You forgot at the Kabul Airport.  You forgot who you were and why you were there.  You betrayed those Afghanis who put their lives on the line for you and the brave young American soldiers you put in harm's way.  You abandoned them by forming common cause with the Taliban, the people who protected Osama bin Laden.

You forgot in northern Afghanistan as six planes still sit on the runway needing approval from the enemy to take off.

You have been humbled by a militia with pickups and Kalashnikovs, a militia without armor, without an air force, and with limited artillery, a militia without satellite capability.

You forgot why you were in Afghanistan in the first place because you are back to square one.  The danger that brought you to Afghanistan has resurrected itself.  Sure, the Taliban will prevent al-Qaeda and ISIS from reforming, and they have no interlocking relationships.  If you believe that, you are as ignorant and senile as President Joseph Biden.   

You forgot in your colleges and universities that teach nothing about civic virtue but are mired in a cesspool of accusations characterizing your history as a story of rapacious oppression and exploitation.  Their notions of critical thinking are simply an assault on all that is good and decent about your country.  Your college and university administrators and their anti-American agendas are the enemy's front-line arsenal in attacking your society.  

Your children are no longer taught how to think, but what to think.  Guardians of correct thought sit on powerful university committees to enforce not intellectual diversity, but intellectual conformity to an approved anti-American script.

You forgot when you elected Barack Hussein Obama, not once, but twice — a man whose disdain for this country was palpable, a man who thought NASA should emphasize the Muslim's role in space.  Obama's sensibilities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were clearly with the terrorists.  And why not?  He was a product of an education in an Islamic madrassa.

You forgot when you elected Ilhan Omar, a woman whom we rescued from a refugee camp, fed, clothed, educated, and elected to Congress, where she uses her pulpit to viciously demean America.  Does she represent the interests of our people or the interests of those who would destroy us?  You've forgotten the danger.

You forgot when you elected Rashida Tlaib, who, upon taking the oath of office, wrapped herself in a Palestinian, not an American. flag, who now wages a battle with Israel for the return of the body of a fellow Palestinian, who she neglects to note was a terrorist who was killed while trying to murder Israeli soldiers.  Like Omar, she talks of Jewish dual loyalty, but whom does she really represent?

You forgot when you elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who would, given the opportunity, transform this society into some sort of socialist dystopia.

You forgot, and regrettably, there is no way to remind you.  Neither the offenses of those who demean your country nor the debacle in Kabul nor the vicious anti-American agenda of those you entrust with the education of your children reminds you.

For a few days in September of 2001, we remembered what it meant to be an American.  We came together.  We proudly flew our flag that now embarrasses too many.  We basked in the righteousness of patriotism without apologies.  But no more.

You forgot.  I pray fervently that you do not have to be reminded as you once were.

Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati.

Image: Dave Z.

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