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Kabul, the day of shame, again
Eisenhower warned us that it would come
We all could see on TV the chaotic evacuation from Kabul. Let us call it as it is. It is the final act of the largest fiasco in the history of humankind. The most powerful political, economic, and military empire on Earth went into a war against one of the poorest and most backward nations. It lost in disgrace after 20 years, with 2,300 soldiers killed, 20,000 wounded, and $2.26 trillion wasted.
It looks like déjà vu of the equally humiliating, messy escape from Saigon in 1975. I am old enough to remember. The younger readers should learn about it on the internet. Our leaders told us that they learned from that experience and that it would never happen again.
They have learned nothing. Or, to be precise, they do not want you to know what they have learned.
To understand what happened, we need to go back 60 years. Dwight Eisenhower, on the last days of his presidency, on January 17, 1961, addressed the nation. One can still find his speech on YouTube, but I doubt that any major media outlet will mention it in the context of the defeat in Afghanistan. Why? It is for you readers to conclude.
The essence of the Eisenhower farewell message is 150 seconds short; the whole speech is 16 minutes.
