throw your baby at barbed wire and hope a stranger will see her and care enough to catch her or extract her from the barbed wire and get her to safety. Think about what it would take for you to consider doing that. That’s what those people are facing.

TopBitchoftheWitches · 20/08/2021 15:06

@NinaBallerinaShoes

My suspicion is that it was done for a publicity stunt and the child was reunited with their parents on the other side of the wall. In my view, it was a too fortunate photo opportunity to it to be real.
Fucking really? Hmm
Seawo · 20/08/2021 15:09

I can’t tell you how happy it’s made me to hear that they were reunited with their mothers at least. The terror it must have taken for them to feel that the best course of action was to beg foreign soldiers to take their babies.

My heart breaks for any woman, child and decent man left behind there.

PearlclutchersInc · 20/08/2021 15:14

@ohstopit There are some total shits in this world who have no idea what it must be like to be in that situation.

wheresmyhairytoe · 20/08/2021 15:14

It's utterly heartbreaking.

This is bringing out some people's true colours with the hate they're spewing.

toolazytothinkofausername · 20/08/2021 15:16

@Kittii

It reminds me of Handmaid's Tale.
Same Sad
TableFlowerss · 20/08/2021 15:18

@Kittii

It reminds me of Handmaid's Tale.
Absolutely agree. I watched that a few months back, aghast, yet here we are. The real life version of it. Horrific
HHSchultz · 20/08/2021 15:18

It's sickening, how can the West let this happen? I can't get my head around it. Why are we not getting the Army back out there. Is the world so desensitised to barbarism?

Soubriquet · 20/08/2021 15:20

@wheresmyhairytoe

It's utterly heartbreaking.

This is bringing out some people's true colours with the hate they're spewing.

Yup.

“They have phones! They don’t need help with housing if they have phones” Hmm

It’s the 21st century not the 18th. Phones are the norm

Lu5332 · 20/08/2021 15:20

I've seen a few videos like this, it's gut wrenching seeing it unfold and not being able to do a thing to help.

I have never felt more grateful for the very little I have in life than I have this past week - knowing what those poor people are going through.

I fucking hate the Taliban bastards.

wewereliars · 20/08/2021 15:21

Ninaballerina these people are facing a brutal regime who they know will take their girls to be " wives" and will torture and slaughter any preceived enemy at will.

But yes, wanting a photo op is the most likely scenario here.

mrssunshinexxx · 20/08/2021 15:21

There aren't any words for how bad this is.
I would rather die than be seperated from my children. My heart goes out to every single person living this nightmare.
What is this world and what else is in store

BeauxRingarde · 20/08/2021 15:22

@HHSchultz

It's sickening, how can the West let this happen? I can't get my head around it. Why are we not getting the Army back out there. Is the world so desensitised to barbarism?
Which Army? Do you want a war against the Taliban? And then what...a permanent presence of british troops, for ever? Are you willing to send your husband and sons, or is it someone elses you want to get in front of the guns and bombs?

Your thinking is so simplistic.

Bythemillpond · 20/08/2021 15:23

I think getting the children out is a way for them to then make their way over the mountains into Pakistan which a child might not survive.

These people are desperate and it is at these times that getting the more vulnerable members of your household to safety even if you never see them again is the only way to give them a chance.

wewereliars · 20/08/2021 15:23

We have been meddling in Afganistan for over a century, we have a responsibility to the people. There is nothing simplistic about that.

Piccalino3 · 20/08/2021 15:23

I'd been thinking of this and so upset since I saw it. It's just so so awful. I look at my kids and just cannot imagine what horrors these people face. The choice to throw your child to an unknown soldier or put them in a unsafe dinghy in the sea - and that's their best option. What a horrific world we live in and what can we do to help? Ultimately we'll all go on our merry way and these people will be suffering, just as they have in Syria, Ethiopia and many other countries. It's horrendous, I can never understand how there can be so much suffering - and had we be born somewhere else it could have been any one of us.

mrssunshinexxx · 20/08/2021 15:27

@Piccalino3 so true, I often think how lucky I am
To be British and born in the safe place I live that's all it is, luck

HHSchultz · 20/08/2021 15:27

I want a properly planned exit, the Taliban haven't just suddenly sprung from nowhere. The government, our government were told in January this would be the outcome of just pulling out. It's a crime and dereliction of duty. So no I don't want a war with the Taliban, but I don't want this.

SnotandBothered · 20/08/2021 15:27

@BeauxRingarde

Which Army?
Any of the 30 member states of Nato.

In turns
In shifts
However

Because the alternative is not just turning our backs on the horrors that are already unfolding, but a complete slap in the face to the troops who have sacrificed twenty years to this battle.

BeauxRingarde · 20/08/2021 15:28

@wewereliars

We have been meddling in Afganistan for over a century, we have a responsibility to the people. There is nothing simplistic about that.
We've been meddling for a lot longer than that, and what have we done for them? Nothing useful. Sending the Army straight back again is not the answer.
HHSchultz · 20/08/2021 15:29

@wewereliars

We have been meddling in Afganistan for over a century, we have a responsibility to the people. There is nothing simplistic about that.
Yes, absolutely agree!
Fleek · 20/08/2021 15:29

If you think this was a photo op, you can go on Twitter and see video footage of the scenes of people trying to get into the airport at various different places. People are utterly desperate. It is absolutely heartbreaking

sleeponeday · 20/08/2021 15:29

@MrsTerryPratchett

People are lucky enough on here to never ever feel the sheer terror that these people are feeling right now.

This. Imagine feeling that your baby is safer handed to a random member of a foreign army than with you. The powerlessness and desperation.

Some people had had an empathy bypass.

Thank you for phrasing that in a way that says everything without risking deletion.

I can't imagine what those parents were going through, to risk that. At this point, any woman leaving Afghanistan could legitimately claim asylum. How horrific is that - extreme and universal persecution on the basis of sex.

HHSchultz · 20/08/2021 15:30

If course it's the answer, now at this time!

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