Getting out of the rose garden

To the Editor:

When I was 4 years old, I was sitting in the wheelbarrow in our backyard eating soda crackers when suddenly the wheelbarrow lurched forward and rolled downhill into the middle of my mother's circular rose garden. Stunned and scratched, I stood up in the wheelbarrow and began wailing. My mother came out and assessed the situation. She saw that extracting me was going to be no picnic, but had to be done. Ultimately, she reached in and airlifted me up and over the ring of thorns, getting her share of bloody scratches in the process.

So it is with Afghanistan. Trump and Biden have both been right — we needed out. The process has been physically, intellectually and emotionally painful, but in my opinion we have put it off for too long and for the wrong reasons. It is time we look for other ways to help the people of Afghanistan than by presenting a façade of stability and progress with our military presence.

I find it reassuring that Joe Biden appears to lack the usual politician's tendency to put his own personal prospects first and foremost. He appears to be focusing on doing what he thinks is right for the country without looking to popularity polls for his decisions, and I like that. It enables him to tackle politically charged projects nobody else has dared touch.

I am aware that other Democratic politicians will take flak for Biden's actions. That is how politics go — the party in power is always the cause of all bad things, and a sitting duck for the opposing party and press. But I hope that in hindsight, historians will look more kindly on Joe Biden's decisive action in Afghanistan than the current partisan hornet's nest.

Rene Mayo

Jamestown