Published by
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — The American troops shouted over the chaos of the crowds, Ahmad said, telling him to get inside the Kabul airport while he still could. The air was panic, Western governments warning of imminent terrorist attacks. “Come to us!” the soldiers yelled from a gate. No, Ahmad called back — his father and mother. He begged the soldiers to leave their post and help pull his parents up the side of a drainage canal, so the family could evacuate Afghanistan. The older man was too weak to climb, the mother hardly stronger. “Go forward,” the father insisted to Ahmad, settling the matter. “Go…