"Semper Fi brother," said a 30 ish Marine in a serious tone as he drove up and looked me in the eye. "Semper Fi."
Semper Fidelis is Latin for "Always Faithful," and is best known in the U.S. as the Marine rallying cry.
His support was welcome. In Iraq only two days earlier, a suicide bomber struck a U.S. Army patrol killing 4 soldiers and their interpreter. And on the day of the vigil, 31 Iraqis were killed and 94 were wounded, as were 3 U.S. soldiers also wounded.
This war now belongs to Barack Obama and as he lets it continue: men, women and children are killed and children are orphaned or will grow up without one of their parents. Other victims suffer from wounds so severe, they will need a lifetime of care.
As for the vigil, in the final 20-minutes it was joined by a 64-year-old well-read woman who often joins, and who offers bright, insightful comments.
"In some respects," she said, "Barack Obama is the Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain. He's been in office only a short time but people have such high expectations of him. I don't know how he'll live up to them.
"Some of his promises were campaign rhetoric, and on top of that he's inherited an incredible mess," she continued. "During his press conference he spoke of the 4 U.S. soldiers who were killed in Iraq and how difficult it is to sign those letters to their families.
"In Afghanistan, he's going to fight the same people who've been fighting there for ages," she added. "They will fight as long as necessary to stop the U.S. control of Afghanistan and if they're driven back, they'll keep returning. It could be an endless war."
And she's right. On the day of the vigil, the Taliban struck in force in Kabul, the capital, attacking three government ministries directly, killing 26 people and wounding 57 others.
Given the heavy government and U.S. security, including a maze of cement barriers and tightly guarded sandbagged checkpoints, it is remarkable they got inside with grenade launchers, explosives, small arms and suicide vests. It suggests they had support from within the Afghan military.
To compound these probems, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the U.S. military kept incomplete records of 87,000 mortars, rifles, pistols and other weapons, about 1/3 of all light arms the U.S. gave to Afghan soldiers and police, from December 2004 to June 2008. And the U.S. kept few records on 135,000 weapons provided by 21 other nations.
Once the Afghans got them, these weapons were widely distributed and at "serious risk of theft or loss," stated the GAO. It means some weapons used by the Taliban likely came from the U.S. or its allies.
Wednesday's assault was just the latest in a series of large scale Kabul attacks. Last month U.S. soldiers and Afghani civilians were blown-up by a car bomb outside the German Embassy.
In July, at least 50 people were killed by a car bomb at the Indian Embassy and last Spring, gunmen tried to kill President Hamid Karzai. In each case, the attackers overcame heavy security. And outside Kabul, the Taliban operate freely in many parts of the country.
But this is a familiar story. From 1979 to 1989, the Soviet Union tried to control Afghanistan. In the end, they lost 13,836 soldiers and left Afghanistan in disgrace, broke and demoralized and their government soon collapsed.
Meanwhile, during that war, more than 1 million Afghanis were killed and 5 million fled their country. That's more than 1/3 of the prewar population.
Let us hope President Obama will not escalate this war as he is saying he will do but be wise enough to call for a cease fire. And then with the Afghan government, try to negotiate a peace with the Taliban and others before the U.S. spills massive quantities of blood in a futile attempt to control Afghanistan.
In any case during last night's vigil the candle burned in memory of all those who were sacrificed in Iraq. Were they sacrificed for 9/11 of which Iraq had no part? Were they sacrificed to stop weapons of mass destruction that were never found? Were they sacrificed for Operation Iraqi Freedom which turned out to be a U.S. Military occupation? Were they sacrificed for oil or military contractor profits?
Whatever the answer, may we as mankind honor the dead and the wounded and the families who grieve them not with more empty words but by ending the violence and peacefully resolving our differences. It would make the world a far happier and safer place.
Dick
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