I’ve corrected my notebook here. It’s just the history we’ve witnessed, from afar. Through a glass, as they say.

I’ll tell you a story that someone told me.

That’s the nature of news anyhow.

I had a friend who served as an army ranger, special forces, he said that he was stationed in many places “we weren’t supposed to be“ and he told me a story about Afghanistan.

He said that days after September 11, 2001, one of the most charismatic leaders in the northern part of of Afghanistan was rising in popularity. I guess he would be considered a warlord- but kind of a combination of war lord and Bruce Springsteen, for the militias in the north. Yes. Popular national leader, potentially. (It was Ahmad Shah Massoud, of the Northern Alliance.)

He may have been the most significant challenger to the Taliban- and the Taliban too was on the rise.

We’re talking early 2001.

My friend explained that, just days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, this charismatic leader was visited by journalists, at a time in which he was poised to gain some control of the country and prevent the Taliban insurgency from taking over.

He was beloved, revered, admired- politically significant within the country.

The journalists who visited this leader were Al-Qaeda. This militia leader was assassinated. Murdered.

My brilliant, thick-skinned special forces veteran was practically in tears of frustration when he told me the story. A veteran frustrated with the ironies of fate. He knew the man, Massoud. He knew that it was a hidden turning point in history.

September 11th happened. A power-vacuum left ignorant young Taliban kids to negotiate the removal of Bin Laden with the United States of America. I’m not saying they’re innocent- but naive, clueless, as well as violent fanatics. And Bin Laden was a Saudi. An “unwelcome guest”.

He could not be removed without violent insurgencies igniting throughout the region.

And Bush/ Cheney were going to bomb the shit out of Afghanistan.

My army ranger friend was already hoping to return, to rebuild infrastructure, electricity, roads, society. A failed state breeds terror.

But the hope was crushed by the assassination of what could have been a national leader with international support.

He explained that history is not always what occurs – it’s what opportunities are taken off the table even before what we think of as history begins.

A charismatic leader with influence in the country could have prevailed against the Taliban but, once assassinated, that opportunity was destroyed forever.

I’m just telling you what a veteran told me, although it is true that the militia leader was assassinated after September 11, and it was known in the region how significant it was that he was killed.

Then the war came. We drop the mother of all bombs, we carpet-bombed the villages, the targets, donkeys and weddings, we chased in jets above unknown terrain looking for Saudi-born Osama bin Laden in a cave, not knowing our chance of prevailing was zero.

Our chance of success was nil.

If you don’t believe me, consider this : in the beginning of the invasion of Iraq by George W Bush, an international effort was being put in place by Sergio DeMello, and with that came hopes of truly international collaboration in the ensuing war against Sadaam Hussein Dictator of Iraq.

In the early days of the invasion the United Nations installation was just being put together in Iraq.

The initial invasion was complete, and the blueprint for the next stage of the conflict was just being begun.

And in charge of the UN effort, De Mello brought diplomatic flair, objectivity, experience, and the possibility of truly building a coalition that might spare Iraq an endless war.

And the international effort was seen as crucial and would certainly be a necessity when combat ceased and rebuilding ensued.

The site was bombed- by what became ISIS, DeMello was killed and the international effort was destroyed forever.

The day of that bombing, president George W. Bush was on the golf course. It was a sunny day and he was informed on the cell phone- blackberry, back then -that the international effort was over- the bombing of the UN site in Iraq had occurred-

-and, as I thought at the time, the true import of that phone call was that the US incursion was a lost cause; the international effort was over, and that the mission of George W Bush was doomed forever to failure – in the first months of the invasion.

It was over before it began. 100,00 casualties. Now perhaps a million. Who knows? They refused to count.

What was needed was removed from the table even before history began- and the reasons, the causes for that, are so complex, so tragic, so heartbreaking- we may never know all that has been lost, beyond the millions of deaths in the wake of this initial catastrophic pursuit of empire.

You don’t have to believe the story- you don’t have to Google anything I say- but I can tell you that this September 11 is going to be a deeply troubling reminiscence of more than what happened on that day – but how much lead up to that day – history we haven’t even begun to process.

Not just three thousand deaths.

Not just a plane turned around at Cleveland, my home town, loaded with passengers returning to San Francisco, my home town – crashed by heroes in a field to prevent the intended destruction of the White House.

Not just those. But millions. Millions of deaths.

I have no insight into this beyond books, conversations, and, like many Americans, I make up my own reality- and yet there’s a deep sorrow involved this time for Americans. We have a lot to think about, and there are no easy answers now -the easy answers were never there.

What was desperately needed – even for that fucked up mission in Iraq, which never should have occurred, was removed before the history we know even began.

Friends, can I say one more thing? It is true we have a Taliban in this country.

We have our warlords, we have militias. We have desperate, uneducated people, angry, rejected, enraged.

We have cynical, well-educated people too, using them as pawns -As Osama bin Laden would do, as George W. Bush would do, as Donald Rumsfeld would do.

In Abu Graib, a war prison during Iraq, during the term of Donald Rumsfeld, it was the low-ranking servicemen and women who were accused of acts of torture- even while the secretary of defense played word games, denying the orders from the White House, denying culpability.

Bush /Cheney / Obama /Trump -and much of the media, by and large-threw our servicemen and servicewomen under the bus.

Our kids were sent on a hopeless mission to remake the map, just as always, to get it down on paper, no matter what the cost.

And, by and large, most Americans said ok. They must know what they’re doing.

Wrong.

“It’ll only take six months, and then we run for President the next year, on a great quick victory over terror” -That’s what they said, anyway.

That’s what they always say.

A failed state is the cause of terrorism, they tried to tell us.

We need to make certain OUR state doesn’t fail.

Tragedy is not knowing the answer to that.

But now we’re out. This part is over. Thank you, President Biden. Gratitude for the courage of our armed services at this critical moment.

Peace. Think about it.