"Oh no I've said too much...I haven't said enough"
______
What's unfolding in Afghanistan is a tragedy, but not surprising to those of us aware of the region's history. No foreign occupier has ever succeeded in subjecting the country on a permanent basis.
This time, it is the U.S. that has been defeated, which was predictable twenty years ago when the invasion began. America can now only hope to avoid that what happened to the Russian empire after its defeat in Afghanistan: The entire and total collapse of the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, the worst elements of Afghan society will end up on top. The best of that country's people will flee from the Taliban thugs, if they can.
But millions of people cannot flee. My heart goes out to the students. My memories of those children are frozen in time from 50 years ago. Will any of the girls above 12 even be allowed to stay in school?
با خدا برو***
On the other side of the world from the chaos about to descend on Kabul, around here it's back-to-school time. There is the bustle of shopping trips, new backpacks and school orientations with incomprehensible presentations by principals.
As it happens, the main recurring nightmare for most of my life locked me in an utterly disoriented state at school. Not knowing where my next class was, or suddenly realizing that I had skipped an entire semester, or not being able to locate my way home.
You'd think I'd suffered from some sort of PTSD in my youth, which was not the case.
Someone tell that to my brain, please. It's time for that nightmare to retire.
***
In contrast to the ancient nightmare, there's the new dream. I've been struggling with how to deal with this for the past fifty days and nights. I've known it since I walked into that room that night in late June.
I know that things don't work out in life far more often than they do. There are always complications. But very, very, very occasionally, some dreams do come true. They just have to be mutual.
Te llevo si tu me llevas.
***
Finally, and I've only discussed this in detail with a few close friends because it is new and like most new ideas it probably won't happen. But Hollywood's dreamscape in one of its many disguises has shown up again. This time, the idea is for the two of us to NOT be the writers of the story but the characters in the story.
So we would be the story this time around, which is a new twist.
Of course that is flattering, only a few peoples' stories get told in a way that reaches the larger world. Maybe that will happen this time. Or maybe not.
There are risks cooperating in such a venture. As I told my partner, "It would be great for our story to be told. But let's remember that if it happens at the scale they are talking about, everybody will see it. And that means our grandchildren will not necessarily remember us as their grandfathers but as those young guys on the screen."
The again maybe that's not such a bad thing.
***
THE HEADLINES:
8 The Return of the Taliban (New Yorker)
* The Afghan Military Was Built Over 20 Years. How Did It Collapse So Quickly? -- The Taliban’s rapid advance has made clear that U.S. efforts to turn Afghanistan’s military into a robust, independent fighting force have failed, with its soldiers feeling abandoned by inept leaders. (NYT)
* From hubris to humiliation: America’s warrior class contends with the abject failure of its Afghanistan project (WP)
* As Taliban tighten their grip, Kabul airport only way out (AP)
* Taliban gains threaten slow-building U.S. effort to rescue Afghan allies (WP)
* Afghanistan’s Unraveling May Strike Another Blow to U.S. Credibility -- Allies may understand the desire to give up on a failed project, but the retreat heightens the sense that America’s backing is no longer unbounded. (NYT)
* Taliban capture Mazar-e-Sharif, 4th largest Afghan city (AP)
* Afghanistan spiraling rapidly toward humanitarian disaster as Taliban advances (WP)
* Fearing Kabul’s Fall, U.S. Officials Implore Afghans to ‘Fight’ (NYT)
* 4 Reasons A Potential Taliban Takeover In Afghanistan Matters To The World (NPR)
* Amid Extreme Weather, a Shift Among Republicans on Climate Change -- Many Republicans in Congress no longer deny that Earth is heating because of fossil fuel emissions. But they say abandoning oil, gas and coal will harm the economy. (NYT)
* Flash Floods Kill Over Two Dozen in Northern Turkey (Reuters)
* What Does It Mean for a Whole Nation to Become Uninhabitable? -- “It’s changing quite rapidly,” says a hunter in Canada. “And I’m not old at all. I’m 31.” (NYT)
* Spain flirts with record heat; 16 Italy cities on red alert (AP)
* A Sicilian Town Sends an Omen of a Much Hotter Future (NYT)
* If Portland can hit 116 degrees, so can San Francisco. We’re not ready (SF Chronicle)* Drought threatens Hungarian lake with environmental crisis (AP) |
* New study links wildfire smoke to increases in covid-19 cases, deaths (WP)
* New Covid-19 Hospitalizations for 30- to 39-Year-Olds Hit Record Rate (WSJ)
* San Francisco Bars Unvaccinated People From Indoor Spaces (AP)
* Masks in schools: Explaining the debate over face coverings in classrooms (WP)
* The Delta Variant and Beyond: Learning to Live With Covid (WSJ)
* As Children's COVID Cases Surge, There's Another Virus On The Rise Health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic say there is another concerning prospect looming: a surge in children diagnosed with a combination of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus. (NPR)
*Where Police Killings Often Meet With Silence: Rural America (NYT)
* In China, the dream of an American education loses some of its gleam (WP)
* Disney helps lift Dow to record high (Reuters)
* Scientists Discover Not 1, But 2 New Dinosaur Species In China (NPR)
***
"Losing by Religion"
R.E.M.
Songwriters: Peter Lawrence Buck / Michael E. Mills / William Berry / Michael J. Stipe
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up
That's me in the spot-light
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try
I'm choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up
Consider this the hint of the century
Consider this the slip
That brought me to my knees, failed
What if all these fantasies come
Flailing around
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try
That was just a dream
That's me in the spot-light
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try
Try, cry, fly, try
That was just a dream
Just a dream
Just a dream, dream
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