From WSJopinion: Thanks to Allyson Reneau, a 60-year-old Oklahoma mother, 10 members of the Afghan Girls Robotics team have escaped from Afghanistan. Maybe President Biden should put her in charge
The vast bureaucracies of the White House, Pentagon and State Department may have been taken by surprise by what’s unfolded in Afghanistan. But not Allyson Reneau. Thanks to this 60-year-old Oklahoma mother, 10 members of the Afghan Girls Robotics team have escaped from Afghanistan.
Mrs. Reneau had met the girls, ages 16 to 18, at a 2019 Humans to Mars summit in Washington while they were on a visit for a robotics competition in the U.S. A few days ago on Instagram, she posted a photo of herself with some of those girls and asked people to pray for a “miracle.” But Mrs. Reneau, who has nine daughters of her own, didn’t sit back and wait for one. Instead, she flew to Qatar on Aug. 9. There a former roommate of hers now working at the U.S. Embassy stayed up all night to process the paperwork needed to get the girls out. The government of Qatar sent a plane and flew the girls out. The rescue is one of the few images of hope coming out of the mess and chaos of Afghanistan.
“I just decided to take any action I could to save a few,” Mrs. Reneau explained on Instagram. She went on to warn that “the window is closing” for another group of girls from the team who also need to be rescued. We join all Americans in saluting the pluck and enterprise of this extraordinary woman—and hope it will inspire our own government to devote whatever resources it needs to finish the job. Maybe Mr. Biden should put her in charge.
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