By SCOTT DAVIS
Staff Reporter 

Local veteran and author reflects on Afghanistan

 

Last updated 9/15/2021 at 2:35pm

Trent Reedy

CHENEY -- A betrayal of the Afghan people.

That's how local author, humanitarian and National Guard veteran Trent Reedy characterizes the Aug. 31 American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"Biden comes along, and he throws it all away," Reedy said, shaking his head in disgust. "I don't care what anybody says, he's the only president, he's the only commander-in-chief.

"He's the only guy that gave that order. And he condemned millions of people to Taliban oppression."

The withdrawal came less than a month after the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorism attacks, launched by leaders who were later determined to be Taliban hiding in Afghanistan.

Born and raised in Iowa, Reedy enlisted in the National Guard after high school to fund his college education.

But after 9/11, his views about military service drastically changed.

When George Bush mounted the podium on Sept. 20, 2001, to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress, calling upon the youth of America, Reedy felt like Bush was speaking directly to him: "I really took that to heart, I took it seriously."

So when it was his time to deploy in 2004, he went with a patriot's zeal and, admittedly, a deep distrust for the Afghan people.

"I was in a combat job. I wasn't a medic; I was a combat engineer, and I was very angry. I was angry about 9/11 . . . I was mad that I had to be away from my family, and I wanted to go get these guys. Send me out there, I'll find these Taliban guys, I'll find these Al-Qaeda guys, let's go get 'em," he said.

But instead of battling the Taliban with bullets, the National Guard employed their skills constructing schools and infrastructure for a desperate populace; kids without clean water or adequate housing, women savaged under Taliban rule.

It didn't take long, embedded in such plight, for the homesick GIs to engage with the locals, who often supplied food, friendship, support, and lifesaving intelligence on the enemy. In one instance Reedy was protruding from the turret of a Humvee with a sleek, black machine gun, when a local man rushed into the roadway, and stopped the column. In broken English, he warned the Americans they were about to enter a minefield – a claim that later proved to be true. "One jumpy 19-year-old kid could have just mowed that guy in half with his machine gun . . . he risked his life to help us," Reedy marveled.

"I made the naive mistake of blaming all the Afghans," he continued. "Probably, if I'm being honest, blaming all the Muslims. So, I didn't want to help them, I wanted to fight. Those were our orders. But eventually we got out to work with the people, and you see all these Afghan kids, and they're great. And they don't have anything. Lucky if they have shoes . . . I couldn't stay angry enough."

And it was during this impressionable time that the lanky Cheney resident met the man who would become his co-author and friend, Jawad Arash; and the source of his insomnia since

After President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal from Afghanistan, like thousands of other personnel that aided coalition forces, Arash was trapped in the country and left to the will of the Taliban.

"He believed in the power of education, that [America] could make thing better. That his kids wouldn't have to live in a Taliban Hellhole, like he grew up in," Reedy said. "Now, Biden has just condemned them to that."

According to the White House, more than 120,000 people were evacuated in the two-week operation that saw 13 servicemembers killed by a suicide bomber Aug. 26.

This officially ends a 20-year war that cost more than $2 trillion and the lives of over 2,000 U.S. military personnel.

For Reedy, the only solace found in an otherwise bleak situation remains the character of Afghan people.

"Even though he is essentially a Taliban target . . . Jawad Arash remains so hopeful and courageous," Reedy said. "He's a real inspiration.

"And if there's a hope for Afghanistan, it's with him and people like him because Afghans are indominable, wonderful people."

Scott Davis can be reached at news@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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