By: Ethan Shen
The US did not evacuate its citizens quickly, with many doubting whether or not the US would even bother to evacuate its private citizens. Because of this, the US obviously did not respond appropriately to the crisis in Sudan, but why did it take so long to evacuate? There are many reasons for this. First of all, the US might not want to repeat the evacuation in Afghanistan in 2021. The US might fear similar attacks as the suicide bombing in the crowd at the airport during the Afghan evacuation. There is a certain risk that the Sudanese troops might interpret the crowd of people waiting to get evacuated as a protest and respond violently.
However, evacuation efforts by other countries have proven, to some point, that Sudanese troops will not act violently toward evacuating civilians. America has done anything to protect its citizens in the past in places like Lebanon, Saigon, and Kuwait. There are even procedures in place (like the NEO operation and noncombatant evacuation operation) Protecting US citizens was something that used to be a sacrosanct government mission. Now, the Sudan crisis just shows that the government might not go to the same lengths to rescue its citizens anymore. At the end of the day, let's just hope that the Americans can get evacuated safely.