Opus 2026-355: Read with Discernment

I’m almost finished with a book that was given to me.  The title is Horse Soldiers.  It deals with the early involvement of the United States in Afghanistan in trying to drive the Taliban out.  It’s a good story, told by a good writer.  I’m just not sure how accurate it is on all of its details.

It was written, I believe in 2009 so that was 15 years ago before the disaster of abandoning all that military equipment to the Taliban by the Biden administration.  I’m now to the epilogue and one gets the feeling in reading this that all of the sacrifice and suffering that went on was worth it because we had won the war against the Taliban.

I wish.

There was always a certain sense the author projected writing of nobility and a sense of calling.  I accept that with no difficulty, but there was also this sense that we actually could win this thing and that the people of Afghanistan were actually on our side.

Sandwiched in were insights into the culture of Afghanistan.  When the battle waged you would find the different tribes working together to defeat the Taliban.  Somehow in the pauses that occurred now and then that unity disappeared, and they started shooting at each other, killing each other and so forth just as they have done for centuries.  Victory was always one opportunity away from defeat.  At key moments, various warlords and leaders would switch sides because they felt like it was temporarily to their advantage.  You could never trust anybody beyond the last bullet.

We tend to forget that about many cultures in the world.  It goes double for the cultures of Islam and double that for the cultures of Afghanistan.  Your first loyalty was to your family and as long as there was nothing serious in the way, your next loyalty would be your tribe.  Loyalty to the nation was simply a matter of pragmatics.  What was good for you today might not be good for you tomorrow.

While the author often brought this out in relating what was going on he failed to connect the dots.  We as Americans have no understanding of tribalism.  The Marxist, who are trying to destroy the country are working hard to bring back a sense of tribalism to Americans, which was abandoned when we left Europe.  They are making progress.

We need to be always discerning of the motives of people and try to keep our heads above water and move towards being one nation under God and out of many, one.

homo unius libri