On August 25, 2021
© By John Arkelian
Abject failure is a hard thing to face; yet that is precisely what has been unfolding before our eyes on a daily basis as the 20th anniversary of 9/11 draws near. The complete and ignominious collapse of our long mission in Afghanistan has manifested itself with a suddenness and a gravity that are nothing less than shocking. The chaos and panic occasioned by our hasty departure is tough to watch, awakening memories of the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Throngs of frightened civilians crowd the airport runway desperate to escape, a few of them clinging to the outside of an aircraft as it accelerates for take-off. A cargo plane meant for 100 passengers is packed with over 600. Mothers with outstretched arms lift or fling their infants over razor-wire to Western troops. People wade through raw sewage, desperate to find a way into the temporary sanctuary offered by this last bit of territory held by Western forces. It didn’t have to be this way.
See “The Ignominious Debacle in Afghanistan” at: https://artsforum.ca/ideas/the-wide-world