"It's Daddy!"
Howdy,
What a week! Phew. Man, we were busy around these here parts.
I landed in KCMO last Sunday at around 0800CST, and took an Uber back to mi casa. I travel a lot. I always have. I’m a man of action—a man in the arena if you will. I can’t stay still for very long. I get anxious. Movement relieves my stress, anxiety, and dark thoughts.
Writing helps me process. Adventures remind me to live life to the fullest.
But, just like going to war, returning from adventures can be difficult, especially if your sense of adventure sends you back to war zones. This isn’t the place to dissect the Hamas-Israel War. As I’ve said many times before, reasonable people can disagree vehemently on certain subjects but still remain friends and even allies for common causes (i.e., helping our warriors).
I was nervous about coming home. I had been with the Israelis throughout the battlefield. I visited northern Israel, where Hezbollah’s rockets rain down death from above. I went to the killing fields near Be’eri and wept deeply in a sea of grief at the Nova Musical Festival site. It was an incredible experience to be in a place of such sorrow and devastation but also love. I felt love at that site. And it filled me with hope.
After Israel, I went to DC to hang with the Afghans in America. I spent most of my time with the Sarbaz family. The Sarbaz’s roll deep, my friends — their andiwalaan (group/friends/Pashto) is almost 20. I sat with them and listened to their stories of hope, despair, and resilience. They are here among us, this courageous family. And even though they’re grateful to be here with you, they’d rather be in Afghanistan with their people.
In the meantime, I will make sure they feel at home. Some day, inshallah, Afghanistan will be returned to its people. But until that day, please help GCV+Friends make them feel at home. By becoming a paid subscriber, you help us elevate more Afghan voices. If you’re really into our vibe, consider becoming a Founding member. Paid subscribers will soon get an extra product. It will be a back-and-forth with me, GCV, and
. From the Center-Right & the Center-Left, if you will.Founding members will get more (we’re brainstorming)
As we’ve written before, GCV+F is partnering with Give an Hour to provide free Moral Injury support to 15 American warriors. It’s a significant endeavor for us at GCV+F. Our founding members helped us provide that support to our warriors. The fall of Afghanistan created a tsunami of moral injury that is wrecking America’s veteran community. Please consider helping us support them. If you know any veteran who could use some help, please send them the link to the application.
Like I said, I’m a man of action. However, that doesn’t always compute with my daughter. She needs me to be a man present with her. It’s not my strong suit, to be honest. As the lovely Charity will attest, I can be a lot. I’m a handful. My mind is constantly racing, breaking apart problems, ensuring things are going well so that my friends and family are supported. It’s just how I’m built. And after 20 years in the military, I don’t think that’s going away.
But with my daughter, I can be a kid. I forgot that joy. She heals me in so many ways. So much more than any medicine or therapy. She’s my life.
I was nervous when I walked through the doors after a two-week-long adventure. Walking in, I yelled big and strong, “Where’s my beautiful girl?”
And her eyes lit up. She asked momma to get her out of the high chair, and then she came running to hug me.
For the first time, I could tell she really missed me. My daughter requires some time and attention to build love. For the longest time, I failed to give her that time. Now, however, as I focus on my business and supporting my wife as a principal, I get to see my daughter every day. I’m learning more and more about her.
We have our own inside jokes. We have Daddy-Daughter Time (DDT) every Friday. Today, I took her on a run (of course) to the playground (very hot), to get ice cream (DDT4Life), and finally to the used bookstore. She got about five books to feed that bazooka for a brain.
It was magical.
The war took a lot from me. It robbed me of so many things. However, it also gave me my daughter. And that is the greatest gift of my life. She reminds me that there is hope and love in this world full of death.
I never knew I needed that until she came into my life.
The Weekly (w)Rap
My brother and our first official contributor, Colonel Abdul Rahman Rahmani, returned to the Tales of the Afghan Security Forces and helped answer the question, “Why Shouldn’t the US Recognize the Taliban?”
My good friend, Thomas Kasza, stopped by the studio. We also had a great conversation about his service in the military and his current endeavors to help our Afghan allies trapped behind enemy lines. He has some great organizations you should consider supporting here. If you want to support our Afghan allies, Thomas will ensure it helps the right people.
I drank too much coffee and hopped on the mike to declare that Secretary of Defense Austin Should Resign.
My episode on Jonathan Small’s Write About Now podcast. As usual, I cry like a baby! It’s sort of my thing.
We had some bangers this week!
My BFF, Kate K, brought the thunder with her takedown of SCOTUS.
As young people are wont to do, I acted without a complete understanding of the consequences of blindly committing myself to the whims of men who are happy to abuse their positions of authority in their pursuit of personal satisfaction and gain. There is little I can do other than steel myself for a flurry of forthcoming unprincipled opinions and elevate my own objections thereto.
It’s a hard truth, but the fact remains: I joined the wrong cult, and my nation is worse off for it.
Read the whole thing.
- , who turns my nonsense into coherent sentences at the Bulwark, stopped by and wrote an excellent essay on War Crimes. He’s 28 (I think) and has already been published in the WSJ. No, I’m not jealous!
War crimes are bad. That’s not really up for debate. But our system of thinking about, addressing, preventing, and punishing war crimes is also wrong. War crimes are evil in the normative sense that they are morally wrong—indeed, participating in war crimes is up there on the list of the worst things a person can do. Our system for dealing with them is terrible in the sense of not working very well—and it’s therefore also morally deficient.
- returned with another poignant essay.
Growing up in Kabul, my siblings and I would watch lots of cartoons and movies. Most of the cartoons were in English, but one of our favorite TV channels translated them into Farsi for us. My absolute favorite cartoons were “Miraculous Ladybug” and “SpongeBob”. They are still around, but now they are only in English, and guess what? I know English now, and watching them in English gives me more joy!
We published our first poem by Shir Aqa Sarbaz, a refugee from Afghanistan who started his first job this week!
As usual, I had a lot to say this week on GCV+F: here, here, here, here, and here.
If you don’t have time to be a GCV completist, then read this piece by me in the Bulwark on being a veteran.
It’s not unusual for Americans to say they support the military and its veterans, but that support is a thin reed compared to partisan loyalties and animosities. It recedes at the mere suggestion that Biden or Trump bears some responsibility for Afghanistan. I’ve received scornful looks, despicable tweets, and self-righteous emails accusing me of being a Trumper—or, alternately, an unpatriotic lib in disguise. Others shut down entirely if you dare to suggest that someone in their tribe bears responsibility for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers in two fruitless wars.
Sara Davidson
Sara Davidson is one of my favorite humans. She’s been affected by war. She’s an incredible leader who helped me build a squadron’s identity from the ground up. It was an astonishing thing to watch her operate. Don’t get it twisted; Sara is also an assassin like Nancy Pelosi.
Sara is an integral part of our team at GCV+F. She’s an operations leader. She’s an effective team builder. AND she will also host a new podcast in the coming weeks. It’s called Service Unplugged. More to follow.
Sara is also a gifted writer. Here’s her latest salvo. IT’S REALLY GOOD!
Freedom is a state of being that I love to exist in but sometimes fall out of, mostly due to anxious thoughts and self-doubt. Freedom is like a drug. I chase it, devour it, build tolerance, then find the next thing that will get me to Freedom.
Phew, that was a lot. I’m confident in saying that we’re giving everyone a good product here at GCV+F. We’re going to be doing more in the future. We’re building this great community from the ground up. And that couldn’t happen without you.
You’re helping this GCV heal. And I’m forever grateful for it.
Correction: In an earlier version, I listed Sara and Natalie’s new show as Veterans Unplugged. The name is service unplugged. I’ll start doing push ups.
My heart! ❤️
You would know I love this one! Keep writing.