National Flag Day
Help Us Stand with Our Afghan Brothers-and-Sisters
I’ve served under many banners, flags, and guidons. I’m a proud American combat veteran. Carrying the American colors into combat was an incredible feeling, mixed with pride and exuberance. You stand a little taller when you have the honor of carrying your colors into combat.
I was a commander a few years ago. I was proud to have my guidon standing beside me. I tried to be the best commander I could be for my Airmen. It was a symbol that will always carry weight with me.
I’ve also served alongside scores of other allied nations in combat, including the Iraqis, French, Canadian, English, Australian, Kiwis (New Zealand), Koreans, Belgians, Germans, Polish, Swedish, Italian, Bulgarian, and Spanish banners (to name just a few).
Serving alongside such incredible soldiers was the honor of my life. However, it was nothing compared to serving alongside my Afghan brothers and sisters. As I said during my retirement speech, fighting next to my Afghan allies was the highest honor of my life. They are my people.
Today, we remember the republic. And we pledge that these colors will rise again over Kabul because the Afghan people—not some Pakistani stooges—are the real rulers of Afghanistan.
GCV+Friends stands alongside our Afghan allies. We pledge to elevate their voices so everyone knows the truth: the Afghans did fight. In fact, they fought like lions.
And while the past is painful, the future is bright. There is a resistance brewing against the Taliban, and we will amplify the voices of the resistance—in all shapes, sizes, and banners—so they can take back their country and give it back to the Afghans trapped behind enemy lines.
Join us as we stand shona-ba-shona with our Afghan allies.
The current struggle of the Afghan people puts me in mind of our own struggles with authoritarians who also represented an oppressive regime, in our case the ᎤᎧᏏwho built temples atop large mounds in our towns. Eventually we become tired of them and burned down the temples with their priests inside them. Since that time we have not had any hereditary positions among us and religion is a private matter for us. That all happened long ago, the archaeological evidence indicates about 800 years ago during a period of perhaps 100 years of unrest and destruction in our towns. When the Spanish and later the British came the mounds remained but the temples and their occupants were long gone. In a similar fashion I believe that the Afghan people will find their way over time - perhaps a very long time, whether they have 'help' or not and on their own terms as tribal people.
Ultimately Afghans need people to carry the torch. Sponsors, handlers, so many folks who are trying their best to help our allied partners out of this nightmare carry that torch - this Evac is not in any way complete and that story must stay current and in the public eye.