Dear Subscribers,
Earlier this week I wrote a short essay and released a podcast episode expressing my feelings on the situation in Afghanistan.
For the most part, I do my best to avoid topical issues on my platform, but I make exceptions for issues that move me. The first was the death of George Floyd, and more recently, the withdrawal of U.S. Forces from Afghanistan. Below you can read my essay “Confessions of An Afghanistan War Veteran.” Once you finish, I encourage you to listen to my podcast episode, “Confessions of Two Afghan War Veterans,” where I express my thoughts along with fellow Afghan War Veteran and Army Green Beret, Herb Thompson.
The goal is not to agree or disagree, just make space for American’s to discuss complex issues, without fear of retribution.
Many of you may disagree with my stance, all I ask is that you show empathy and understanding. I will do the same. I hope you enjoy the essay and podcasts. Feel free to share your comments below. I look forward to discussing them with you.
“Confessions of An Afghan War Veteran”
I was over Afghanistan the day I left.
I spent 6-months in Afghanistan as a Marine Corps Infantry Officer with 1st Battalion 8th Marines. During that time I was mortared, shot at, and had my idealistic view of American Foreign policy shattered, as I witnessed the false promises of our government and military leaders to help the Afghan people. The sad reality is that America failed in Afghanistan, and for many Afghan war veterans, this is a hard pill to swallow.
America was never going to win in the first place.
Within the first few months of my deployment in January 2012, I knew there was no way for our military "to win" in Afghanistan. We had no real vision and no clear mission, other than to "interdict" Taliban activity. Prior to arriving in-country, we were told by our commanders that we were transitioning military control over to the Afghan Security forces, and trained accordingly. Once we deployed, we were disheartened to learn that our commanders had virtually zero trust in the Afghans, requiring us to have 24-hour security on our so-called "allies," out of fear they'd report intelligence to the enemy, or worst, shoot us in the back.
To the Marines, everyone was Taliban.
As Marines on the ground, we had no real understanding of who our enemy was, as it was virtually impossible to distinguish friend from foe. Our commanders commonly threw around the term Taliban to describe our enemy, which often included common street criminals, thugs, and or anyone who went against our presence. In all honesty, we rarely saw any "confirmed" Taliban.
The American government put our military in an impossible situation from the very beginning, and although things have ended ugly, this Marine is happy to see our presence there finally come to an end.
