A few days ago, a date passed by that many folks didn’t think about. It was the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, Hamid Karzai Airport in Afghanistan.
Thirteen Americans died. Their names were Marine Lance Cpl. David Lee Espinoza; Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee; Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover; Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss; Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez; Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum; Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola; Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui; Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo; Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez; Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz; Navy Hospitalman Maxton “Max” Soviak; and Marine Cpl. Daegan William-Tyler Page.
Somehow, those brave men and women were ignored by the people who I think contributed to that disaster on the anniversary of their death.
Those men and women were sailors, marines and a soldier. They took oaths and understood they would put their lives in peril. But their deaths weren’t necessary.
Whether or not we should have had military in Afghanistan for our longest war is a moot point. Afghanistan has long been known as the graveyard of empires, all the way back to Alexander the Great and his elephant cavalry. Most recently the Russians were brought to their knees and their economy destroyed by people who started out fighting armored helicopters with muskets and rocks.
There was no choice after 9/11 but for America to go in there and root out the parasite that had struck and injured our great country. That parasite was largely destroyed by our warriors, and the ground was made fertile for freedom for people who had never known what we as Americans take for granted. It wasn’t cheap, it wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t easy, but the road was becoming smoother.
As has always been done, America was doing what no one else had ever been able to do: lay the groundwork for a stable, unified country.
The problems started when the politicians took over.
I know a lot of veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. I’ve heard some horror stories about not just what they went through, but what they were put through by those above them.
But during the 20 years America was there, we made inroads. Our military and others helped build literal and metaphorical bridges. They were there when women voted for the first time. They treated illnesses and injuries.
And yes, they killed bad guys. Lots of bad guys. Bad guys who were recognized by most of the plain old Afghan people as being – well, bad guys.
America brought a return to some order and even civilization that had not been seen since the first days of the Taliban takeover, after the Russians left. The problems with the Taliban came when they did as they had planned all along: after bringing about peace, they decided that anyone who didn’t believe as they did was a threat.
Woman were stoned, beheaded, led around on leashes and set on fire in the street for crimes such as not being in the company of a male relative while begging for food, or for showing a wrist or too much of their eyes. Men were beaten to death for not having a beard, or for cutting their hair. Children who should have been in primary school were sold as sex slaves.
For about 18 of our 20 years in Afghanistan, America stopped much of that. There was a justice system. Personal freedom grew. People could listen to music or watch television without worrying about being executed for their choice of channels. It was long since time for us to go and let the Afghan people decide what they wanted to do with what we gave them.
Donald Trump knew we needed out of Afghanistan, and had a plan to get America out, protecting those who had stepped up to help America and by extension their own country. When Trump was defeated for president, and waves of anti-Trump-anything swept the nation, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris decided to fast-track withdrawal, without worrying about the future.
To beat the deadline set by Trump, Biden and Harris insisted everything be rushed. After all, the Taliban would undoubtedly honor the wishes of anyone who wanted to leave Afghanistan, and allow them to emigrate wherever they wanted, wouldn’t they?
Yeah, right. These are some of the same people who were so worried about offending extremists that they abandoned Americans, including an ambassador, in Libya in 2012.
America abandoned Afghanistan. Many of us watched the footage live as people who were terrified of Taliban rule tried to ride the landing gear of airplanes. The suicide bomber at Abbey Gate was so successful because crowds piled up there, desperately trying to hand babies and children over the wall, even if the parents wouldn’t make it out.
We needed to be out of Afghanistan; the mission was accomplished when Osama bin Laden was taken out and al Quaida was reduced to a shell of its former self. But the graveyard of empires became a fertile field for careers, both military and political, and politicians as well as senior military leaders.
It’s shameful.
Our military on the ground, the ones who carried rifles and fixed trucks and doctored children and built water systems and hauled boxes of MREs and filled out paperwork – they fulfilled their duties.
The ones who write the big checks, who advise the checkwriters and policymakers, along with those who confuse military strategy with political goals – those folks failed.
This week, we will remember the thousands who died when al Quaida sent a bunch of murderers to America to wage war on civilians.
We need to remember those who fell in the months and years afterward as well. And we need to elect political leaders who will have the decency to attend a memorial service for men and women they allowed to die, even if they can’t say their names on a national stage for fear of offending the people who want to kill us.
Wednesday is the anniversary of 9/11. There’s a better than average chance you can remember exactly what you were doing that beautiful morning.
We will honor and mourn the fallen this week, both the innocent civilians and the first responders who rushed in to save them. We will remember the towers collapsing, the flames charring the Pentagon, and a burning field in Pennsylvania.
I want to challenge everyone to remember something else.
Remember the days after 9/11 – not the fear and rumor, not the mad rush to duct tape our windows shut against anthrax or the frozen fear we all felt when an airplane passed overhead.
I want us to remember the entire Congress standing together on the steps of the capital building, men and women who a few days before had been at each other’s throats. I want us to remember holding hands with strangers and praying. Remember the pride we all felt on seeing so many American flags in so many places, signs that we as a people are far better than those cowards who would destroy us.
Then think about what our country has become.
We are better than this, folks. Right now we are exactly what the Taliban and every other enemy of freedom ever wanted, a nation tearing itself to shreds, sacrificing freedoms for security, ignoring the principles that guided us for so long as a beacon to the world. We are rapidly becoming what we hated and were warned about.
We can be a strong, moral, free, prosperous, generous country again.
We just have to remember what it was like when most of us still felt that way.
Honor the fallen and the brave on 9/11, and the 2,459 who died in Afghanistan afterward – then bring back what we had on 9/12.
And never forget who allowed the death of the men of Benghazi, or the 13 warriors of Abbey Gate.
