America's Betrayal of its Afghan Combat Veterans
America's Betrayal of its Afghan Combat Veterans
Plus, The Weekly (w)Rap
Everyone’s moral injury is different.
Mine is so deep it cuts at the very foundation of my entire 20 years of service. It’s so complete that I’m unsure how to explain it.
I believed in America and our mission in Afghanistan with every ounce of strength inside of me. When 9-11 happened, I stopped foolish things and nearly enlisted until my father asked me to become an officer instead. This was my Pearly Harbor—and I couldn’t even fathom not serving.
Yet, all of it was for naught. The dreams of a free Afghanistan, aligned with the West, and acting as a bulwark against the Taliban and Al Qaeda came to an end because two old Boomers got “tired” of fighting, even though they had never fought a day in their lives.
Pathetic.
It’s hard to believe that we lost a war that was precipitated by an attack on the homeland. That’s why Afghanistan is worse than Vietnam, in my humble opinion. Vietnam was a war of choice. Afghanistan was a response to an attack on the homeland. Whether the Afghan War was foolish or not is up for debate, but the defeat in Vietnam certainly changed the country fundamentally.
What’s changed after our humiliating defeat in Afghanistan?
Nothing.
When people ask me about my service in Afghanistan, they are always alarmed when I tell them, “Yeah, we got our asses kicked.”
I don’t like saying that. I don’t. I never wanted to lose to a bunch of terrorists, but that’s precisely what happened.
My moral injury is coming to grips with the fact that the United States government betrayed its Afghan combat veterans.
Don’t believe me? Do you know how many times Walz & Harris mentioned Afghanistan in their speeches? - 0.
Not once.
Three years ago, the Biden-Harris administration pulled the plug on Afghanistan, and they cannot even bother to say a single word about it. Nothing.
How about something like this?
“We remember our Afghan veterans. We know that you’re hurting. We promise to make amends for the last 20 years of war.”
Nope.
I don’t blame them. I’ve been speaking with various Never Trump organizations for nearly a year, trying to get them to say something, anything about Afghanistan. I always get the same response.
“Yeah, we don’t want to mention Afghanistan because it’s a weak spot.”
Such leadership. Such bravery. Never mind that over 2K+ Americans were killed in Afghanistan. Never mind that the Taliban and Al Qaeda murdered 70,000 ANDSF. Never mind that Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is drenched in American blood, is now out gallivanting in UAE and Saudi Arabia.
America loves the troops; unless they get in the way of something they want to achieve, then it’s entirely different. We’ve always been expendable; that’s part of the thing. But to be dishonored by the very people who sent you to kill on their behalf is a betrayal of such magnitude that it covers the sun.
And I don’t mean to just hit on the Dems, the Republicans are little better. Sure, they mentioned Abbey Gate and the NEO at the RNC, but only as a political weapon to smash Dems. Nobody mentioned the Doha Agreement or Trump’s moronic decision to release Mullah Baradar, the Deputy Taliban leader, from a Pakistani jail. Baradar would go on to fleece the US and place handcuffs on the ANDSF’s ability to conduct offensive operations.
The truth is that Afghanistan is fading from the rearview mirror. When I speak to Americans about Afghanistan, the overwhelming majority of them don’t even know that we lost the war. Not that I blame them, considering our pathetic excuse for a government cannot even do the right thing and say we lost the war.
Instead, we get “Thank You For Your Service,” the PACT Act, and some other bullshit VA program that barely functions correctly. What the United States will not do for the veterans they purportedly love and respect is give them the validation and time they deserve. Instead, we will stand at ball games, let you board planes first, and wear little American flags on the lapel.
But that’s not supporting the troops. That’s just playing a role that society has designed for you so that you can escape any responsibilities for the wars fought in your name.
In the end, the American people love the troops. They love the troops so much that they cannot even pay attention to their deaths. They respect the troops so much that they cannot hold anyone accountable for lost wars.
The Harris-Walz ticket couldn’t even say ‘Afghanistan’ in their speeches. That’s pathetic and indicative of a country that not only doesn’t support the troops but constantly dishonors them by partnering with their murderers, the Taliban.
I’m still voting for Harris (gulp) because of January 6 and Senator McCain. But the Democrats could really use some self-awareness. While one should rightfully criticize Trump for his bromance with Putin in Helsinki, at least Trump isn’t providing money to Russia, which is something I cannot say for the Biden—Harris administration.
The United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) recently reported that since August 2021, US implementing partners in Afghanistan have paid at least $10.9 million to the Taliban regime as taxes and utility expenses for water and electricity, directly benefiting the Taliban from US aid in Afghanistan.
So which is worse? Trump-Putin or Biden-Akhunzada?
The United States has betrayed its Afghan combat veterans by partnering with their killers, refusing to speak openly and honestly about the war, and not giving their veterans their most precious commodity: their attention.
And people wonder why there is a recruiting crisis.
The Weekly (w)Rap
It was another busy week here at GCV+F.
- wrote a great article on Afghanistan and the lies we tell ourselves.
Afghans now live under the terrifying yoke of the Taliban, which enforces its harsh version of Sharia (Islamic law) just as it did in the 1990s. Al Qaeda now runs training camps in at least 12 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and is arguably far more secure in Afghanistan today than it was pre-911. The moral injury to American soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors, and civilians who sacrificed years of their lives—and many, their lives, limbs, and mental well-being—is incalculable.
Three years after the fall of Afghanistan, American politicians, policymakers, generals, and our so-called foreign policy experts can’t even admit we lost the war. It’s an uncomfortable truth, as they would have to own many fateful days where their decisions contributed to the collapse of Afghanistan.
We reflected on the Afghan United Front’s outstanding summit on the anniversary of 15 August 2021.
“Bread, work, freedom.”
This is the battle cry of the Afghan girls and women who have relentlessly taken to the streets over the past three years to champion their very right to exist under Taliban rule. These women are undeniably at the forefront of their own resistance movement, organizing under this one simple phrase to defend “what they knew the Taliban would attack: their independence, agency, mobility, and freedom. These women were asserting their rights to social and financial independence. They were also demanding dignity and risking their lives for a better future for all Afghan people.” Given their work, these women face brute violence, indefinite detention, and torture; nevertheless, they persist.
- wrote another beautiful essay, this time on her mother.
Back to my mom, she’s been through so much, but she never complains. For four months, she suffered from hemorrhoids, and she didn’t tell anyone. She found a doctor and took care of it all by herself. And just when she thought she was getting better, she started having lower back pain. But like everything else, she defeated it. Even though her body was in pain, her heart was always with her family back in Afghanistan, constantly worrying about them. My dad’s earnings barely covered our food and shelter, but he still sent money back home to support them.
I wrote another uplifting article about flashbacks! LOL
When the demons come—and they always do, don’t they?—they come in many shapes and sizes.
Sometimes, the demons come for me in my nightmares, especially this time of year. Those voices screaming out in horror reverberate through my consciousness. They pierce my reality in various forms.
Three years ago, I was in the fight of my life. It wasn’t on the battlefield. No, it was in a hotel in downtown DC, trying to smuggle my friends into Hamid Karza International Airport. I don’t even remember most of it, to be very honest. It was just a blur.
Even though I had just started my command tour, the war beckoned me. And, like a long servant to war, I returned to the fight.
Over ten days, I tried every way imaginable to smuggle, bribe, cajole, threaten, manipulate, and squeeze every Afghan contact into the bastion of safety. It was madness. Madness in every direction. Those two weeks were the darkest of my life.
I had much to say with my Daily Rants: Here, Here, Here, and Here.
We had a great conversation with my former Senior Enlisted Leader, Sara Davidson, on our Shoulder to Shoulder, Untold Stories From a Forgotten War.
- and I had another upbeat discussion on Generation Jihad.
Elliot Ackerman
Always read Elliot Ackerman. Always.
During Trump’s presidency, he presided over 12 presentations of the Medal of Honor. If he wins the White House in November, he’ll likely preside over more. I doubt anyone will be saying at any future White House presentation that an award wasn’t deserved. But they might say, instead, that the man presenting it doesn’t deserve the honor of performing the task.
Dearest Will, and I mean that. You have a very pure soul and that is why you have such immense problems living in this world.
I am a professional historian, so I am professionally committed to remembering everything.
I'm writing the following only to help you see the broader context of American amnesia about Afghanistan. This isn't the first government or society that has decided to memory hole painful events. As far as China is concerned, the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen massacre are non- events— perfect vacuums in their historical memory.
The Roman Empire actually had a formalized process of editing past leaders out of their history--damnatio memoriae. Roman emperors always cemented their reigns by the mass production of sculptures and inscriptions. When a subsequent emperor and Senate hated that emperor, they destroyed the sculptures and hacked his name out of the inscriptions--damnatio memoriae.
It would be a gigantic step forward for us as a country if we could erect a monument on our national mall to the wars that we have lost, or ended in stalemate— Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq II. There should be plenty of room at the bottom of this list to add more names. Accepting the downside is a big part of maturity, while still aspiring to excel.
While I understand the fear of mentioning Afghanistan, a simple three-sentence statement like you propose would have gone a long way. I love your blog, and I'm totally with you on our bullshit foreign policies, and the expendability of our troops. And our cavalier attitude to our indigenous allies; this is not anything new (see Vietnam). When I read Eagle Down (which you lived) I was appalled, and maybe a little fearful for my SF son. Still, there's no way I can abide by Trump, McCain was my man.