The Man Dressed In Faded Green Clothes

On December 27, 2009, six Strykers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, assigned to the 8th Squadron, 1st US Cavalry, headed out on a humanitarian mission to the Afghan village of Haji Satan Klaey in Kandahar province.

Just before reaching the hamlet, there was the sound of a detonation - more of a deep thud than a crackling explosion. Our Stryker came to a sudden stop.

The ramp dropped; a half dozen of us spilled out into the desert. I could see a large cloud of white phosphorous – a solid which ignites on contact with oxygen – hanging over the area.

About 200 yards away, an Afghan Border Police pick-up truck had struck an improvised explosive device and was burning. The police officers appeared to be unharmed.

“We rolled right over that thing but missed it,” one soldier said as we began moving toward the village to search for those who had planted the device.

As we advanced on Haji Satan Klaey, four individuals were spotted running away. A chase ensued, and they were apprehended and searched for weapons. None were found, but a cache of small arms and bomb-making materials was found in a nearby hut.

Speaking through an interpreter, the Stryker commander questioned the prisoners about the explosion and the small arsenal in the building.

They claimed they knew nothing about either; according to them, they were from Spin Boldak and were visiting relatives.

I smiled when I heard that; the village was completely deserted.

As the questioning intensified and their answers became more evasive, it became apparent to us these men were Taliban fighters.

At this point I noticed one of them - dressed in faded green clothes - smiling broadly.

It occurred to me he knew that one day in the future the Taliban would eventually defeat the United States by simply waiting it out.

Two presidents said this would not happen.

In announcing on October 7, 2001 that the United States military had begun to carry out attacks on al-Qaida training camps of the Taliban in Afghanistan, President George Bush said, “We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail.”

In his first inaugural address on January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama said to our enemy in Afghanistan, “We say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

With the intent of meeting the threat of terrorism, the nation’s response after 9/11 was to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban. Over time, however, the purpose evolved into nation building.

That purpose came with a price tag - 2,442 American service members have been killed in action.

Despite all the lofty presidential talk - to say nothing of the the reassurances from generals nattering on about "clearing, holding and building" in pursuit of an ill-defined plan to build Afghanistan into a nation - nothing has been accomplished.

We have not defeated the Taliban; we have not built a nation; we have lost far too much.

On April 14, 2021, President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of all remaining American troops in Afghanistan.

Echoing what sounded like the reasons given for leaving Vietnam in 1973, he said, “I concluded that it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.”

Somewhere in Afghanistan there is a man -dressed in faded green clothes - smiling knowingly.