You aren't asking "What will the women in Afghanistan do?" You are asking "What will happen to the women in Afghanistan?" Your conceptualization of these vibrant, exceptional humans who are part of a culture millennia older than almost any you could claim completely denies them agency. But as a rule, said answers usually involve deferring, demurring, de-something-ing, instead of saying what I usually want to: "F-k you."į-k you and your newfound, if not completely artificial then at least conveniently timed anxiety for a country of 40 million people, except oh wait, for you they aren't people, they're "those poor people" or "all those Afghanis" (an Afghani is a currency, not a person, by the by), or, best of all, "those women," said with every bit of emphasis you can muster on the plight of those poor creatures who will return to being if not beasts of burden then at least subhuman under the Taliban's rule, a predestination that you have a Calvinist fervor for because you already consider these women so much Lesser Than. They're not as ready, not as pithy as my first answer, as they largely depend on the context of the conversation. I have answers for these questions too, though they aren't honest. Often, the person asking one of these questions is hoping for an answer to both it's more of an "and" than an "or." "What will Afghanistan look like thanks to us?" These verbal isotopes are convenient, as they protect the speaker from asking what they actually want to know: And how much suffering did Afghans have to go through in that time? Constantly living under the fear of the Taliban's return, their reversion to the dark ages, their loss of, gasp, democracy. Any importance it has had on the global stage in recent history was purely invented by those who conceived of it in the first place. No matter what the policy wonks want you to believe, as they will tell you that Afghanistan is bordered by Iran and Pakistan and China and once upon a time the USSR, thereby making it important for global security and affairs, except Afghanistan as a country is little more than a fairy tale, simply a place we (the West) decided to name and impose these borders on so that we could have a location that was (a) conveniently surrounded by our enemies, and (b) ours for the taking. How much time, how much money, how many lives did we as a country devote to fighting in a country completely devoid of any strategic importance? They aren't unreasonable questions, on their face. These are the questions that undergirded much of the news and commentary that surrounded the "fall" of Afghanistan. The second version and third versions of this question are, in my experience, the more common ones. I would only say to the latter group, be careful. My decision to get out was a personal one, and while I may have complicated feelings about what I did in the military, I don't begrudge anyone who stayed in, is in, or wants to be in. Unforeseeable, or at least unseen, downstream effects included. Joining the Air Force is the best decision I ever made. The first version, wherein the tone implies a "for you," I have an answer for, an honest one.
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