"You have the clocks, but we have the time." -- Afghan proverb
From British colonialists in the 19th century to Soviet colonialists in the late 20th century, Afghanistan has proved to be be a graveyard for foreign armies. The rural, intensely tribal nature of the country defies central organization or domination, and the pervasive radical religious beliefs -- hostile to women's rights and "non-believers" -- have worked to frustrate any faint semblance of establishing a Western-style democracy, a form of government unknown to Afghans throughout history.
Now, as the Taliban rushes headlong to Kabul, the Afghan military which we spent nearly 20 years training, equipping and fighting alongside, is folding, its soldiers running or, worse, joining the Taliban. Most won't fight to protect their families, much less their country such as it is.
Our Army and Marine veterans who were initially hopeful that al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts could be suppressed if not eliminated have had a change of heart. As former Lance Corporal William Bee, bitterly told the AP:
"For Bee, it came down to a night in 2008 in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. By then a sergeant, Bee held the hand of an American sniper who had just been shot in the head, as a medic sliced open the man’s throat for an airway.
'After that it was like, you know what — ‘F—k these people,’ Bee recounted, of what drove him by his fourth and final Afghan deployment. 'I just want to bring my guys back. That’s all I care about. I want to bring them home.'"
Our remaining obligation as a nation is to secure the immediate evacuation of those Afghans who served us as translators, clerks, embassy staff and more, and who face extermination at the hands of a vengeful Taliban. Thus far, a comparative few have been evacuated, despite months if not years of planning for our departure. The nations of the European Union have resisted the resettlement of Afghans fleeing the Taliban, so the world is left with a humanitarian crisis that was slow in developing and fast in arriving, something that no clock can tell you.
