Letters to the editor on Afghanistan, children exposed to COVID

Afghanistan and Vietnam

As veterans of Vietnam, watching the U.S. depart Afghanistan after 20 years of attempting and failing to establish a secular government with functioning security forces is reminiscent of our disgraceful exit from Vietnam forty-six years ago.

Like the families of our brothers and sisters killed in Vietnam, what do the decision makers of the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations tell the families who lost loved ones or had them physically and psychologically scarred for life in Afghanistan? Whatever the answer, it will not be satisfactory to anyone.

We lost a lot more men in Vietnam than in Afghanistan, but the images we see now from Kabul do not make it less painful to watch. In reality, what we are witnessing is one more glaring example of the United States deserting an ally in its time of need. The Afghans will suffer terribly with the Taliban now firmly back in control, and you can bet that severe reprisals will be the order of the day. True, our mission in the country was never to turn it into a functioning democracy. We were there to get rid of Al-Qaeda terrorists who were involved in 9/11 and to track down Osama Bin Laden. But sadly, it became another Vietnam: a story of mission creep and hubris ending in abject failure.

Afghanistan is now nothing more than a terrorist state. Even Vietnam was better off than that in 1975. Both Vietnam and Afghanistan veterans did their jobs—we followed orders and fought the good fight and lost very few battles. However, we both were shamefully failed by our superiors.

Children and COVID

I have been privileged to practice school nursing for decades. I have come to dread the all-too-easy to predict scenario described below. Here’s how it goes.

A parent or friend chooses not to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. They become infected by another unvaccinated adult. They pass it on to their child. The child, too young for a vaccine, becomes terribly ill and dies from the complication MIS (multi-system inflammatory syndrome) which attacks multiple organs in their body, or from Covid-19 itself. OR, the infected child is only mildly ill, but infects a classmate, who infects another classmate or sibling, who dies.

Children do die from all childhood diseases. That’s what we’ve prevented in recent decades by vaccinating our children against deadly diseases. The scenario above will occur among unvaccinated individuals. Those adults who would start this deadly and horrifying chain of events can prevent it with their own vaccination.

Watching a child die is horrible.

Afghanistan then and now

Afghanistan was not an “endless” or “forever war.”

Afghanistan was not a waste of time and treasure.

The Human Rights advancements made in that country in the last two decades are astounding. Literacy rates climbed from 8% to over 43% and mortality rates increase by 10 years in the last two decades. For an entire generation of Afghans — they saw and tasted freedom. The sacrifices of our men and women showed so many that America is far more than a country — it is an idea.

Since Feb of 2018 there have been ZERO combat deaths in Afghanistan. 2,500 troops are not an “endless war.” 2,500 troops ensured the freedoms fought for over the last twenty years were not in vain.

Unfortunately, because of slogans like “America First,” isolationist propaganda, and reckless withdraw policies from the Biden Administration, Afghanistan is spiraling back to the dark ages in a matter of days.

America and Americans think in terms of years and decades. Many of our allies, and disturbingly, most of our adversaries, think in terms of centuries and millennium. America will soon see the devastating consequences of retreat but for our allies in Afghanistan it is now their hellish reality.