The first time I saw you was in the Khyber pass. You came with your technology, elite fighters fueled by revenge, and the hubris to believe you could disprove history.
This was a war that you didn’t have the stomach to fight. But I’m glad you tried.
We bled you the same way we bled the Soviets in our Holy Land. We bled you the same way the Vietnamese bled you in their home land. We did it patiently and deliberately.
Patience. Something Westerners never learn.
Our history is millennial. We don’t yearn for an early victory when the Infidel ravages our Holy Land. Our victory is celebrated decades from now. We’ve endured, then ravaged every standing military that crossed our borders. Why? How? We’re patient.
In 30 days, we’ll be stronger, richer, and have control over precious natural resources that you need for your pathetic life dictated by comfort. We will have women, riches, land, guns, and ownership of one of the greatest chapters in military history.
You lose.
If you want to try again, we welcome the challenge. You will fail regardless of how much money you burn in our deserts. For pity, here is free advice that may contribute to your future success; should you ever decide to invade again.
You recruit your warriors and supporters from a drug addicted, distracted, disillusioned population that’s obsessed with comfort and entertainment. A population obsessed with altering their mundane reality. Alcohol, marijuana, pills, and our new favorite -- Tide Pods. Every time your doctors prescribe opiate painkillers, you line our coffers with gold. Your population’s thirst for our pristine heroin has never been more lucrative for our warrior tribes. We will keep feeding you poison for as long as you keep your hands out.
If your population wasn’t so spineless, undisciplined, and self-loathing, then you might be able to compile a raiding party with enough tenacity to outthink ours.
Our fighters are born into war. Raised in it. It’s a way of life that evades your “first world” nations. They live a life of such immense misery and pain that they’re willing to fight barefoot in the snow for the opportunity to martyr themselves. They yearn for the opportunity to die. When they do have the blessed opportunity to sacrifice themselves, they sit above Mohammed at the right hand of God. Blessed in Allah for eternity
What honors do your fighters receive? Their empty sacrifice is remembered in the form of a “three day weekend.” The majority of your population uses this sacred time to get drunk and grow more fat as a way to celebrate their fallen warriors. Sadly, we pay tribute to their death more honorably.
The colored pieces of cloth you pin on their chests are similar to the jewelry worn by our women. What good are accolades and vanity if you don’t have the stomach to endure a fight? We don’t offer the burden of healthcare to our fighters as they often want to die for Allah. Your fighters fight to live. Their inability to reconcile the inevitable outcome of our patience leads them to kill themselves. Your medications, counselors and non-profits will never undo the pain and suffering you’ve forced them to endure. It will never remove the pain we’ve caused your broken nation. You are your own worst enemy.
We will give your fighters credit. Some are creative, tenacious, and fierce. They outgun us in every way possible. But again, we simply wait them out. Allah is patient. You cycle them through our Holy Lands every 3 to 12 months for their combat rotations. After their tour is complete, they return to the comfort of their warm beds and endless entertainment. If you left them here, in our Holy Land, with no way out but to win, then you might of have had a chance of success. The longer you poisoned our Holy Land with your presence, your “rules of engagement” only strengthened our position. There is only one rule in war - that is to win.
Your commanders made you fight with your hands tied behind your back. Your rules also confused our fighters too. “We’re clearly the enemy; why are they letting us go?” Thank you for your compassion as it allowed our fighters to kill more Infidels. We began to feel as if your commanders were on our side. We’re thankful your most vicious dogs were never allowed off their leash.
Your showcase Generals make us laugh. You spend millions of dollars flying them around our country, inventing new ways to win while ignoring the guidance of our most capable foes. Your Generals make decisions to minimize risk to their fragile reputation with the ultimate goal of securing a lucrative retirement--jobs with suppliers that fuel your losing force. A self-serving circle that’s built on the backs of your youngest and most naive fighters.
Your retired Generals “earn” tens of thousands of dollars talking to your political, industrial, and financial leaders about “teams, winning, and discipline.” It’s a mockery of the war they refused to fight. It’s a mockery of the Infidel warriors who died in our lands. We urge you to continue following their vacuous personalities so we can further watch your once great nation collapse.
Your statesman and elected officials are spineless, narcissistic, and more cowardly than your Generals. They crave power over you above all else. They come to our country, hide behind blast walls, and only heed the word of the indigenous leader they put in power. I believe your soldiers call this a “self licking ice cream cone.”
They’ve burned billions of dollars in a wasted effort to bring clean water, electricity, business, education, agriculture, and exports to a region that didn’t ask for it. You should have saved yourself the effort and simply given the money directly to us. Don’t worry; your diplomatic friends gave us plenty of your American tax dollars. If you want to give it another shot with your “soft power,” send those with real experience, not fancy degrees and silver tongues.
Over the next few months, we will make the world understand that you failed worse than any fighting force that’s ever invaded our lands. Today we celebrate victory.
As you evacuate your embassy, our fighters will be standing in the shade. Our RPG marksmen will be patient. We thank you for the parting gifts. You’ll find surface-to-air missiles staged in the back of Toyota pickup trucks that you purchased for us.
We saw what Extortion 17 did to your nation and the morale of your fighting force. Do your citizens even remember that victory? We’ll be repeating and improving upon our victory while your citizens and sympathizers evacuate in disgrace. Every one of your foes around the world will know exactly how to break you.
You are welcome to fly your empty drones, target our cell phones, and send your spies. But they, too, will ultimately fail. We’ll use their failures to show the world that you’re not all-powerful. You’re a false front--an empty shell. You lie, cheat, steal, and are easily defeated because you lack the spine to fight. This is your history now. We’re grateful Allah gave us the opportunity to show the world how to defeat the Infidels.
We look forward to seeing you again across the battlefield.
Praise be to God,
The Taliban
***Authors’ Note***
If you’ve read this far. Thank you. I’ve spent the past week trying to find a way to communicate this to the American people in a manner that would cause anger, rage, action, and understanding. Writing in the voice of a Taliban felt right.
If this made you angry, cry, or contemplative--then our goal is achieved. Our hope is that it inspires you to take action with your elected officials. They’ve been repeating the same failing playbook since World War II with your sons, daughters, and tax dollars. If you want this to keep happening, do nothing. If you don’t, then do something. If we all do a little, together we do a lot.
About the Authors:
Matthew Griffin is a 2001 United States Military Academy Graduate, Army Ranger, Combat Veteran with the 75th Ranger Regiment (3x Afghanistan, 1x Iraq), CEO of Combat Flip Flops, author, and 2019 Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Global Leadership Institute.
Scott Chapman is a 2000 Murray State University Graduate, Army Ranger Fire Team Leader from Alpha Company 2/75th Rangers (‘01 - ‘05), OGA Blackwater Alumni, entrepreneur, and author. Combat Veteran ( 21x Afghanistan, 1x Iraq)
Comments
Thank you for writing this. I try To remind myself and my men that it wasn’t for nothing. We may have been sent to kill but we went to save, even if only to save each other. It is time to take action, and I pray This inspires many to do so.
Grateful Warrior
This comment nailed it:
“The underlying message I get here is that USA should have been more patient and brutal imperialists to be successful. But is that really the success we want? The whole reason behind imperialism is comfort and, of course, dominance. Maybe others think that’s success. That’s not how I define it.”
We did stay 11-13 years too long. But at least we tried to help them help themselves. It takes a true leader to rip the bandaid off and leave despite the political consequences, when we all know that we’ve exhausted too many resources trying to stand up for people who won’t stand up for themselves.
But I’m all for reclaiming our equipment with Hellfires. They can call losing 10-to-1 a victory and talk about what great warriors they are if that makes them feel better (or someone here can do it for them). But all they’re really good at is repressing women and raping boys. I’ll take American culture over that any day.
The underlying message I get here is that USA should have been more patient and brutal imperialists to be successful. But is that really the success we want? The whole reason behind imperialism is comfort and, of course, dominance. Maybe others think that’s success. That’s not how I define it.
Dear Men & Women…..today the tears fall and my heart bleeds for you and I have to share that my father a WWII veteran spoke these words all of my 57 yrs as his daughter. They may have came in a different order but in the end ALL the same. As I read every word I felt his presence with me. Thank you for saying it…May it be heard loud and clear! He always stated his beliefs to us and said…" No one would believe me if I spoke it loudly." He became profoundly deaf as the years passed but his heart remained true to all of you men and women who serve /served and his words spoke loud in my memories to my heart. Here’s to truth may you all be blessed.
A soldiers daughter,
Carol Valenta Cacciola
One of the more powerful things I have read in a very long time. Truth is freedom. Freedom is power.
Truth. I am so tired of our career politicians. We’ve been complacent to their corruption for over 75 years. It’s time to stand up and vote them out!
Thank you!
Griff and Scott – a truly impactful narrative. It saddens me that if this were to be published in a medium that everyone had access to, those who need to hear it most wouldn’t take the time out of their all too important activities to finish it. That said- perhaps some will and it’s a start. Thank you both.
Powerful and succinct. It’s a harsh and bitter reminder of what happens when a nation won’t allow it’s troops to fight to win.
A very accurate summary of the situation, but….you leave vague and unclear just WTH can be done about it, only fancy language about some lack of fortitude and cowardice of your countrymen could have somehow made a difference. Ridiculous. Congrats for wasting your life in a failed endeavor that only gave false hope to a few natives, and now your gonna get even more of them killed and oppressed. Perhaps you made a poor career choice?
Sadly brilliant. Thank you.
If our original intent was to “build a nation” we also missed that mark. The kids we met in the first years of the war are just now old enough to take on leadership roles at the local level. They need another 10-20 years before they are ready for leadership roles at the provincial or national level. As a boy, Marcus Aurelius was tapped to be the emperor of Rome and groomed specifically and deliberately for that role. We, the United States, the UN, and every other organization that has touched the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Syria have done nothing of the sort for the past 20 years.
The same holds true of our political “leaders” here at home. While there are exceptions, we have collectively pandered to a bunch of errant children in an effort to placate their self-indulgent whining and it shows.
Well stated. Yes death is look forward to when an entire life has been miserable. But the end of what we Americans, where others will die to try reach our shores – what are we to do? How can each American make a change? You did not mention how. Electing another will not change this outcome. It will happen again. I now believe in Col. Logan Weston that in 2001 after 9/11 told me we needed to drop the biggest bomb we had and let God sort it out. He was the Chaplin in Merrill’s Marauders. Survived WWII Korea Vietnam, is in Ranger Hall of Fame. I believe he was correct.
We lost the day we decided to rebuild a nation. Afghanistan was and will probably always be an illusion of a Nation. It is really a bunch of tribes fighting for power and influence in their homeland.
At its most organized it was a loose confederation of tribes under a Muhammad Zahir Shaw. It had a middle class, some westernized cities, and a concentration of wealth in the major cities, but the government never had control of the outlying tribal areas. And once every tribe had unlimited access to automatic weapons and ammo, no central government was going to take away their autonomy…at least not without cruel measures not seen since in the Western World since the middle ages.
My first deployment to Afghanistan was in 2003 and I could not fathom why we were still there. A punitive mission to kill AL Queda Leadership and disrupt their operations made sense. “Rebuilding” a nation that never was didn’t make sense then and never did. We just threw more money and lives into an open fire.
I hit Iraq in 2003 and 2005, Afghanistan in 2003, 2005, and 2010. All I saw was the same mistake repeated over and over- trying to build a western society ignoring tribal influences. Tons of money, effort, and lives going to a wasted effort while fat cats ans warlords smiled and took our cash and equipment to use for their own power.
I’m still putting it all together in my head. The authors are 100% correct. And what’s worse is the fate of all the Afghans who belived in and supported us. Afghanistan will devolve back into the disjointed he’ll hole it became after the US, China, Pakistan and others supplied so much weaponry to so many tribes.
God help the people of Afghanistan. I’m pretty sure our well meaning but misguided efforts didn’t.
Incredibly written
I only wish our entire country would read every single word.
Keep up the great work with your company.
I wear my operators every day 😊
Matt and Scott,
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund BurkeRegiment seems like a lifetime ago. I’m pleased to see you both continuing to work for the greater good. This is a sad but accurate truth. We’ve gave so much to achieve so little. You’ve captured a viewpoint that most of society doesn’t understand, but needs to. I hope this piece is spread wide and far, in hopes it reaches those that have the resolve to do what we tried to. I wish you both well, and thank you for everything you’ve done for us and our families.
Holy mother of god! That was an honest and accurate reflection like no other! If there was ever a hard to swallow pill of inconvenient truth above all others, this was it! Spectacular work, so much so that I literally thought it had been written by the Taliban until I reached the end for the writing credits!
Our greatness is overstated. The impact on our national self image will shatter myths but it will take time. It will take less time abroad.
“ I rather wish I had gone some other road. This was not the sort of experience a statesman is to encounter who was planning out a peaceful revolution in his mind. For I cannot help but to bring up the unforgettable fact that all the gentle cant and philosophizing, to the contrary notwithstanding, that no people in the world did ever achieve their freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion. It being a mutable law that all revolutions that will succeed must begin in blood, what ever may answer afterward. If history teaches us anything it teaches that. What these people need is a rain of terror and the guillotine. ” Mark Twain – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. (1889)
Some of us saw it coming. We called Kabul “Saigon in the Mountains.”
In 2006 and 2007, some of us tried to convince leadership to change course. We didn’t have to stick our male anatomy in the sausage grinder. Centralized, western bureacratic government – run by kleptocrats installed by “ploytheists and crusaders” – was NOT going to work. Deaf ears. Eikenberry threw my boss out of his office one time.
In 2010, in Kandahar two weeks after arriving in country and getting all the senior leader briefings, I told my new boss we were going to lose and we’d best get our minds wrapped around that fact and figure out how to manage a withdrawal at least as well as the Soviets did. Best start then when we were at the high mark of power. Got called a defeatist, a horrible officer, and an all-around loser for my troubles.
Cassandra is the most tragic figure in Western literature.
As I am sitting here inside my tent in the Middle East reading this piece, all all my emotions are awaken. Every word in this piece is exactly what I have been trying to say for many years now. We need better leadership and a new thought process for our country 🇺🇸. God Bless us all.
I read this and immediately threw my phone— because it is true. And we have political leaders watching it like those people don’t matter. Like the lives lost don’t matter. Like the women of Afghanistan don’t matter.
Griff/Scott,
Amazing. Wow. You conveyed what has EXACTLY been my sentiment about these recent events AND the past decade of my personal experience. Please keep doing what you do. I also hope that this format provides the fuel for all of us to make the right choices in our leadership picks.
Thanks guys
All I can do in nod in agreement with every point made. We as GWOT vets need to march on D.C. and demand answers for this failure. Show them we care about the sacrifices we have made and those who didn’t come home made. We should literally terrify the politicians with our presence so they understand to never do this again
I sincerely appreciate the courage and conviction it took to write this, Rangers! Hooah! “Never leave a fallen comrade!” RLTW!
Thank you. Desired outcome achieved. Damn you are good at knocking down objectives.
As retired Army and both an Afghanistan and Iraq vet, that definitely had the desired effect. It more than hit a nerve, it tap-danced all the fuck over it.
As a historian, it simply had me nodding my head in agreement; picturing our own “headstone” in that Graveyard of Empires.
Mostly your words have encapsulated and expressed some of the mounting frustration, disillusionment, and dismay over what we’ve all been watching happen in Afghanistan. Thank you for saying what needs to be said and doing it in a way that hopefully will garner enough attention to make even a little difference.
Gentlemen,
This is harrowing, necessary, and executed to perfection.
Bravo!
Was this written in Taliban or ISIS or North Vietnamese? Hard to tell because the language is the same but just different dialects.
As sharp and to the point as it could ever be. Well said. It will undoubtedly sicken every one of us who still has “moon dust” in our boots, hopefully it also si kens those who have not worn the uniform…although I doubt it will. If the apathy in all other Nato nations is like that of my home, Canada…they are more concerned about pronouns than the fact that the evil about to be unleashed again on the innocent Afghanis (especially those 20 years and younger, females more) is unlike anything of their worst nightmares. It is for them I will weep, and beg their forgiveness.