The longest war, the shortest memory
Afghanistan, fighting back against the memory-hole, and hope in the face of tragedy
This post was originally published on August 18, 2021
Vol. 12 - August 18, 2021
ESSAY | TAKE ACTION | READ LOCAL | THE BIG PICTURE | FOR YOUR EYES/EARHOLES | NOW READ THIS | FOR YOUR MOUTH/LEISURE TIME | FINAL FRAME
As news from Afghanistan rolls in, I’ve of course been feeling enormous heartbreak on behalf of the people whose lives are being upended (or ended) as the Taliban retakes control. I’m not here to go into the geo-politics of it all - better minds with actual history in the country are doing a good job of that. I am doing my best to listen to the people of Aghanistan. I am trying to find ways to help (see more below for a local Madison option).
I will say that it has been absolutely bizarre to watch the real-time memory-holing of what happened to get us here.
The campaign started well before last week’s events, too, as some (often prominent) people began the baffling process of rehabilitating George W. Bush. From Ellen Degeneres pal’ing around with him to Michele Obama sharing “wise cracks and cough drops” with the ex-president, and all the uncritical pundits in between, there seemed to be a groundswell effort to forget the younger Bush’s direct responsibility for two bloody, costly, unnecessary wars (one of which, the Iraq War, that was based entirely on lies and a desire for oil), a torture program, a stolen election, and countless discriminatory laws.
Now I’m watching older folks yelling at people who were literal children (or not yet alive) during 9/11 for not opposing the war in Afghanistan. I’m seeing those who had actual access to the levers of power claiming they opposed it all along when they most certainly supported it. To be clear: Some 88% of Americans supported military action back in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and only Rep. Baraba Lee of California voted against the open-ended authorization for the war--a move that brought her enormous blowback and threats.
At the time, Lee explained her vote by quoting an invocation given for victims of the 9/11 attack by the Rev. Nathan Baxter: “Let us also pray for divine wisdom as our leaders consider the necessary actions for national security, wisdom of the grace of God, that as we act we not become the evil we deplore,” he said.
That as we act we not become the evil we deplore.
I was a sophomore in college on September 11, 2001. My roommate woke me up that morning by knocking on my bedroom door and declaring, “We’re under attack!” We gathered around the TV and watched the footage, over and over, of planes flying into the towers, of the towers imploding, of ashen-faced reporters working to keep some semblance of composure as they tried to explain what little they knew of what was happening.
For whatever reason, I had the presence of mind to pull out my little video camera and record the TV and then the line of cars that had begun to gather at the gas station across the street from our house. Fears of rationing and price gouging hit immediately, as people assumed the attacks had to do with terrorists from the Middle East. The reaction felt...telling. We all knew. Regardless of the intent of the attackers, regardless of where exactly they were from, somehow this surely had to do with oil and the U.S.’s thirst for it. Not our first imperialist rodeo.
I wrote in my journal that day, too - worrying about the future, positive that our government would overreact, go to war, squander the enormous goodwill we were already being shown by the wider world. I can’t pretend that I had a particularly good grip on the geo-politics involved - I was just a naive, bleeding heart 19-year-old who knew in my gut that dropping bombs on an entire country was never a good solution, even in the wake of such gut-wrenching tragedy. We could use more bleeding hearts in power.
I went to an enormous candlelight vigil on Library Mall in downtown Madison, on campus, in the days after the attacks. I went to classes and to work in a daze, startled by the sudden appearance of so many American flags everywhere. The radio filled with xenophobic, faux-patriotic country songs. Muslims, anyone brown, faced suspicion and attacks. Right-wingers freaked out about France refusing to support the war and renamed French fries as Freedom Fries and dumped whole bottles of French wine down storm drains.
I watched classmates who were Reservists or National Guard members called up and disappeared from campus. I heard near-miss stories from friends and friends of friends who lived in New York City, one who had been one interview away from a job that would have put him in the World Trade Center that day.
I watched the TV footage of the American advance into Afghanistan--the night vision bombs and missiles, the footage of women in burkhas (were we fighting to liberate them? Why only now, years after the Taliban took over?) Did we have an exit plan? Why were we attacking Afghanistan when most of the hijackers were Saudi Arabian? Hadn’t we supported and armed the fighters in Afghanistan in their war against Russia back in the day? Oh yes, yes we had.
As time passed and we learned more, it became more and more apparent that the U.S. had made a series of mistakes over decades that had, inexorably, led us here. Hubris, paternalism, greed. And 71,000+ civilians dead, 3.5 million internally displaced Afghans and 2.5 million refugees, 2,448 U.S. service members killed, 3,847 U.S. contractors killed, and trillions of dollars later….
That as we act we not become the evil we deplore.
America has failed to heed that call, over and over and over again. We will continue to willfully ignore it, too, if there is no meaningful accountability for those people who get us into these messes, who profit so enormously from them, and who go on to serve in administration after administration, or get hired to the punditry or influential think tanks. We will continue to bluster our way into bloody disasters until we create a society (and a world) based on mutual dependence, environmental stewardship, and non-extractive systems.
Until then, I will not stand by while anyone claims American exceptionalism, or tries to shout down thoughtful criticism. I will not be silent when the galaxy-brained among us declare GWB to be a good dude, just a nice man who does paintings now, and boy how could we have known how badly things would go in Afghanistan (or Iraq, or Vietnam)?
I will not give in to despair, either (tempting though it so often is). Despair is the harbinger of fatalism and inaction. But there is always hope, so long as there is breath left in those of us with hearts that bleed.
Take Action.
Please consider supporting refugee resettlement in Wisconsin: Jewish Social Services of Madison will be helping Afghan refugees and is seeking financial donations to bolster their efforts and allow flexibility in terms of what needs to be provided. I can confirm that they do great work. Donate online here.
Read Local.
I have always written stories, but I’ve been going through a long dry spell of actually finishing or trying to publish any of them. Happily, a short story I finished as the result of an excellent writing workshop earlier this year just got itself an honorable mention in the Wisconsin Academy’s annual fiction contest. A very pleasant surprise, indeed! The story, called “Dust to Dust,” is very much me planting the seeds for a potential novel or novella, but we’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, if you’re curious to read it, I’ve made it available via Google Docs.
“Wisconsin's anti-CRT bills are an attack on the truth” [Nada Elmikashfi for Tone]
This past year has confronted our entire nation with existential crises of race and racism, oppression and privilege, fascism and democracy. These reckonings, as America tries to move on from Trump’s presidency, challenge the authority of those whose power stems from stepping on others. Anti-CRT bills, anti-Trans bills, voter suppression bills, and other regressive right-wing legislation are all a visceral response of a system that refuses to change, that refuses to shed its oppression because it inherently benefits from it.
The Big Picture
"In the Face of Climate Change, We Must Act So That We Can Feel Hopeful—Not the Other Way Around" [Katherine Hayhoe for TIME]
In a world that seems increasingly out of control, we are desperate for hope: real hope, a hope that acknowledges the full magnitude of the challenge we face and the very imminent risk of failure. Real hope also offers a chance of a more vibrant future; a glimpse, however distant, of something better than what we have today, not worse.
“It started with a mock ‘slave trade’ and a school resolution against racism. Now a war over critical race theory is tearing this small town apart.” [Hannah Natanson for the Washington Post]
“‘Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging,’ all of those words sound great,” said Nicole Hooper, a 42-year-old mother of three. “But when you drill back and actually look at the meaning of the words . . . they are interlaced with critical race theory.”
"America, It’s Time to Talk About Ed Buck" [Jasmyne Cannick]
The reporter who worked tirelessly for years to expose the criminal actions of Democratic mega-donor Ed Buck talks about how we prevent another case like this in the future. It involves de-stigmatizing sex work and those who engage in it, as well as holding powerful (white) men accountable for their actions regardless of their status in a community. It means dismantling homophobia and transphobia and welcoming our children to be their full, authentic selves in the world.
"Grief Belongs in Social Movements. Can We Embrace It?" [Malkia Devich-Cyril for In These Times]
To be Black, Indigenous or a member of any oppressed class in America is to know traumatic loss. As humans, we are hardwired for the fact that death is a natural part of life. While loss is deeply uncomfortable, we can learn to adapt to the natural phenomenon of loss. But when structural inequalities produce major and secondary losses, leading to widespread collective grief, death is out of balance with life. Individual and collective, repeated and generational, traumatic loss stacked on top of existing natural loss. We must tear down the systems, institutions and narratives that engineer death, fuel it and simultaneously distract us from it. This essential rebalancing act is the charge of 21stcentury social justice movements.
"Manchin and Sinema Have Their History Wrong" [Jamelle Bouie for NY Times Opinion]
If Congress is going to pass a voting rights bill of any kind, it is going to be on a partisan basis, much the way it was from the end of the Civil War until well into the 20th century. Democrats will either accept this and do what needs to be done or watch their fortunes suffer in the face of voter suppression, disenfranchisement and election subversion.
“Police shootings continue daily, despite a pandemic, protests and pushes for reform” [Mark Berman, Julie Tate, and Jennifer Jenkins for The Washington Post / paywall]
The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by on-duty police officers in 2015, the year after a White officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot and killed a Black 18-year old. Over the past six years, officers have fatally shot more than 6,400 people, an average of nearly a thousand a year, or almost three each day.
"American Shoppers Are A Nightmare" [Amanda Mull for The Atlantic]
For Americans in a socially isolating culture, living under an all but broken political system, the consumer realm is the place where many people can most consistently feel as though they are asserting their agency.
For Your Earholes/Eyes
The “Man Enough” podcast recently had on Alok Vaid-Menon, a righteously awesome trans-feminine writer, performer, and speaker, to talk about moving beyond the gender binary and the urgent need for compassion in our society. It’s essential viewing/listening:
The focus has been on comprehension, not compassion. So people will say ‘I don’t understand you.’ Why do you need to understand me in order to say that I shouldn’t be experiencing violence? That equation, we really need to interrogate. What lack of empathy is there in that statement to be like ‘I just don’t get it,’ when ‘I don’t get it’ becomes a shield for saying ‘I’m OK with you being exposed to violence.’
People have been taught to fear the very things that set them free. The focus has been on comprehension, not compassion. What I tell men is this is not about accepting trans and gender non-conforming people. It’s about accepting yourself. And if you do that work first, everything I’m going to say is going to make sense. But if you don’t do that work everything I’m going to say is going to be inherited as an attack from a zero-sum ideology that makes you think if other people thrive you must somehow lose something. That’s what’s happening with misogyny in this country right now. I want to be able to walk outside without being spat on. I want to be able to live without the fear of dying. I want to wear what I wear and not be called ‘brave.’ And people are saying that’s a threat? Darling, the threat is a system that has made you mistake your latent disassociation for a personality.
Now Read This.
“Back to School in a Pandemic” [Lyz Lenz]
We have all the tools to make our children’s school year safe, but our governments refuse to use them. When your plan rests on the personal responsibility of the elementary school crowd to mask up, your plan is not a plan at all. Your plan is a disaster.
For Your Mouth/Leisure Time.
I visited Doundrin’s Distilling in Cottage Grove the other day and greatly enjoyed the spirits and the whole vibe. I was turned onto the spot by the Cap Times’ excellent patio guide and can confirm that Doundrin’s has a superb outdoor space: large, grassy, with a big stage for performances and a whole-ass playground setup for the kiddos. Bonus: Their house-made spirits are diverse and delicious, and they have a great list of mocktails and other non-alcoholic beverages, too. Glad to see that becoming more commonplace generally. Go check ‘em out!
Final Frame.
‘Til next time.
Thanks for reading! Hit me up with questions, comments, suggestions, and tips on great hiking spots.