A young friend of ours came over this afternoon to wish us a happy 50th anniversary.
We sat in the living room and he turned back to face me and asked: What do you think about Afghanistan? He meant the withdrawal, of course, which he described as a “mess.”
I didn’t know quite how to respond. I did not — I do not still — want to offend our young neighbor; he is too sweet of a young man and I don’t want to end up on his “bad side.”
All I could come up with was that the commander in chief, President Biden, had no choice but to end a war that had dragged on for two decades. “To what end does he stay in the fight?” I asked. I reminded our young friend that we had fought there for more than two decades. Do they keep fighting?
My friend smiled. We both changed the subject.
The inglorious end to an inglorious war is bound to bring friends to a rhetorical dead end when the subject comes up. My young friend and I agreed that it will take time for this post-Afghan War period to sort itself out.
I will continue to hope for the best outcome, which I hope means we can keep our eyes and ears dialed in to the nth degree and listen and look for any signs of trouble from the Taliban or any terrorist organization that seeks to do us harm.
My hope, then, is that we keep the drones armed and ready to strike.