Goodbye Afghanistan

         So long to one of the "Stans", one of the many countries whose global name ends in the suffix '-stan', or more to the point "-land".  Or again, "The Land of the Afghani".    This land-locked desert, replete with valleys, canyons, snow-capped peaks that somehow lead to the knot of blended mountains we call the Himalayas, is hardly a "Shangri La" or heaven on earth.   So long to the black hole of American investment that pays no dividends, supports no future, digests careers and lives simultaneously as US armed forces rotate through the harsh landscape that offers no shelter from anything, not even daydreams.

        President Joe Biden, our new/old President made the announcement that, yes, there is an end to the sad name of "The Endless War".   September 11, 2021 is the day which will mark the terminal point after 20 years of fruitless pursuit of undefined, unattainable, mythical "goals" established by our "thinking" leaders who put us there in the first place.  In a perverse sense, our soldiers performed well, did their duty, and went back many times during careers that spanned those 20 years, but never saw tangible results that even came close to success, no matter the measure.  How could Congress and the Pentagon think it was a good thing to send troops back again, and again, and again with a change in results?   Perhaps none of these "thinkers" can recall Vietnam.  Perhaps none has a son or a daughter(like Joe Biden) who was serving or served in a combat zone.  Joe Biden is the 1st president in 40 years who had a son who served in a combat zone.   (Who was that last president?).

        Have we learned anything?   Hmmmm.  Good question.   How will we measure the test results?  Perhaps the budget of the military will now be slashed to a useful point: no more trillions down the sinkhole of a foreign revenge mission.  Looking back over recent adventures abroad in the Middle East, we see two vivid results:1)  Saddam Hussein was captured in a gopher hole, tried and executed, 2) Osama bin Laden was uncovered in his temporary home in Pakistan and killed by US Navy Seals.  Since those events, the military can only point to a few well-publicized assassinations of military leaders known to lead forces against American units in the combat zone(s).   Our "professional" military forces have been stretched to the breaking point(actually, they are breaking-ask the VA).  Repeated deployments without any visible progress is mentally crippling for those on the ground-those infantry soldiers who are the tip of that old spear.  They survive, come home, return and wait for their "luck" to run out as infantrymen.  It is a sad testimony to the heartlessness of the generals who have the "mission" in mind at all costs.

       So, we Americans, at home with our Covid-19 virus and our next-to-zero interest rates, and our record-breaking stock market, and our high unemployment, and our immigration disaster on the southern border, and our education system on the internet, and our economy led by corporations that somehow pay no income taxes, and our banks recording record profits while paying no interest on the bank accounts of the little guy, and a rush to the polar opposites of political positions, and gun laws that make no sense in a nation of laws, so we Americans look for improvements as we leave the "Graveyard of Nations".