He didn’t want Afghanistan to become a servant of the Soviet Union or of any of the other large, overbearing countries in its vicinity. He didn’t want the country to be communist-or capitalist. He was only 19, but already planning Afghanistan’s future. Muhammad Zahir Shah, the final king of that country, ascended to the throne in 1933. But let me take you back for a moment to what may still prove to have been the last best days of Afghanistan. Afghan history is so much longer and more complex than we know. I’m still lost in remembrance of the years I spent in Afghanistan and the tales I was told of earlier days in a proud and peaceful land. The news cycle moved on to the next sensation.
News about America’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan was swift, ugly, and then all over and largely forgotten.
