Questioning During a Tragedy!
13 Service Members died on a bad political decision; we don’t have to wait to start the hearings.
It has been 15 days since the Kabul bombing that killed 13 Service Members, over 90 Afghanis died and many more wounded. Surprisingly, the United States media moved on from this rather quickly. We still have Service Members hoping to heal and recover from their wounds as I type this.
Let me shine some light on how tragic this is. Let us talk about people dying in Afghanistan. In almost 20 years of war this has been the outcome. Roughly 2448 US Service Members have died, this does not include the 13. Of those deaths 1847 were killed in action, 505 were non-combat related and 20,149 were wounded in action. 3846 US Contractors died, the Afghan military and police death toll is 66,000, other allied forces are 1144, 47 Afghan civilians, 245, aid workers is 444 and journalists is 72 deaths. Whereas the Taliban and opposition fighters is 51,191 deaths. All of this can be found from an article of AP, called Costs of the Afghanistan war, in lives and dollars.
Now let us look back at tragic days in Afghanistan that compares to Kabul. We have to go back to June 28, 2005, to find an event more deadly than the one in Kabul. On that day we lost 19 US Special Operations Service Members in the Kunar province. So, the Kabul incident is the biggest single incident in 16 years for a war that lasted under 20 years. We lost more in this one incident in a single day than we have for entire months in Afghanistan dating back to June 2013 which is 8 years ago.
What about the 13 brave Service Members that died in Kabul? Max, Ryan, Hunter, Rylee, David, Kareem, Jared, Daegan, Taylor, Humberto, Johanny, Nicole and Dylan died in Kabul, but why? That is a question that should be asked. Don’t you think? I would say yes. Did it have to come to this? I would say no. Now this is the part when people that can only name 5 Presidents ever will jump to blame 4 of them so to divert any responsibility on the current one. That is truly sad.
Within 5 days of the incident, I saw major news networks starting to go completely silent on Afghanistan and the 13 fallen. The President came out made his controversial address and pretty much said it is behind us and the media followed suit. Just within 10 days, this is what these major news networks have found to be way more important than the crisis in Afghanistan or the respect to the American fallen. Which Afghanistan and the 13 fallen is most likely only the biggest story of the year. History will prove that. The story that affects the whole world. For those that ask, yes it does affect the whole world. The story that questions the trust the world has in us.
One network had nothing on the 13 fallen, or Afghanistan but this is their biggest world headlines, “Steve Bannon’s plan to subvert our democracy is pretty terrifying.” Another major news network, top headline is, “The browning of America will be Whiter than we realize.” Just got to push some racism in there to conceal the art of diversion. That network loves pushing division. The previous day they had an article, it was their top headline as well, stating white supremacists rejoiced over the Taliban. Have they turned into the Inquirer? Now, another news network did have on its page, “Milley: US coordination with Taliban on strikes possible.” But that was way down below and after these far these more important world news, “Rescued jaguar enjoys playtime at animal shelter,” and “Osaka tosses racket, loses US Open match.” All I can say is, Wow! A joint effort to minimize the tragic events that occurred in August in Afghanistan is rivaled by some jaguars play time and pushing racism like a guy selling popcorn at a ball game. Get your racism! Fresh off the press, Racism!
My question is this a coordinated effort from the news? Or are they taking their direction from someone? I hate to ask that, but it must be asked because the silence is deafening.
Right now, I truly wonder what Max, Ryan, Hunter, Rylee, David, Kareem, Jared, Daegan, Taylor, Humberto, Johanny, Nicole and Dylan would be doing right now if they were still alive? Would Max be playing sports right now? Would Ryan be hanging out with his wife? Would Hunter be watching Star Wars this weekend or having a Nerf Battle with friends? Would Rylee be preparing for the arrival of his newborn with his wife? Would David be protecting our nation in other places right now or spending time with his siblings? Would Kareem be at the beach today, enjoying the day or practicing jiu-jitsu? Would Jared be sitting with his Dad talking to him about being a Marine? Would Daegan be hunting with his Dad today? Would Taylor be looking forward to his future retirement and finalizing those wedding plans with his fiancé? Would Humberto be playing soccer today with some friends? Would Johanny be chasing her educational dreams today? Would Nicole be traveling the world and enjoy what it has to offer, or would she be somewhere else enjoying her job as Marine? Would Dylan be studying to become an engineer right now? These are just some small things about the 13 individuals who were brave and died in Kabul.
I see where some people say, we should not bring up politics or policy with the death of the 13 Service Members. Some says it tarnishes their memory or life. Wow, is what I say. I disagree. I would love for the 13 to be here today to be doing what I asked about in the previous paragraph. I do believe each of these individuals fought for our Constitution, that is what they took the oath on. The very first Amendment brings up Freedom of Speech. I want to think now more than ever that very Freedom of Speech should be used to demand answers from our government.
Let’s face the simple facts, we would have 13 brave Service Members alive today, if we did not have one person make this decision. That is a fact. No matter how you look at. That is not partisan, it is not red or blue, it is simply what it is. One person made that decision, party was immaterial. So why would we not call any elected official out for that, instead going to party corners? We have 13 brave Service Members whose voices are now completely silenced; America should be speaking up for this. This did not have to happen. That is clear as can be. But unfortunately, it did, so we should get answers for that.
What we shouldn’t get is, I talked in public once and I am not talking about it again attitude and let’s move on. What we shouldn’t get is a Congress is far too silent on this. Whereas other nations have debated this debacle on their parliament floors over and over. We should not get a media that lacks journalistic credibility and follows the podium’s narrative like sheep.
We could also simply choose to be silent and turn a blind eye to all of this. Never giving the families some form of answers, justice or anything and just watch them miss their families every single day, every birthday, every holiday, just every single hour. I just don’t think that is the American thing to do. Although we have questioned many things in the month of August, about what is the American thing to do anymore. Staying silent is not it.
These brave 13 Service Members deserve far better than this. Their families deserve far better than this and America deserves far better than this.
The Vet
Originally published at https://shop.thecoachandthevet.com on September 9, 2021.
