KABUL, Afghanistan — A country on its knees – an example of how hard it is to achieve national security and just how easy it is to lose.
NewsWest 9 is getting a firsthand account of one man’s plea from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. He’s in hiding and fears for his life.
“The situation is getting worse,” he said in a video recorded in what looks to be a dark room.
Images on television show how dire the situation is. People rushing the Kabul airport, desperate to get out by any means necessary.
Former U.S. Army Green Beret Joseph Torres has watched it all play out.
“The hard part of seeing something like that is that I know where everything is,” Torres said.
Torres served eight tours of duty as a Green Beret, seven of them in Afghanistan. What’s happening now is a nightmare.
“It took a week to undo what we did in twenty years," Torres said. "My work negated. That’s how I feel and I’m angry at it."
That’s because for him, it’s personal. The Afghani man featured in the video is his friend. To protect his identity, Torres said he goes by Mikey.
“I can only pray for him and talk to him everyday and hope that I hear from him the next day,” Torres said.
Mikey worked with U.S. troops as a translator.
“Every time I deployed to Afghanistan, he was my first call,” Torres said.
And now he is in danger, because of his work with the U.S. military.
Mikey and Torres have been in near constant contact. Mikey is trying to flee the country with his family.
He was one of the many who rushed the Kabul airport Monday. He sent a voice memo to Torres.
“I’m standing at the airport right now, next to the army guys," Mikey said. "Just between me and army guys is barbed wire."
Hours after the voice memo, Torres received another update. Mikey’s wife and son were shot.
“He’s desperate,” Torres said.
Torres is also desperate – desperate to help his friend.
“It hurts because any time that we were down there, he helped us," Torres said. "Now I can’t help him. That bothers me. It hits me on a very personal level. All I can hope is that my friend makes it out alive somehow, makes it to a border or we get him out of there.”
The result of a decades-long war that has come to an abrupt end. The question tonight… for what?