Disclosure: I am about 55% confident in my view. I am far from certain. I see the ambiguities, complexities, dangers of staying: the expenditure of money and lives, the futility of "nation building" in this complex, the local corruption as well as the visceral rejection of foreign intrusion. I enjoy none of the indignation, arrogant certitude, and righteous anger of those on the left and right who express contempt for my position. For me, it is complicated!
Global context: we are engagned in mortal conflict with totalitarian communism and militant Jihadism. This is a fight to the death...as much as World War II or the cold war. Every advance and each surrender matters: our withdrawal from Afghanistan was a serious setback.
We could have partitioned off maybe a fifth of Afghanistan, around Kabul, with a perimeter protected by a small (2,500) military force with excellent technology. This modest, free zone would allow:
1. A Catholic presence: works of mercy, Eucharist, monks and martyrs and hermits.
2. Educaion of young women.
3. An incipient culture of free enterprise, rule of law, democracy, human rights.
4. Other Christian, religious, and humanitarian organizations. A dialogue between Islam and other religions and points of view.
5. A military/intelligence base from which to monitor the broader Sharia nations and strike against the revival of Al Queda or other terrorist camps which could threaten our national and global security.
Prior to our departure, there was a single Catholic chapel in Kabul. It served foreigners; Afghans were sternly forbidden to convert. Now there is no visible Catholic presence. This is tragic!
The obvious dilemna is that we, the "West", are ourselves involved in a civil culural war between liberal secularism (individualistic, atheistic, cosmopolitan, technological, sexually liberational, malignant in growth of state and global capitalism) and our Christian heritage. We are no longer a coherent, integral culture; we are incapable of a fierce assault on our enemies or even of a firm defense of our values because we lack inner identity, form, character. We are decadent.
Today, October 7, 2021 is the 450 year anniversary of the battle of Lepanto, when the prayer of the Rosary by a united Christendom elicited the divine intervention of our Lady of Victories and saved the west from an invading Islam. Let us pray, today, the rosary, and invoke our Lady's assistance today, as we wage a three-way global war against secular liberalism, communism and Jihadism.
Our Lady of the Rosary, our Lady of Victories, Pray for us!
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