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- An Afghanistan war vet said ex-Trump adviser Stephen Miller should be "held for war crimes."
- Matt Zeller, an advocate for Afghan interpreters, ripped into Miller for opposing mass resettlement of Afghans.
- "Stephen Miller never wore a uniform a day in his life. He's a privileged little brat," Zeller told CNN.
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Matt Zeller, an Afghanistan war veteran and advocate for Afghan interpreters, ripped into former Trump adviser Stephen Miller for opposing resettlement of endangered Afghans, saying Miller is "equally complicit" in their fates as the Taliban and "should be held accountable for war crimes."
The US-backed Afghan government collapsed in a matter of days following the US' withdrawal from its 20-year presence in Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to regain control over the country.
The swifter-than-expected fall of the government and Taliban takeover acutely endangers tens of thousands of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, like military contractors and interpreters, many of whom are now top targets of the Taliban for working with the US.
Miller is a staunch proponent of strict immigration limits and the architect of several of the Trump administration's harshest immigration policies. He argued in a Tuesday night appearance on Fox News that "those advocating for mass Afghan resettlement are doing so for political and not humanitarian reasons" and that it would be too expensive to resettle them.
"The United States of America never, ever, made a promise, written or unwritten, to the people of Afghanistan that if after 20 years, they were unable to secure their own country, that we would take them to ours. That is nonsense. That has never been US government policy" Miller told Fox News' Laura Ingraham.
Zeller, co-founder of nonprofit group No One Left Behind, which advocates for Iraqi and Afghan citizens who fought with the US military and helps them obtain SIVs, excoriated Miller in a Wednesday afternoon appearance on CNN.
"That man has been my personal nemesis for almost eight years. I've been fighting him since he was Jeff Sessions' Senate staffer," Zeller said of Miller.
"As far as I'm concerned, he personally is as complicit as the Taliban in these people's deaths. He should be held accountable for war crimes. He spent the entirety of the Trump administration trying to prevent these people from coming here," he added.
-Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 18, 2021
Zeller said he met with Miller and "his ilk" multiple times and recounted one particular meeting with Janis Shinwari, the Afghan interpreter who Zeller credits with saving his life, and Republican Senate Judiciary Committee staffer Andrea Loving.
In Zeller's telling, Loving and Miller said he was "doing nothing but letting Islamic fundamentalist terrorists into our country and it's our job to stop you."
"They are our people. There is no us and them, there's just an us. Stephen Miller never wore a uniform a day in his life. He's a privileged little brat. He ought to be held for war crimes. I can't stand that man, and I can't believe you're giving him any more air time," Zeller told CNN, describing Miller as the "worst of America."
Zeller said he and other veterans are working around the clock in a "massive airlift planning operation" trying to get Afghan interpreters to safety and eventually to the US in what he described as a "digital Dunkirk."
"People like Stephen Miller need to just sit down and shut up, because he's been part of the problem for too long," he added.