Remembering

All through the weekend of September 11, I kept listening in vain for anyone to acknowledge what Afghanistan might be remembering at this time. Two days before 9/11, on September 9, 2001, two Al-Qaeda terrorists disguised as television journalists, with Belgian passports and claiming to be Moroccan, managed to gain an interview with General Ahmed Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panshir, head of the Northern Alliance, and assassinated him by setting off bombs hidden in their cameras. He had been extremely wary of meeting with them - assassination attempts were frequent. But he decided to take the opportunity to try to explain himself and the Northern Alliance to the Arab audience.

According to many sources, Massoud represented Afghanistan's best hope for a moderate leader, but he was disliked by the Pakistanis who controlled the flow of US and Saudi money to the Afghanistan mujahedin. According to Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Massoud had warned the CIA about the dangers of the Taliban, Pakistani intelligence and their Arab voulunteers for many years. See chapter 19: "We're Keeping These Stingers". Yet because of the US commitment to trusting Pakistan, Massoud's warnings were not taken seriously in the necessary quarters.

Hindsight has the luxury of 20/20 vision. It seems to me that the US has missed some momentous opportunities to have created a better outcome in Central Asia than the chaos of the past two decades. And it is frightening that Al-Qaeda more astutely recognized the value of Massoud in Afghanistan's future. As hard as it is for we navel-gazing Americans to admit it, our tragedy was merely the 2nd act of the September 2001 debacle. More horrific perhaps, but no more consequential.

I find myself wondering where I was in 1997 when the Taliban were taking over Afghanistan. Busy with my life in southern California, working as a chaplain at the LA County Jail, doing good. But why didn't I pay any attention to the fact the Afghanis were leaving the country in droves to flee the Taliban. Wasn't it in the news? Certainly many Americans were aware as I've learned from my reading over that past two years.

Now that I do know, I feel a responsibility to be involved, to be there. It may feel like I've missed the boat, but I'm trusting that while I was doing my thing, being there in the LA County Jail in 1997, now my thing is to "be there" in Afghanistan.

I remember an occasion while I was working as a chaplain at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre in the late 80's when I met a recently released inmate for coffee in downtown Saskatoon. Midway through our conversation, he blurted out "I can't understand why I feel so calm when I'm around you." The guards on the semi-secure unit told me how much my presence in the unit on Saturday nights, playing cards, kept the unit calm. I can only hope that my presence in Afghanistan, whichever form it takes over the next decade, helps someone, anyone, to feel calm.