Like a river

I have heard it said that “time flows like a river, and history repeats.”

Both my study of history and what I have observed in my life have lead me to believe that that is absolutely true.

It is happening right now.

When Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he also conquered much of what is now Afghanistan, since that was part of Darius’ Persian Empire. This occurred in 330 BC. In 146 BC, the Greek Empire fell to the Romans, who left Afghanistan alone.

Several centuries later, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Afghanistan, leading most of the people there to convert to Islam. Islam has been the dominant religion in Afghanistan ever since. But the caliphate could not hold Afghanistan either. Nor could the Umayyad Caliphate which came after it.

Genghis Khan came next in the early 13th century. Tamerlane came after him in the 14th century. The British came in the 19th century.

None of them could hold Afghanistan.

Then, in our living memory, the Soviets came. And CIA asset Osama bin Laden made war upon them with money and arms bestowed upon him by We the People. And the Soviets could not hold Afghanistan.

Then Osama bin Laden made war upon the United States of America, and in 2001, when I was a senior in high school, the Americans came to Afghanistan.

It is strange to think that a war was being fought there by our government and soldiers for the next 20 years, and that many of us, compared to the other things in our lives, didn’t think much about it; that for most of us, a war simply faded into the background.

And now, like those before us, we are leaving Afghanistan. And what a terrible fiasco that exit has become.

The Americans could not hold Afghanistan either.

I wrote in a previous column here that there are historical forces presently at work from which we as a country are not exempt. I think this is one of them.

It is easy, when looking at things from a historical perspective, to overlook the human element in a situation. I don’t want to do that here, though I’ve focused a great deal, if only in a cursory way, on history. To say nothing of the ongoing disaster at the airport in Kabul, according to Afghan social media, the Taliban are already confiscating peoples’ weapons, saying that they belong to the Afghan government that has fallen, would be negligent.

Given the Taliban’s history, this does not bode well at all. I don’t think what’s coming next is anything good. Especially for the women and girls of that country.

I knew we’d leave Afghanistan eventually. No power in history has been able to hold the country, from Alexander the Great’s empire to us. We are no exception.

That doesn’t make this any easier to watch.