It is Sunday, October 8th as I write this, and the day is barely half over. So there is plenty of time for even more noteworthy events to unfold around the world before I put this chapter out into the universe after midnight . . . though I sincerely hope things will be quiet. The early news is still focused primarily on two major disasters: the earthquake in Afghanistan, and the new war in Israel. Once again, let’s start with a look at what Ma Nature has wrought.

I think we can all agree that Afghanistan — one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 85% of its people living at or below the poverty level — has suffered more than its share of catastrophes, just within the last half century. From the invasion and occupation by the Soviet Union from December 1979 to February 1989; to the rule by the Mujahideen from 1989 until 1996, during which two civil wars erupted; to the takeover by the Taliban from 1996 to late 2001 — life in Afghanistan could easily be described as a living hell.

Then an event occurred that will forever be known to the world simply as “9-11”: the attack on the United States by the terrorist Al-Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden. And when bin Laden took refuge in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, we — the United States — went after him. We remained in Afghanistan for 20 long years, chasing the Taliban into the hills, sending bin Laden to meet his Maker, and finally acting as peacekeepers. We brought home the last of our troops in August of 2021. And we’ve been castigated ever since — by some, for staying too long; and by others, for leaving too soon. It’s a hot-button political issue that has not been resolved by the experts, and certainly would not be resolved by my opinions today.

But we all know that, when we did finally leave, the Taliban wasted no time in swooping back in. They quickly regained control of the Afghan government, and they wasted no further time in breaking every single promise they had made to the people of Afghanistan and to the world — promises of reform, and of being a “kinder, gentler” Taliban — and instead they have brought the country from a state of disrepair to one of total, unremitting despair.

Now, add to that the misery caused by the frequent earthquakes and other natural calamities that befall these poor, downtrodden people, and you cannot help crying for them. And here they are, in the news again, reeling from yet another quake that has so far claimed a reported 2,000+ lives, an as-yet-unknown number of injuries, and widespread devastation. Aid is on the way, but how much is able to reach them will depend upon what the ruling Taliban allows.

The future is always unknown; but what lies ahead for Afghanistan does not look hopeful at this time. As with so much of life, we can only wait and hope for the best.

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And now, back to Israel. War has officially been declared against Hamas by Israel, whose Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said his country is “embarking on a long and difficult war.” Hamas has not only attacked the civilian population; they have taken hostages, including women and children, and have even paraded a young female hostage, half naked, on an open vehicle through the streets of an Israeli town. That is not war; that is barbarism, plain and simple. And Israel will not let that pass unanswered.

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It’s now dinnertime (Eastern), and the news is filled with ever-increasing estimates of those already killed in this first full day of the Israeli-Gaza war. There are rumors that Iran may have been involved in the planning and execution of the Hamas attack, though as of this time those rumors have not been verified.

And already, Turkey’s President Erdogan, who has supported Palestinians in the past, has offered his purportedly unbiased services as negotiator: the one man who (he says) is best suited to bring peace, or at least a truce, to a region that has never really known peace. I hope he’s more successful than he has been in negotiating between Russia and Ukraine.

We sometimes forget that a conflict in the Middle East invariably affects more than just the Middle East. Already, synagogues and Jewish schools in the United States are adding greater security to their buildings to protect against possible terrorist attacks. Back in 1994, while transiting through the Rome airport, I witnessed the immediate mobilization of the Italian military when news was received of a shooting — “just” a shooting, not an all-out declaration of war — in the West Bank of Israel. So I can only imagine how Europe is reacting to this weekend’s news. We are a world on edge.

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I’m not feeling very upbeat today, but in my reading I did find one almost amusing example of history doing what it does best: repeating itself. This was part of an analysis as to why the Soviet Union was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989:

“The Soviet soldiers occupied much of Afghanistan, but they could never control the whole country. Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan lacked the proper military tactics for guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan’s rugged mountainous terrain, and many of the Soviet troops were young conscripts who were untested in combat.” [Emphasis is mine.]

Substitute “Ukraine” for “Afghanistan,” and you’ve got today’s Russian army trying to take over a determined, motivated country that doesn’t want to be taken . . . a Russian army using mostly “young conscripts” and suffering a lack of “proper military tactics.” They just don’t seem able to remember even their own history.

All of which has brought back a fond memory of my own. In 1990, while at a conference in London on doing business in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, I became involved in a somewhat heated discussion with one of the speakers — a high-ranking Soviet Foreign Ministry official — who made the mistake of criticizing the long-past involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam. I tried to cool things down a bit by conceding that that bit of history had not ended as one of America’s finest moments, but he wouldn’t let it go. So I said, “Well, let’s just call it America’s Afghanistan.” At that point, he puffed up like a blowfish and fell back on the standard Soviet retort when there was no other answer: “That is an internal matter.” Forcing myself not to laugh, I replied, “Oh, yeah? Tell that to the Afghanis” — and walked away as he turned beet red and tried, unsuccessfully, to think of something to say.

It was a glorious moment, as some of my colleagues, who had been standing nearby and witnessed the whole exchange, did everything but applaud. Sometimes the fates just hand you the perfect opportunity and the right words to take advantage of it. That was my moment.

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Hopefully, that’s it for today, as it’s the middle of the night in Israel. With any luck, it will be a quieter one.

Brendochka
10/9/23