Afghanistan couldn’t keep it. Can we?

Army Specialist Jonn J. Edmunds was one of the first soldiers to die in the Afghan war. The 20-year-old Cheyenne native was killed in action on October 19, 2001, five and a half weeks after the Twin Towers fell. Over the next two decades, America’s longest war claimed the lives of 2,352 soldiers. These, together with over 20,149 injured, tell only part of the story. 

Mark Geist, former U.S. Marine and founder of the Shadow Warriors Project, reports that for every active-duty soldier in Afghanistan, there are 2.9 military contractors. These are mostly retired service members who are hired back as non-uniformed soldiers. At least 3,800 have been killed in action. Since April, nearly 9,000 contractors have been withdrawn. Still, as of July 21, 7,800 remained in country. These make up the bulk of Americans stranded in the aftermath of the Biden Administration’s debacle.

These Americans, together with their Afghani helpers, expect to be hunted down and tortured to death over the coming weeks, according to Geist. Add this human cost to the millions of dollars (actually billions) in usable war materiel that was deliberately handed over to the Taliban and you have an unfolding disaster that is beyond imagining. 

Sec. Def. Lloyd Austin, Chair JCS Mark Milley

Both the Washington bureaucrats and military brass responsible for this murderous miscalculation must be held to account. Trust in America’s institutions cannot be restored otherwise.

While we are holding lying leaders to account, it is also necessary to criticize our own contribution to the mess. Some of the unfolding disaster results from the administration’s incompetent implementation of a sound withdrawal plan. But some of it lies at the foot of every single American citizen who encouraged a war intended to bring democracy to the Afghani people.

I was one of them. I not only supported our troops, in general, I supported the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, in particular. I believed, falsely, that the only thing standing between the people of these countries and their freedom to self-govern was an oppressive and brutal government. I was wrong.

The freedom to self-govern—the republican form of government—does not begin with the Constitution and the formal institutions found in the American tradition. Nor does it even begin in the human heart that yearns for freedom—as President George W. Bush promised America at the inception of the war. 

Rather, successful self-governance begins with a worldview. Unless a people buy into that worldview, no external force can keep them free. To put it in American terms, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our state and federal government institutions are all incapable of keeping us free unless we all buy into the worldview articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

That’s what Benjamin Franklin meant when he emerged from a summer of negotiating the U.S. Constitution and fielded a question from a certain Mrs. Powel. She asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Over the past two decades, America gave the Afghani people a republic. It cost two trillion dollars, 2,352 soldiers, 3,800 contractors, 20,149 injuries, and the deaths of 140,000 Afghani citizens and soldiers. They couldn’t keep it. The world watched in real time as the Afghani republic evaporated into the very same brutal oligarchy that it was on the day Jonn Edmunds died. 

Self-evidently, they do not believe “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” If they believed this worldview, they would not be hunting down ideological opponents. Instead, they would be building coalitions with them. If they believed this creed, they would not be forcing women into brutal “marriages,” or torturing infidels.

Those who believe in a good and just Creator cannot act unjustly and evilly without denying the very core of their being. This is the true foundation of a republican form of government. Give up this creed and our own government will fall just as spectacularly and horrifically as the government of Afghanistan.

If we had seriously wanted to build a republic in Afghanistan, we should have started with this creed. Likewise, if we are serious about restoring America’s republic, we have no choice but to reestablish this same creed in our land. 

All men are created equal. Americans are no different than Afghanis when it comes to self-governance or brutal oligarchies. Americans have no magical qualities that will spare us from the chaos currently playing out in Afghanistan. We, like them, have only one thing standing between us and barbarism: the firm and uncompromising belief that all people are created by the same good and just Creator.

NOTE: Any veterans of the Afghan war who are struggling, in any way, are encouraged to reach out to the author at the address below. I will answer you, talk with you, and do everything in my power to arrange any other help that you may need.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, August 20, 2021.