The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same
In 72 hours a 20 year imperialist US experiment, an Afghanistan democratic government, began folding and all were drawing dead. President Biden is receiving the heat while images of the Kabul International Airport are seared into phones of the public; jarring up memories and emotions felt by the Boomers during Vietnam. But Trump, his predecessor, had negotiated with the Taliban on 9/11 at Camp David for a May withdrawal of US forces; point being, everyone wanted out. In October 2001 the United States went after terrorists, Al Qaeda, and the mission, to disrupt their home base and move them out of country, capture or kill, Bin Laden, was accomplished. Fighting for human rights against the Taliban was noble but Bush campaigned and won, against nation building, he flip flopped in his memoir, Decision Points, saying, “After 9/11, I changed my mind.”
He elaborates further “Afghanistan was the ultimate nation building mission. We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society,” because “a democratic Afghanistan would be a hopeful alternative to the vision of the extremists.” Unfortunately that was a hard sell to the local warlord and the first “Donald,” Rumsfeld, former Defense Secretary, when he was quoted by Richard Clarke, “there aren’t any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq.”
Afghanistan became the forgotten war once March 20th , 2003 kicked off “Shock an Awe,” on Baghdad and the War on Terror was prime time news; scaring the public with their new DEFCON color coded terror threat bar for the Homeland. The Axis of Evil was coined, by a Canadian, to include Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Afghanistan wasn’t sexy, didn’t like us, but we continued to buy her drinks; hoping she change.
$2.261 Trillion dollars later, 3,200 service men and women, 20,300 wounded, 69,000 Afghan fighters, 47,000 civilians, and 51,000 enemy combantents was an expensive lesson to learn. You can’t expect others to play a role you set for them. They have free will and have only known one way of life, survival. The jump in civility conjured up in the minds of neocons was day dreaming at best. The weather and terrain are as deadly as the drug trade that flourishes in its mountain climates. The men of Afghanistan views women’s rights, as none. This country didn’t have roads, was controlled by the extreme of the extremes in the Taliban, in-addition to warlords, and the terrorists; with no infrastructure, education, or jobs. Afghanistan had been in a constant state of war for the majority of its existence. The British, Soviets, and now the Americans have fallen victim to the, “Graveyard of Empires.”
The American Empire continues to flourish even in defeat. Think of what we do best, build weapons to destroy and rebuild the fallen in our image; a double dip. For crying out loud, we have 11 of the 12 nuclear aircraft carriers in the world; honorable mention to France. 800 military installations in 70 countries compared with 30 combined for France, Britain, and Russia. Twice as many fixed wing fighters as the Russians, 5,550 nuclear weapons, (Russia has 6,255) and the Pentagon asking for $715 billion for next year’s budget; although President Biden thought that was to low and raised it to $753 billion. Is that enough money to police the world, both Republicans and Democrats agree it is.
Martin Luther King said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
Our priorities are so out of whack public water in Flint, MI is poison, the government failed to protect citizens from Katrina, obesity plagues 42.5%, 156,000 lost their lives to drugs and suicide in 2019, students owe $1.8 trillion in college loans, 13.7% of us live in poverty, 54% live paycheck to paycheck, and so our life expectancy has dropped; and the American Dream doesn’t seem to be manifesting in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. The veterans have it the worst, almost forgotten once they return, except the, “Thank you for your service” which doesn’t have much substance to the 37,000 homeless or the 20 veterans per day that take their life.
How much longer will the public stand by the military industrial complex, corporatism, and a two party system determined to divide us on every issue? In George Washington farewell address he touted 3 main points, first, stressing unity of the Republic, “The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”
Secondly, the 1st President feared loyalty to party over country saying, “One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart burnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”
Lastly, the Commander and Chief warned against foreign entanglements and to “Steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”
“Hence likewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.”
I think this last quote sums Afghanistan up, “since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”
The United States, born out of Empire, should be well educated that foreign occupation and imposing your will does not equal the change we seek. Washington warned of us of all the troubles we are currently facing, a prime example of, if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it. This notion of war, exterminating the enemy from the Earth to find unity is insane. If we just kill all these people than we can find peace by converting them to our way of the life, the right way. Afghanistan has proved this lesson as false time and time again; and will continue to do so.
I suppose America can change or stay the same but trying to develop democratic nations like we’re building a deck at our buddy’s house over beers is not in our national interest. Think of all the hardships we went through in our independence. But we really wanted life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; believing in inalienable rights bestowed upon us. Such things cannot be forced on a people, they have to find, believe, and fight for it. The Afghanistan people contain the same shining light as Americans, but they are on their own journey and will let it shine when they are ready.
Twenty years later we have plenty of data to analyze but no ally and the westernization of small pockets in country are being swallowed up by the old ways. Was the war a failure, I suppose war is always a failure. The void of love causes the same sentient beings to destroy one another in order to find peace. If I wrote that out in a mathematical equation I don’t think it would make sense. Hence, it wouldn’t be proven true. Let’s rewrite the equation from We Are Right to Welcome All Respectfully.
