RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://An Afghanistan veteran asks what it was all for

You know how angry and saddened and outraged you feel looking at the images out of Afghanistan? How flabbergasted you are that our Secretary of Defense is not saying, of the 10,000 Americans trapped in a country now run by the Taliban, that we will not stop until we get every single one, but rather: we’ll evacuate them “until the clock runs out or we run out of capability.”

Now imagine that you served in Afghanistan. That you lost friends there. That you gave years of your life to a project that has not just failed, but has been disavowed by our current commander-in-chief.e

For military veterans, this week has been brutal in ways most civilians might not fully grasp.

Jordan Blashek spent five years as a Marine infantry officer, deploying twice overseas and once to Afghanistan. During an eight-month tour in Helmand Province in 2013, he served as a combat advisor to the 215 Corps of the Afghan National Army, working with thousands of Afghan soldiers and dozens of interpreters.

He is also the co-author of a very thoughtful book called “Union: A Democrat, a Republican, and a Search for Common Ground.” — BW

…..”The other night, a friend texted to see how I was doing. We don’t know each other that well, but we had both served overseas in Afghanistan. We were sad — sad in a way that makes it hard to move. We felt the same way in 2014 when Fallujah fell to ISIS. That was painful too, but it taught us how to move forward. We learned that it’s just a matter of time before the stunned feeling washes away.

But then my friend sent another message. His first cousin Mike, a Marine lieutenant, had been killed in Afghanistan in 2009, and now Mike’s mother was devastated all over again. The past 72 hours had raised all those painful questions: What was it for? Did he die for nothing?

I broke down. I went into the shower and sobbed.

I’m not here to offer any political opinions or policy recommendations. There are enough of those flying around in the wake of the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, and they won’t change the conditions on the ground. They won’t help the tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies trapped there, hiding with their families or begging to be let into the airport.

But I do want to write to Mike’s mom, a Gold Star Mother watching all of this and wondering if her child died in vain. I want her to know what her son’s life meant to me. I want her to know what it was all for. 

I joined the Marines in 2009, the same year Mike deployed to Afghanistan for his first tour. Mike had made the decision to join four years earlier, after his sophomore year of college. That was during some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq. There was no doubt that he would be going into harm’s way. That’s exactly why men and women like Mike joined — because our country needed someone to bear that responsibility.

Mike was just 20 years old when he decided to dedicate his life to defending our country. A few years later he married his college sweetheart. And still Mike chose to go. To bring the fight to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, to lead young Marines, and to protect the most vulnerable Afghans. He believed that there are things more important than his own life, and he chose to live by them.