Chris has been home from Afghanistan for 11 months. He returned without any injuries and to our great relief all of our close friends also returned from Afghanistan unharmed. My baby brother was not so fortunate, but he is healing from the IED attack last July. In a conversation I had with him today, he told me he is only using his cane when he is really tired or hurting. His left leg was broken into bits during the explosion. With divine intervention, or more likely because the surgeon paid attention during medical school, or just chalk it up to dumb luck, that doctor was able to piece him back together. It will take a lot of effort and pain but he will recover. As an Army family we have watched so many soldier's lives be shattered by the last decade of war. Divorces, broken bodies and severed spirits have littered our military life. We have watched as soldiers were laid to rest after giving their lives for this under-appreciated and misunderstood institution. Yes, U.S. soldiers fight bravely for our nation, but at the end of a battle you will find it was their battle buddies for which they sacrificed. It is the wives and children and fathers and sisters and childhood friends of those battle buddies that each soldier considers when marching into bullets. No Army officer or NCO or private wants to think about returning home without one of their own sitting tightly packed into a C-130 next to them. It will happen though. It has happened, far more than I ever imagined.
Twelve years ago, when our president dispatched the first units into Afghanistan, I thought it would be a quick in and out, precise operation. Our superior forces would land, collect the enemy, then try and execute the bastard for what he did. In my collections of memories concerning international conflicts there was only the Cold War (which felt more like impending doom than war) and the Gulf War. One hundred days of tanks and tents and surrendering Iraqi soldiers set the precedent for which I thought all wars would be fought. We are the United States of America and we can take care of anything. That was my mind set. I am ashamed to admit it but I could not have pointed to Afghanistan on a map prior to 9-11. Now, I can label every country in the Middle East. I can tell you their long and violent histories. I can tell you the valleys and gulches scattered throughout a country that even a fictional god has forsaken. I can estimate how many clicks east one location is from the other based on where my friend's husbands, sisters and sons are stationed. I am able to tell you who is at the top of our most wanted list, who has recently been killed by a drone strike, and who is left to eradicate.
I have an opinion about the rebuilding of this country. Afghanistan is a country where outside governments pay Afghan citizens to clean their own sewage from their homes in their own villages. This is a country in which its citizens have completely wiped out timber in a rush for easy cash. This is a country that allows its women to die during childbirth rather than allow a male doctor to treat her because an archaic book tells them so. This is a country where after a man is blown apart by U.S. forces for launching an RPG at an allied building or vehicle, he then comes to ask for surgery. Afghanistan is a country in which men's hands are skillfully removed for what is believed to be petty theft, by an illiterate man who cannot read his holy book, and will sentence his daughter to death if she is raped. This is a country lost to war and blind religious faith. It isn't the U.S. that broke this country. It is a country that has been riddled with sorrow for so long that I believe they miss the chaos during the calm. This is a country we are best to forget about, at least for now. Much like my brother's recovery, Afghanistan is going to have to learn to stand on it's crippled legs at some point. All the canes, walkers and therapy won't do any good if the people who populate this country refuse to take a deep breath, roll up their sleeves and work for the betterment of all its own citizens rather than an easy payday, no matter how painful change is. So, I say, let Afghanistan learn to walk. Sometimes the best way to teach a person to be independent is to stop supporting their wobbling legs and allow them to walk or fall on their own.
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