What Rhymes With Afghanistan?
Recent events have made me reflect once again on the nature of some of the political poetry that is frequently and inaccurately designated as “of its time.” These events sent me one day a few weeks ago to my bookshelf to retrieve and take another look at some of my own nearly twenty-year-old poems. And I thought about my essay on this subject that appeared last year in Arrowsmith Journal. I called it “Relevant? Relevant Again!” Now again, or still, I think the subject deserves revisiting.
The events that have prompted these reflections: First, the hurried pullout of American troops from Afghanistan, and the subsequent rapid collapse of the U.S. backed government and its military before resurgent Taliban forces. Then the desperate evacuation of the Americans “in country” and of many— though far from all— of their Afghan employees and associates. The chaotic airlift in particular was eerily reminiscent of the Vietnam War’s final days, despite Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s lame attempt at face-saving. “This is manifestly not Saigon,” he told Congress on the day the Taliban occupied Kabul, but the news footage from the airport tarmac was a replay of images that were seared in our national consciousness 45 years ago.
And second, the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, with its solemn memorials for the victims. Both these disturbing occasions have led me to reflect on the past 20 years and on my poems written back then just when this fraught new century was unfolding, poems in the book I went to retrieve that day, Official Versions, my 2006 poetry collection.
George W. Bush's solemn Shanksville, Pennsylvania speech honoring the victims of Flight 93 was especially galling. It struck me as yet another of his efforts to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of many Americans. But this is the former president who was, to quote opinion writer Jamelle Bouie, “noteworthy for the partisanship of his White House and the ruthlessness of his political tactics, for the using of the politics of fear to pound his opponents into submission. For turning, as [Bush] put it ... ‘every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures.’” (“George W. Bush 2021, Meet George W. Bush 2001”, New York Times, September 14, 2021).
As the newspapers and TV coverage of these events sent me back to my Official Versions, I thought about what had prompted some of those poems: 9/11, the bombing and subsequent American invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion on false pretenses of Iraq. The book’s title aptly addressed my major preoccupation at the time: the questions of truth and untruth, government propaganda—it can’t be called anything else—and the American media’s uncritical repetition and distribution of “information” issuing from the mouths of our nation's leaders and their spin doctors in the Washington press offices.
I am lucky not to have lost friends or relatives in either of this young century’s wars, or in 9/11, but rereading my poems was a chilling reminder of those painful times. My essay in Arrowsmith was about the way political poems from another era can become relevant again—a lesson reiterated forcefully for me as I re-read Official Versions, which I found contributes new evidence to that argument.
But I found something else as well in these poems, in light of the events of August and September 2021: enhanced by the passage of time, they resonate for me now even more strongly. Their ironies have not been dulled; the events of the last 20 years, like an abrasive sharpening stone, have given them an even keener edge. As noted by that most astute and subtle of historians, Mark Twain: “History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.“
Like this:
All the News — September 23, 2001
Q: Why aren't there any Wal-Marts in Afghanistan?
A: Because they're all Targets.
-Popular American joke, 2001
According to the Times,
"Air Force bombers are heading
toward distant airfields
to fight a shadowy foe
flitting through the mountains
in a deeply hostile land
already so poor and so ruined
by two decades of war that it is
virtually bereft of targets."
"FORGET THE PAST,"
the headline instructs.
"IT'S A WAR UNLIKE ANY OTHER."
* * *
The following poems comprise a mini anthology selected from Official Versions presented here without further commentary:
‘Infinite Justice’
“Shortly after word spread among key military leaders that President [George H.W.] Bush had ordered the invasion of Panama, Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly, Operations Officer on the Joint Staff, received a call from General James Lindsay, Commander-in-Chief (CINC), Special Operations Command. His call did not concern some last-minute change in the invasion plan; rather, it concerned a seemingly insignificant detail of the operation: its name. "Do you want your grandchildren to say you were in Blue Spoon?" he asked. Lieutenant General Kelly agreed that the name should be changed. After hanging up the phone, General Kelly discussed alternatives with his deputy for current operations, Brigadier General Joe Lopez.
“How about Just Action?’ Kelly offered.
‘How about Just Cause?’ Lopez shot back.”
—Bob Woodward , The Commanders
News Item: September 21, 2001—One month before the invasion, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that the code name for U. S. military operations in Afghanistan would be changed for a second time.
Operation Infinite Justice was the initial name.
Infinite Justice followed the practice
of using a single theme for a region
where Americans are at war.
For the Persian Gulf War
"desert" was the common denominator
as in Desert Shield, Desert Storm,
and subsequent or subordinate operations:
Desert Saber, the ground offensive;
Desert Farewell, the troop redeployment;
Desert Share, the distribution of leftover food to the US poor.
As Major General Charles McClain,
the Army’s Chief of Public Affairs, wrote:
"The perception of an operation can be as important to success
as the execution of that operation."
The theme for Afghanistan operations was "infinite."
The 1998 air assault on Osama Bin Laden's training camps,
for example, was called Operation Infinite Reach.
"It gave the impression," an official said,
"that there was no sanctuary for the terrorists."
After the September 11 attacks,
the president made justice his key theme.
Pentagon officials picked Infinite Justice
for the second operation in the "infinite" series.
But Islamic scholars raised objections. Only God
could mete out infinite justice, they complained.
Two Protestant clergy who specialize in ethical issues agreed.
They said the term ‘infinite justice’ carries strong religious resonance,
suggesting divine sanction, and therefore was inappropriate
for a military campaign waged by a secular state.
“It’s a sin of pride,” one of them added.
In response, Pentagon officials dropped Infinite Justice
as the name for the Afghan campaign
and put in its place Operation Noble Eagle.
A similar problem arose with an Operation Masher
during the Vietnam War. President Johnson is reported
to have angrily complained to Army planners
that Masher sounded too bloodthirsty,
and did not reflect his theme of “pacification” in Vietnam.
As a result, Operation Masher was renamed White Wing.
Operation Enduring Freedom is the latest effort
to match the name of the Afghan war against terrorism
to the national mood. "‘Enduring',"
said Defense Secretary Rumsfeld,
"suggests that this is not a quick fix."
Capsule History of Herat, Afghanistan
After the mujahedeen had defeated their Communist overlords,
the men of Herat took to the streets
behind their leader Ismail Kahn,
chanting slogans and firing their rifles into the air.
The women of Herat stood in doorways
watching the celebration
through the narrow eye slits in their burkas.
Then, the “holy warriors” of Herat allied with the Taliban
to install Islamic rule over the country.
For two years they laid siege to the capital, Kabul.
After the last holdouts surrendered, the fighting men
returned home. They ran through the streets of Herat
shouting in celebration and firing their rifles into the air.
The women of Herat, covered head to toe in burkas,
stood in doorways and looked on.
Finally the Americans came. Their troops
chased the Taliban fighters back into the mountains
and established democratic rule throughout Afghanistan.
Now allied with the victors, the “holy warriors” of Herat,
once again took to the streets chanting slogans
and firing their rifles into the air.
Standing in doorways, the women of Heart looked on
through the narrow eye slits in their burkas.
21st Century Newsbriefs II—Embracing Values
Q: How do you play Taliban bingo?
A: B-1, F-16, A-4, C-130….
– Late night TV joke.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION REBOUNDS
In fields that under the Taliban
were barren of all but land-mines
cultivated flowers as far as the eye can see
now bend their heads in the breeze—
opium growing
is once again a thriving enterprise.
*
“NATION BUILDING”
Entire neighborhoods of California-style mansions
are replacing farmers’ huts
on the outskirts of Kabul.
Government officials after work now relax
with family members watching
American sit-coms on satellite TVs.
*
“EMBRACING AMERICAN VALUES”
Outside the gates of the U. S. compound in Kabul,
lessons only recently learned
about freedom of speech and assembly
are being put to practice by Afghan students
shouting slogans and burning American flags.
*
“VICTORY FOR DEMOCRACY”
At polling stations in Kabul,
Afghanis were so thrilled by the novelty
of voting to choose their leaders
that, after casting their ballots,
many returned to the end of the line
to do it again.
In provincial towns, where women
are forbidden to go out in public,
husbands cast proxy votes for their wives;
and in remote areas,
villagers placed all their ballots
in the hands of the tribal leader
who chose the best candidate for them.
*
Coda, Popular Afghani joke, circa 2003:
Q: Why don’t we suffer from the same ills as other poor nations?
A: Because, thanks to America, we got an injection of Vitamin B-52.
Mark Pawlak is the author of nine poetry collections and the editor of six anthologies. His latest book is Reconnaissance: New and Selected Poems and Poetic Journals (Hanging Loose). His work has been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, and Polish. My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov, a memoir, is forthcoming in 2021 from MadHat Press.