What is one to say of the ‘fall of Afghanistan’ over the weekend, which many – myself included – predicted as soon as we sent troops over there in 2001. Perhaps more accurately we should speak of the fall of Kabul, since the Americans only really controlled, and even that only to a limited extent, an area around the capital. Footage of planes taking off, with people hanging on to sides and the landing gear, evokes the vivid imagery of the helicopters departing Saigon after its own fall on the last day of April, 1975.
There were no planes or helicopters in the more gradual 476 ‘fall of Rome’ (if fall it be), but all three falls signify the resurgence of primitive, lawless forces, washing over a more civilized and lawful society. For Rome, it was the pagan barbarians; Saigon, atheistic, Marxist, communism; and Afghanistan, of course, radical Islam under the Taliban, now more dominant, confident and with a whole lot of advanced American weaponry, vehicles and drones, abandoned in the collapse of the instantly-surrendering Afghan army, trained – if we use that term – by the U.S. and our own forces. There was no way there was ever going to be ‘regime change’ in Afghanistan with a few thousand soldiers, in a mountainous desert nation of over forty million souls, without the will of the people, and especially the menfolk, to defend themselves, and the rights of their women and children. Thousands are trying to flee, but it’s tough to run in a landlocked country, where the only way out, is up.
Peruse Mr. William Kirkpatrick’s column in CWR, which offers some sober predictions in our increasingly ungoverned and unhinged world. Back in 2019, on a summer day, August 16th, a bomb exploded at a wedding in Kabul, killing 63, and wounding nearly 200 others. Why? Was the bride improperly dressed, and not burkad-up? Did she jilt the intended of her first forced marriage? Was the groom not sufficiently radicalized? Did they play ‘western’ music? Who knows? It’s the nature of terror to be random and, like the poltergeists, to instill fear, keeping you on the edge of your seat, and, like the Afghan soldiers, ready to submit when it gets too much. Islam hides not its claims to world-wide domination, and the instantiation of Sharia law. War is ultimately a matter of will, and he who has the stronger will almost always wins. One thing you’ve got to hand to the Taliban, they know what they’re about, and they often make more sense – in a sense – than what passes for commentary from woke crowd, military and civilian, running the U.S. at present. As cultural insanity hollows us out, and enervates our own will, even to live, the strong horse takes over.