Those of us who took Latin in grade school know that “Sic Transit Gloria” represents what the U.S. is experiencing with the fall of Afghanistan. Americans and democracy really had no business being there in the first place except to eliminate the Osama Bin Laden threat in 2001, which actually took place in Pakistan.

The 9/11 attacks were not caused by the Afghan Taliban but were the product of 19 murderous and suicidal Saudis. We have squandered 20 years of precious American and Allied youth and treasure in a useless war in a repeat enactment of the losing VietNam war of the 1960s. Even the useless blame-game is the same.

Instead we must look closely at our reflection in the mirror of history. Please someone tell us again why all this sacrifice was necessary in good times and in bad? How will we feed the voracious and self-destructive mass appetite of the military-industrial complex, the NRA and the armament manufacturers in the current age?

The Taliban rout of the unauthorized U.S. occupation is eerily familiar to the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, though thankfully the results are very different. This bad scenario had to end, and we owe a debt of thanks to the Biden administration for realizing the folly of this venture.

The same wild bunch of fundamentalist lunatics running around waving idiotic flags, carrying  AK 47's and wearing strange field garb is a stark reminder of what could have been, had democracy not prevailed on Jan. 7 in Washington. Turbans take the place of MAGA caps, and harem pants are worn in lieu of camouflage gear. Republicans bigwigs are fervently calling for an investigation into the fall of Kabul as vehemently as they refuse and reject an investigation into the Trump-incited insurrection in Washington of Jan. 6, 2021.

As the Romans, the Carthaginians, the Trojans, the Nazis, the Puritans, the Spanish (to name only a few) remind us, Sic Transit Gloria — “Thus passes (the illusion of) worldly glory.”  

George Burman
Bristol