To an Afghan neighbour

Less than 100 days before the Fall of Saigon, like you, I was worried stiff.

Of course the American were slowly and steadily pulling out, so as to avoid a full-blown panic.

Equipment, man and materials – logistically retrieved…after years of build-up and mission-creep (3/4 of multiple Trillion of dollars were for logistical-robotic supports vs Taliban’s cavemen-like agility).

Your war has unfortunately been twice longer than ours, but similarly devastating and heart-broken: children orphaned, women widowed, limps lost…

As long as you still have hope, you should be OK. Out of the ruin, rises the phoenix.

Many of you are applying and anxiously awaiting for a visa.

Best wishes to you. (as of this edit, one of your pilots – featured in PBS Newshour – got an OK to enter the US as our latest settler).

I hope no harm befalls you after having allied with the US in our long war.

(Unlike many in post-Vietnam who died in closed camps or out in the opened seas).

Let’s entertain a scenario. Let’s say you get a sponsor and a visa.

Upon arrival, you will be culture-shocked…no matter the region of the US.

Let’s just say you are lucky to be re-settled in the Northeast of the United States…

Be prepared for news about mass shooting (last weekend, in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah), about Pulse’s 5-year anniversary (49 dead)…

Casualties are nowhere near to what you have seen. But it should make you ponder: why a nation of peace always seeks a fight ( as oppose to yours, a nation of war, yet can only wish for a day without guns).

What exactly transpired there? The Pakistanis push? Chinese (rare-Earth) hunt? (or Russia return).

You wil meet the relics of liberals..academia or otherwise.

You will be mistaken for an Indian techie who help build our nation’s cyber-infrastructure (against the war on digital terrorism).

You will “leapfrog” from tribal culture to cyber culture…

Brush up your math skills… attend community college (not ITT).. pick up an ESL class…

In short, your future is bright, as long as you stay head down, eyes opened.

You will meet a few gentle people, in San Francisco or San Jose on your trip out West.

But that’s about it. Just white folks and white lies.

Don’t take to heart everything you hear. America, had it been what it thought it were, it wouldn’t have left you in limbo (early settlers along the East Coast were known for feeding on dead bodies to thrive…not far different from a few of our Boat People survivors). People of colors were seen as ranch hands…despite industrialized farming and improved yield (social revolution hasn’t caught up with technological revolution).

Always out-sourcing (pain included) a nation, the US conducts its diplomacy and warfares via third-party cut-outs.

(Currently, whose armies are guarding your critical infra-structures? Turkish). Always efficient, yet unwise in world affairs.

So you know. Your future development will also be “outsourced” to educational loan institutions, financial institutions and hopefully, not mental institutions.

Everything has been tightly-established, nitty-gritty…to the teeth.

In awe when walking into a Walmart near you? I don’t blame you.

At your first job, blue-collar of course, you will meet even fewer “gentle” people there (ain’t Flower Power in the 60’s but a gladiatorial fight for survival at the bottom of the totem pole).

Then you will encounter with high/low religions mix with partisan politics.

You will be a poster child for what’s wrong with the world: a blood-thirsty race who worship other gods….

You are to be bleached inside out, to become “white”, to “confess” and ” be baptized” preferably in Nashville during the convention of America’s largest denomination…Your being a new convert will legitimize their Monotheistic stance – a nice distraction from their unbecoming conducts.

Oh well, my dear neighbour, you will become more individualistic as you travel up the food chain. Forget clan loyalty. Forget your mindset of kill-or-be-killed (zero-sum game). To get back on your horse you will have to use it (the loss and pain) to survive.

I know you have some English…as a translator…to be granted a visa…to be here.

What you bring e.g. desire to succeed….is just 10% of the work. The rest are uphill battles….

Think of the US as sports. You are to be eliminated….to be benched…to be de-listed….

Your mission is to survive and thrive e.g. school grades, credit scores and bank statements.

Things will change again, every two and four years…

People move on to other “distractions”….like the re-opening of Disneyland and Universal Studio.

Like Amazon streaming and Apple apps.

I know you have been on the receiving end of drones and rockets. ..

You might still have nightmares every so often.

And you will be looked at as a walking reminder of geo-political conflicts and doctrinal short-comings people prefer to forget.

Oh well, join us, the community of refugees…ethnic shops and exotic cuisine (as if culture could be deduced into cooking)…with tokenism and regrets.

In the end, you will accumulate enough “hit-and-missed opportunities” to constitute what you call life i.e. material gain.

Good luck my neighbour. Your story is America’s. Just like mine. Just like the Italian’s, the Irish’s, the German’s.

We consume, create and contribute.

Some build boobs, others bombs.

I notice your countrymen’s restaurants in the D.C. area.

Perhaps some corrupting politicians have managed to channel their funds overseas, in anticipation of this eventual end.

20 years have gone by since 9/11. Twin Towers. Boeings-turned-bombs. NYC knocked of its two front teeth per Tom Wolfe.

Human sacrifice. A One-World altar. Tombs of the known victims and responders. Of UA-93 heroic sacrifices.

What a waste. What a tragedy. Somehow, your fate and destiny are linked in with mine, here in America.

Land of the free and free-fall.

Less than 100-days before the pull out…heart-throbbing…tear-jerking….relationship lost, identity confused and future uncertain….

I can go on and on…but I want desperately to end with a hopeful note, for you my Afghan counterpart.

We are like inmates, awaiting a trial, sharing a bench…my best wishes to you is to be free inside out.

Head high, chest forward…walk in dignity and with a smile in your face. You are here – the other side of the pull-out, with me watching your 6.

“Want a Juicy Fruit?”

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