Yesterday I found myself dry-heaving and hyper-ventilating in broad daylight, crouched behind the corner of an unused outdoor patio bar in Kansas. I hadn’t had but two beers, but I’d had more than enough of American obtuseness. On a smoke break from wielding my geek-stick (highlighter) with a fatalist fury – brushing-up for today’s Afghanistan column – I made the admittedly willful mistake of trying to explain why the Taliban capture of Kabul was affecting my mood.
When President Joe Biden announced that US forces will leave Afghanistan by September 11 2021, the objections and remonstrations were swift. As retired Marine combat veteran Matthew Hoh writes in CNN, “these protests are nearly all disingenuous, false and specious, and meant to utilize fear to continue a tragic and purposeless war.”