REMEMBERING THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST —THE 20 YEAR AFGAHN BUSH WAR DISASTER

I am driven to write today....after listening to comments made by some of our so called political”leaders” and those in the politicized and propagandizing media. One is  the upcoming twenty year “anniversary” of the war in Afghanistan and the other the  barely “history” really—the disaster unfolding at the southern border.  In one place , our border recent history is being ignored—in the other history of two decades old  is expunged 

The lack of historical context in these two divergent stories drove me here to my typewriter—where I must write  to remind my readers of the oft re-quoted  aphorism of George Santayana,  who added a warning at the close of his 1905 book: “Reason in Common Sense”: 

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat if.”   

The 20^th anniversary of our War in Afghanistan is coming up in a few months. The anniversary has some of  our talking heads on the right complaining  of the ongoing withdrawal of the USA troops from its two decade long war in Afghanistan.  

Again, we have too often been condemned to repeat the past not only  because  we “cannot remember” it but because our compliant propagandizing media and the government conspire  to distort or ignore history.  Their lack of respect for the past  condemns us all to repeat the most egregious foreign policy and economic blunders in world history—such as the invasion of Afghanistan after 9-11.  

President George Bush’s (junior’s) ignorant plan to invade Afghanistan was a classic case of ignoring and repeating the mistakes of history.  Bush did not heed the warnings of past Afghan wars.

So just let me restate here a brief  history of that awful twenty years of stupidity,  so perhaps you—my readers —remember and may in future  help to avoid being doomed to repeat such awful stupidity.

President George Bush used the September 11 attack as an excuse and a red herring to launch an attack on defenseless Afghanistan ((most 9-11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia).  Bush  one of our most historically ignorant presidents, blissfully unaware and thus  doomed to repeat past mistakes ignored (Santayana’s dictum) and the history of former wars in Afghanistan where every invading foreign power ( most recently  the USSR) was defeated by the war lords, the tough, tenacious fighters, the mountainous terrane, the isolation and the intractable nature of that nation,  so that  and each invader of the.past eventually withdrew in defeat often with their “tails between their legs” as the USA is now doing. .   

The Bush War in Afghanistan must be remembered as our longest war in US history.  It cost nearly three trillion dollars in direct costs. Since all the money was borrowed, we are still paying off the interest on this “on the cuff” war.  (So far we have paid out an annual rate of @ $500 billion dollars in interest and that will remain a steady drain on our economy for years to come)   Oh and just in pursuit of the truth —it wasn't Joe Biden who initiated the troops withdrawal as some of our commentators are claiming—but former President Trump who made that decision...Biden only followed through on the original directive. 

In terms of loss of life, up to April of this year 50,000 Afghan civilians died as a direct effect of the war. It also cost the lives of 72 journalists, 444 “workers”, and 70,000 Afghan troops .  During the conflict three million Afghans fled the country to Europe, or the Middle East,  while another 4 million remain displaced in that nation. (See AP report 4-30-21) Our troop losses included 2,400 of our finest troops dead, while almost 10times that number (21,000) came home badly wounded.  The war  also saddled us with $300 billion dollars in medical expenses and continued care for these wounded heroes and deserving veterans who gave their all for their nation.  We also lost almost 4,000 “private security contractors” or mercenaries who are sadly often ignored and go uncounted in our war dead .  While our NATO allies lost another 1,144 of their troops, 

Actual direct costs of fighting the Taliban incurred nearly $1 trillion dollars—in bullets, planes, bombs, humvees, fuel, food, replacemnts, tanks and transports, etc. etc. etc.  

After about two years of fighting, when it became apparent to our leaders that actually winning the war was not likely,  the Bush Administration pivoted to a “nation building” plan.  Thus,  while the near trillion dollars of war/fighting costs continued unabated, new costs and investments were added to the mounting taxpayer’s bill.  These new “nation building” costs were devoted to building military bases and infrastructure, such as roads, hospitals, schools, canals, dams, water treatment plants.  Even agricultural projects were funded.  These were aimed at reducing Afghan farmer’s dependence on growing poppies for heroin production.  This last effort failed as well.

 It is noteworthy to remark here that such infrastructure investments were.desperately needed even more at home. But the Administration  used taxpayers dollars abroad where they were in the end wasted there. 

Great efforts and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment were made to increase “women’s rights” in backward Afghanistan .  This effort can be seen as a paradigm of the entire foolishness and impracticality of the entire Afghan “nation building” plan.  The Bush Administration supported costly efforts to increase female entry into schools, jobs, and entrance into professions, etc. This was a futile and unprecedented attempt by the US military (an invading foreign force, with no experience in such matters) into an effort to change family structure, ancient Afghan mores, a male dominated society and the culture of a nation which had endured decades of Soviet and US invasion and had evolved into a  determined and intransigent population. The US government involved itself in costly “social engineering” as it attempted  to impose on a unique Afghani  male-dominated culture,  a foreign and alien western culture and highly unpopular value system.  Such efforts were doomed to failure.  Perhaps this  exercise in social engineering was more useful to the Bush government as a smoke screen to help bolster waning domestic support for the huge war costs.  It remained a weak justification for our massive war expenditures—-to claim that “even though we are killing so many Afghanis and to do so is so costly, we are still “doing some good” —-for Afghan women!”.   

Most of this Afghan nation-building and infrastructure investment went like desert rain water,  seeping  into the gravel gullies of dry Afghan hills  and never to hydrate a blade of grass —and to waste. The cultural changes and investment in social and cultural engineereing by an invading power such as in women’s issues” were resented and for the most part did not take hold.  Hospitals and schools remained empty and fell into disrepair. Canals and dams were not maintained. Vast sums of money spent there was misused and  led to government corruption and undermined  government legitimacy.    With all the US cash spent on welfare and infrastructure the  poverty rate in 2020 rose to 50% (climbing from 36% in 2007).    After the billions of US dollars spent on training and rearming Afghan government forces the Taliban now control more territory than they had at the beginning of the l decade.  

So let us not forget this sad  history, lest we, as Santayana warns, will be doomed to repeat it.  

*See much of the data on Afghanistan taken from “Counting the costs of US 20 year war in  Afghanistan”. By Isabel Dupre APNews 4-30-21

DEER TICKS CAN SCENT YOU: CAUTION!

 Ticks can “smell” you (or your pet) and will be attracted to areas that you or your pet frequent.  In these locations  they will wait for you (or your pet)  to pass and with extended forelegs attempt to attach themselves. Ticks then crawl upward (always proceeding) against gravity and to find a warm, moist, soft spot of skin where they can insert their sucking mouth parts to draw your blood (and perhaps infect you with dangerous disease germs too. .   

The ticks we all too often encounter in our gardens, jogging, or walks in the woods are most likely the common “deer tick” Ixodes scapularis. These tiny, (1/8 inch)  arthropods, distantly related to spiders (and also with eight legs) are a serious and dangerous pest for those of us who love the outdoors.

When mature these tiny arthropods are only the size of a sesame seed, though the young ( nauplii stage) are less than the size of the head of a pin (about one millimeter across). Both the mature tick and the young, seek nutrition in the form of blood from hosts. Once fully engorged with blood, they fall off to complete their life cycle by either laying eggs, or by seeking a secondary host animal (after which they complete their life cycle by laying eggs). 

Ticks are barely visible, flat, hard bodied, eight-legged arthropods which have a small head that is fused to their thorax, and a large flat abdomen. Under the dissecting microscope, the tiny head and mouthparts of the tick are revealed as intriguing (and frightening) as well as exceedingly efficient.    The mouth organ consists of a central siphon tube which leads to the gut,  bounded on either side by a sharp-pointed harpoon-like appendage armed with sharp, rear-facing barbs.  These paired “harpoon” appendages are able to move forward and back, sliding along the side of the siphon tube. The paired “harpoons” on either side of the siphon tube move forward and back alternately, acting to  insert the siphon tube and the head deep into the skin of the host.  The mouth organs function to bury the head deep below the epidermis to reach the capillary -rich dermis.  This insures the tick a source of blood and also establishes a firm “headhold” to lock the tick’s essential mouthparts in place and insure that it remains in the host’s skin (even after the host animal begins to sense its presence (itching and inflammation) and initiates  attempts to scratch it away.

To remove a fully inserted tick completely,  with such mouth organ armament is near impossible, once it has firmly and deeply attached itself in the skin.  A fine pointed forceps is often recommended to grasp the head and attempt to withdraw it first without detaching the head from the tick. .  (Do not grasp the bloated body since this may simply force fluids from the tick into your skin). The result of attempts at tick removal often end with a good part of the head, barbed parts and siphon remaining embedded in the host. There they can remain often causing( long term itching and inflammation. 

These eight legged, blood sucking arthropods are no recent addition to our fauna, they have been with us since the Age of the Dinosaurs.  Ticks which look just like our modern species have been found embedded in amber (fossilized tree sap) that dates to the late part of the Cretaceous Period,  or about 99 million years ago.  One family of ticks found in South Africa and possibly the most ancient of the line is known to parasitize native African lizards upon whose blood they feed.   So it is conceivable that the ancestors of our modern ticks living in the Cretaceous may have first evolved to  the blood of ancient reptiles and perhaps dinosaurs too!  . 

So over those millions of years of evolution and adaptation, ticks have evolved very efficient ways to find and attach to their reptilian or mammalian hosts.  Observational evidence suggests that ticks can SCENT the presence of their hosts and actually move to areas where these scents are stronger where they wait in anticipation of a passing host animal.   A personal experience in a heavily forested area on Long Island during a field survey illustrates this effective means of scenting and finding their hosts. 

It was many years back, while working on an archeological survey on a Long Island property  had a dense deer populations and was heavily infested with deer ticks.  My crew of university students were dressed in standard field attire : long pants, with pant leg’s  tucked into their socks, long sleeved collared shirts tucked into the pants and with shirt collars turned down.  This mode of dress helped prevent ticks, which have the (nearly) unique characteristic of only crawling  “upward” (against gravity).  

Finding a tick on a branch of leaf—you can make it change course by turning the branch or leaf upright and then as the tick moves upward, turn it down and the tick will reverse course and head in the opposite (upward) direction always going opposite to the “pull” of gravity. Ticks are programmed to be “anti-geotropic” (to move opposite to the force of gravity).   When students followed the “archeology field-dress code they most often escaped becoming hosts for ticks . Often the ticks they did attract were found lodged under their down-turned shirt collars, reaching that point, but unable to go downward,  they remained trapped under the shirt collar. 

Late in the afternoon on this particular field day, as we completed subsurface testing of a brushy section of the wooded property one of our test pits .revealed evidence suggesting  the presence of a possible subsurface prehistoric native-American site.  After additional shovel tests in the area, the team was directed to clear  the thick brush.  We subsequently  oriented and laid out a one-meter square excavation unit to evaluate the subsurface for further detailed  study.  The corners of this test square were established by driving four, one-by-one inch wood stakes into the ground at the four corners. This work was completed late in the day, and  further excavation was put off for the next day. 

On the following morning, our team arrived at the site and began to prepare for more detailed excavation. As one of the students attempted to wrap twine used as a “level line” on each stake, she noted that the top of the corner stake was occupied by six or eight adult ticks.  Each one was observed standing on its rear legs on the sharp corner edges  of the one-inch square stake. Each tick’s assumed a “praying-mantis” pose  or grasping attitude, with its fore legs extended, ready to grasp and climb on to any unsuspecting host coming into range. Each one of the stakes was occupied by similar numbers of ticks ready to hitch a ride on any host fur or clothing brushing past. 

Apparently,  the ticks were able to “smell” mammal body fluids (perhaps persiration) left on the stakes by the sweaty hands of the excavation team members.  Zoologists note that ticks have an olfactory organ on their fore legs (I.e. Haller’s Organ).   It appeared that our disturbance and presence within the brushy area, as well as the scent of mammal body odors and body fluids may have attracted all the local ticks from the surroundings to the area of our proposed test excavation,  where they climbed on to top of the stakes to wait for their prey to return!! 

Team members, always ready with Deep Woods “Off”, sprayed down the stakes and the offending parasite critters and wiped them away.  Then continued to successfully excavate the test unit. (It was positive at depth for prehistoric evidences, perhaps dating to nearly a millennia ago.) 

Thus it is clear that the movement of animals or humans through brushy areas where ticks may be located  can attract ticks which use scent  or “smell” to locate potential mammal hosts,  then climb into position so as  to increase the chance of encountering  a host 

Recurrent passage of a pet such as a cat or dog  through a brushy pathway, its waste, and regular use of an area may attract ticks which can scent the presence of their hosts and migrate to these areas. So beware. 

A handy means of extracting a recently attached tick to your skin can be fashioned from a thin plastic water bottle or thin aluminum soft drink can   The bottom of the bottle or can  is cut off with a pocket knife.  The base is saved.  A small “v” shaped cut is made into the top edge of the base (about 1/2 cm wide).  The base of the “v” notch is extended downward about 0.5cm  with the knife blade to make a slit LI. The base is then used to extract the tick by scraping the “v” along the skin surface so as the slit in the plastic passes under the tick body. The buried head of the tick can now be removed by gently tugging on the base. The tick’s body should be captured within the base.