As Afghanistan begins to act less and less “pacified”, I can only think that veterans of that place in the former Soviet Union are laughing.  We helped the Afghanis to kick their butts, bring down their Hind helicopters and send them home in disgrace.  As one of my old New Age friends would have said “What goes around, comes around.”  But I don’t think that truly applies at all here.  I don’t believe in karma, and certainly not instant karma.

I believe in consequences.  We went to war in Afghanistan saying that Osama bin Laden was there; we didn’t find him, and our government rather rapidly lost interest once the war in Iraq began.  So, the consequence is, with troop levels lower the Afghani people who were accustomed to being in charge decided to be there again.  The Taliban is many things, but disloyal to their country they are not.  They stepped up and re-established some very harsh sort of stability in the wreckage when the Russians left. Not us, we didn’t help them reassemble normalcy, we were already long gone.  We played a bit of Cold War chess there and left when the board was cleared.  The Taliban had to hold the country together and deal with the Russian-installed puppets.

From their point of view, that is what they need to do again: get rid of the American puppets and put the country back together as they believe is best.  Even the Afghanis who dislike the Taliban can’t whole-heartedly embrace us and our ideals for their country, death is often the penalty.  Besides, last time we didn’t hang around to clear away the rubble—how do they know this time will be different?  We rush in where any angel might fear to tread—into a medieval world, and we expect to give them a dose of the 21st century with the free Hershey bars and peanut butter?

Afghanistan is ‘hot’ again, more Americans are dying there now than in Iraq.  The government is stumbling over itself trying to find enough Army and Marines to hold the lid down on both war fronts; it is  a bit like a bad Stephen King “Dreamcatcher” moment, holding the lid down on the toilet full of monster!  I do not pretend to know enough about it to come up with better strategy, but I hope anyone reading will keep an open heart and a warm thought for the families of the men and women serving in Afghanistan, as well as for the military folks themselves.

They need every boost of energy, good vibes, positive thinking, prayer, and “magic” that they can get….because somehow I feel more certain of the possibility of delivering those nigh intangible items in lieu of a governmental solution to the clusterfuck in progress.  Nine men dead this weekend, and the summer is only half gone.  And yes, in medieval places, summer is the season of war.   I don’t care what spiritual or religious traditions you espouse—-think of our American military and their allies, so far from home, and do whatever it is you do to invoke protection and blessing, please!