My heart is heavy as I write this.
I once saw a poster in a Paris metro station that said, "Ce qui se passe loin nous touche de près." ("What happens far away touches us up close.") Seldom have I experienced this on an emotional level as what has happened in Afghanistan over the last days and hours.
My sadness can't be explained by my having spent time there or even having any close friends there, whether Afghan citizens or American military personnel. I have met a handful of Afghan refugees in Greece (who made a permanent impression on me) and can think of one army lieutenant colonel I know who has been deployed there, and that's it.
With the almost complete withdrawal of American and NATO troops from the country, the Taliban have overtaken the country with such breathtaking speed that they have, as of today, now penetrated even the capital, Kabul, having first taken control of every provincial capital.
President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country.
In my casual study of Arabic, I recently learned the word talib, meaning "student". The Taliban are not Arabs, nor is their mother tongue Arabic; most of them are of the ethnic Pashtun group, speaking Pashto. But I knew there must be a connection, and sure enough a little research confirmed that this medieval, barbaric group intentionally called themselves "students". (Most likely because their founders were trained in Islamic madrasas in Pakistan.)
If that weren't already ironic enough, try this: when the Taliban were formed in the Cold War 1980's as mujahideen sworn to resist the invading Soviets, it was with the help and support of the CIA.
Now, almost 40 years later, they have baffled even the most astute military scholars and strategists in successfully wresting control of a country governed by a weak and corrupt government propped up for years by the US and other foreign forces, the majority of the people having given up long ago on hopes of a stable, representative government.
My greatest fear is for the women and girls. In the last 20 years of American and NATO presence, the female population has at least gained significant ground in education, the workplace, and human rights. When the Taliban have been in control, which they were for years until being ousted in 2001, women have been prohibited from working, going to school, or even leaving the house without male accompaniment. Hundreds of thousands of girls under 18 have been involuntarily taken as wives, and perhaps the most bitter of ironies, the Taliban, with their twisted view of virtue, often use rape as a weapon of choice.
At this writing, the Taliban are telling the people of Kabul they do not want their takeover of the capital to be bloody. The next few hours and days will tell.
Whatever your opinion of the US withdrawal and the justification of American presence in the first place, we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe of the highest proportions.
Late pictures depict desperate Afghans clinging to American transport planes as they evacuate people from a chaotic Kabul airport.
I am not writing to air opinion; God knows I don't have anywhere close to all the information. Sometimes we simply have to sit with the sadness.
If you have read this far, please pray for Afghanistan.
