They helped us. Now we are turning our back on them. Maybe the White House isn't sure how they would vote.

"Thousands of Iraqis and Afghans who helped the U.S. military during wars in their countries are endangered because of their assistance as interpreters, drivers and advisers," writes Jeremy P. Meyer.

Thousands of Iraqis and Afghans who helped the U.S. military during wars in their countries are endangered because of their assistance as interpreters, drivers and advisers. Congress created special visa categories for Iraqis and Afghans who helped Americans. But bureaucracy and inaction from the White House has all but halted their distribution.

In a June op-ed in The New York Times, Kirk Johnson claimed 85 of the 90 Iraqis he worked with when he was a USAID worker in Baghdad and Fallujah have been chased from Iraq, and that three were recently assassinated.

In 2008, legislation promising 25,000 special immigrant visas over a five-year span for Iraqis who helped the U.S. military passed with broad bipartisan support. A year later, a similar law passed for Afghans.

Yet, the initiatives immediately got strangled by bureaucracy. "Wherever there was an obscure way to interpret the language, the State Department did it and issued as few visas as possible," Johnson said.

Only 6,000 visas had been issued by the end of 2013. Congress extended the program this year for an additional 2,500 Iraqi visas through September. But with the U.S. Embassy essentially shuttered, there is little hope for at-risk Iraqis seeking asylum.

Johnson lays the blame on President Obama, who he says has not pushed for action like other presidents. "Obama has never uttered a syllable on this," he said. "Congress has done its part. We have a president who doesn't prioritize this."

Johnson points to President Ford backing the airlift of 125,000 Vietnamese in 1975 and President Clinton ordering the airlift of 6,600 Kurdish evacuees in 1997.

Obama inherited these wars, but he also took on promises made to our Iraqi and Afghan friends. We need to honor those promises and get them out before they are killed.

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