Human Hearts and Looks Deceive Me

 the world has watched the disturbing images coming from afghanistan as western armed forces and citizens withdraw from the country.  as would be expected, politicians in the united states have tried to spin events to their own advantage.  americans overwhelmingly support bringing the troops home and ending our involvement in the affairs of afghanistan.  having spent in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars over nearly twenty years and having lost the lives of almost 2,500 soldiers with about 21,000 more injured, our country has paid a dear price for the costly war and attempt at nation building.  as we never seem to learn from past experiences, the impulse to make the lives of people in other countries better by our armed intervention, followed by efforts to impose our idea of a proper government, is wrong-headed and presumptuous.  

while the rights of women in afghanistan improved enormously during the allied occupation, those gains are all but certain to be diminished and perhaps entirely reversed under a taliban-controlled government, as will many other basic human rights.  the corruption of the government we supported seems to have given ordinary afghans little confidence in their leaders' ability to improve their lives.  its quick collapse and that of the army and police that operated under it are an indication that those at the highest level of government were more concerned with their own survival and enrichment than with helping their fellow afghans.

our hearts go out to the people of afghanistan as these tragic events play out.  we feel compassion for those who aided the american military and who are now in danger of reprisals from the taliban and hope that those who wish to flee are successful in doing so with or without our help.  we will now undergo months of wrenching congressional and press investigations of the agreement between the trump administration and the taliban and oversight of that agreement's implementation by the administration of president biden.  if the taliban enjoys so little popular support in afghanistan, one wonders why the well-equipped military didn't resist rather than collapsing.  afghan politics is far more complicated than a simple choice between a corrupt western-style government and an extremist islamic state.  when most afghans live in abject poverty, struggling to keep themselves and their families alive, who controls the government is far less important that keeping body and soul together.

may we learn from the lessons of afghanistan.  may we in the west, and particularly in the united states, see that our powers are limited and that we do not have the right to impose our will on other nations.  may the people of afghanistan find their way forward from the mess we have created and develop a nation that meets their needs rather than ours.  may we address the current situation with compassion and understanding rather than using it for our own narrow political purposes.  shalom.