An Open Letter to Secretaries Blinken and Austin Regarding Afghan SIVs Signed by 100 Former Foreign Service and Military Officers An Open Letter to Secretaries Blinken and Austin Regarding Afghan SIVs Signed by 100 Former Foreign Service and Military Officers Note: The below letter was sent to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on May 10, 2021. MEI's Senior Vice President Gerald Feierstein, Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security General (ret.) Joseph Votel, and MEI Afghanistan and Pakistan Program Director Marvin G. Weinbaum are among the signatories. We are a group of former diplomats, military officers, and civil servants. Many of us have helped manage and support U.S. engagement with Afghanistan over the past twenty years. We are writing to you today to add our voices to the many Americans who have already expressed concern, both publicly and privately, about the fate of the many thousands of Afghans who devoted their lives to working with U.S. personnel in support of America’s policy objectives and the values we espoused in Afghanistan.