I am so sad about Afghanistan. With this morning's entry into Kabul by the Taliban, its ascension to power (again) is complete.
I am not someone that has ever been sanguine about the Afghanistan War. America had ZERO business invading the country 20 years ago. NONE - our proper target was the Saudis but no doubt due to our country's politics of oil, we didn't confront the nation that truly was responsible for 9-11, choosing instead to further Dubbya's butthurt revenge over the Taliban having insulted his dad.
Thus, I was extremely happy when President Biden pulled the plug. I am still happy America's no longer in Afghanistan.
No, I am sad for three, very different reasons.
The first one is that with the rapid return of Afghanistan to the caliphate, the right wing in America has just bought another 40 decades of oxygen. Why do I say this? Because it was the fall of Saigon, the images of America in retreat, and the ego-blow it caused many in our country, that gave serious rise to the right-wing's politics of dick-swinging. For those who cannot fathom that America is just a country, not the end all and be all country, they will never interpret the outcome of our country's 20 year "war" in Afghanistan as anything but American failure or weakness. And since this is all happening on a Democratic Party president's watch, it will be the Democrats/left blamed for it all (just as the Left was blamed for not supporting the Vietnam War).
The second is for the Afghani people, particularly women, themselves. I honestly do not know why, after 20 years of increasing modernization, millions of Afghanis did not rise up when the Taliban started reasserting its dominance a month ago. It is depressing to think too much about a people not willing to rise up and fight for what they say they believe in. A lot of the news media is trying to say--without saying--that we should go back just so that Afghani women have a semblance of freedom.
Yet women freedom fighters are legion in history. They go back at least as far as the Amazon in Europe, and the fierce Hatsepshut in the Motherland. As empathetic as I am to Afghani women, it is NOT America's responsibility to keep them "free" from misogynist rule in the name of religion. Even if the reason they got a measure of freedom the past 2 decades because of America's presence in the country. So, why didn't Afghani women fight back, even if Afghani men who say they did not want a return to religious rule over women (and IMO that's exactly what it is--refusal; non-Taliban Afghani males far, far, outnumber Taliban males) refused to fight on their behalf? After all, it's not as if America has not left tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of weapons in Afghani possession during our 20-year misadventure.
A misadventure that, I will repeat, IMO America had NO business embarking on.
Especially since, at the end, we have left another dangerous mess behind: there was no way, while avoiding right-wing bleating about "Middle Eastern dangerous folks are being let into OUR country to become terrorists!", that America could have possibly processed all the visas necessary to save all the Afghans who had propped America up with translation and other services for the past 20 years. This means that at least some of those folks, with Kabul falling today, will not get out. They will be killed. And it is inarguable that their blood will be on America's hands. And that is the third reason for my sadness.
I am in prayer for Afghanistan, and especially the women who will be again made the instruments of men. But, whether my prayers are answered or not, I still have so much sadness. 😭😭😭😭😭