Beyond the Western imagination, a threat
so immense that “thousands have raced
to Kabul’s airport and border crossings,” reports
the AP (https://apnews.com/article/e51255ff3d954e8f95bea4dc1c209b32). On television,
another president tries to defend
American failure. Twenty years in
and we’re nearly back to where we were.
A war we should never have started. A history
on repeat. Britain. The Soviets.
The Americans. Afghanistan,
they say, is the graveyard of empire.
Al Jazeera reports (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/20/taliban-responsible-for-massacre-of-nine-hazara-men-amnesty), the Talaban
“massacred nine ethnic Hazara men”
as it swept through Ghazni province last month.
We glance at photos from afar. Go about
our shopping. Read thrillers
on the beach. Images from he Times:
Razor wire and soldiers. Men and women
sitting on suitcases, waiting, an airport
turned refugee camp. Taliban
in an armored and RPG-armed Jeep.
Another report (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/20/taliban-hunt-collaborators-united-nations/): The Taliban is hunting
collaborators, “going house to house,
setting up checkpoints … threatening
to arrest or kill” them. Their families.
Tucker Carlson wants accountability.
The right demands Biden’s head, blames
him for the Taliban surge. Ignores
the bipartisan failure, a two-decade
pipe ream kicked off when Bush
sent in troops to chase terrorists.
A war that should never have happened,
ending as it started, an outcome
foreordained, predicted by history.