This past week, America finally broke-it-off. For twenty years, America hung in there, clinging to the idea of a love in a relationship long dead. With the last embers of passion now extinguished, we can look back at what could’ve been between those star-crossed lovers: United States of America and Afghanistan.
Since 2001, with just cause, America entered into the Afghan war with the intention of rooting out the terrorist responsible for 9/11 and organizing the threat calculus in the Middle East. America’s objectives were laid out efficiently and all of us citizens supported the match, but, unfortunately some complications arose.
The past is the past…at least, that is what the U.S. told itself, ignoring Afghanistan’s messy break-up with Russia and the overall history of the region for being the “graveyard of empires”. As most love-struck individuals believe so America thought, “I can change them. The problem was that no one truly committed; no one really stuck with them!” The plan was intelligence gathering, isolating targets and destroying hot spots, followed by a quick and effective counterinsurgency strategy. Finally, after a year or two of combat operations, the U.S. would be viewed as liberators by the Afghani citizens and nation-building will be spearheaded by the country’s most thoughtful and capable moderates. Once all that was mission accomplished, the U.S. and Afghanistan could build a beautiful relationship. It turned out that history will always and inevitably repeat itself and thanks to covert contact by two of Afghanistan’s exes – Russia and Iran – the budding romance was essentially stunted even before the U.S. would cheat on Afghanistan with what was deemed a sexier prospect: Iraq.
The U.S. gets better headlines elsewhere… About two years into the Afghan War, America inexplicably decided to start something with Iraq. For a time, Afghanistan was left abandoned and confused. Those individuals in Afghanistan that were trained or empowered, or both, were left rudderless and exposed. Worse yet, the country knew they were left high-and-dry for a flashier although less complicated partner. And so, when the dust settled and the two were back together, you could tack resentment onto the list of dysfunctions in this toxic relationship.
Years of co-dependence and dysfunction, but how can we start over… The U.S. and Afghanistan grew apart, but could never truly let each other go. It reached a point that neither could remember a time where they weren’t together and weren’t at odds. On the ground, the bases and airfields that were constructed with hopefulness became only “jumping-off points” for “clean-up” and counterterrorism operations for American soldiers as well as the training Afghan forces – shared custody. It is with those airfields that American troops will depart along with all those Afghanis that wish to abandon the country that they toiled to save and shape. It is with those airfields that America will abandon any projects dedicated to progress or revitalization; moreover, abandoned are all those young women enrolled in college or career for the first time. It is those airfields that will act as a physical reminder of lessons learned and relationships lost as it is inevitably stripped and repurposed to fit the needs of the Taliban and then al-Qaeda.
Strip Clubs are Sad Discos 