Renouncing Religion and Imperialism

 IN A MORE PERFECT WORLD, one of my own design, each and every member of the Taliban would be suddenly struck by lightening on his or her way to Damascus or wherever, would awaken, renounce religion, and declare undying devotion to science, the arts, and philosophy. One might, depending upon one's point of view, rejoice at the thought of Islamic fundamentalists/terrorists casting off the crazy clothing, shaving, slipping into some jeans and a T shirt, popping a cold brew, and having a nice lad back discussion bout the Stones, the Packers, the Yankees, Chris Hedges,, quantum mechanics, and, for good measure, the innumerable benefits of secular democracy. Lettuce stipulate that fanatical talibaniacal governance of Afghanistan could have been prevented in only one of two ways: by the determined will, strength, and resolve of the Afghani people, government, and military to not permit it to happen, and or by the sustained multi-generational presence f a substantial American military force within the country. Neither of these proved possible or acceptable, hence, enter the Taliban. Lacking these options, neither Biden, Trump, nor God itself could have prevented what happened, and whether the American withdrawal was orderly or chaotic seems, upon further scrutiny, to be about as relevant as a bucket of warm spit, as Sam Rayburn might have said. A substantial American military force has been stationed in Europe since World War Two, in Japan since World War Two, in Korea since the Korean War, and in hundreds of American military basis scattered all around the world for about the same length of time. Hence the term "empire" is often used to describe the United States, although terms like "democracy" and republic" are more commonly used,  even though the terms "oligarchy" and "plutocracy" might be more appropriate. For present purposes, "empire" suffices nicely. To all this we the American people have long been accustomed and therefore indifferent; most of us if not all all of us have been born and raised and spent our entire lives in the bosom of the American empire, without really spending much time thinking about it. To use that horribly meaningless and over used phrase: "It is what it is". But in Afghanistan we seem to have finally drawn the line. Twenty years is enough, more than enough. Neither Trump  Biden, nor any other sane American is willing to accept the idea of having thousands of American military personnel in Afghanistan until the turn of the next century, while the Taliban merely waits, lurking in the shadows, for its chance which would in and event ultimately arrive. Since the Taliban is an unacceptable form of government, and since neither of the other options is realistic or desirable, we return to our better world scenario, in which, through ineffable mass transformation, the Taliban renounces religion, and turns to science, art, and sanity. As they say: dream on.