Collateral Damage: Afghanistan

Imperial wars rarely follow linear passages to termination. The expectation that unwarrantable cost, fatigue, defeat, or futility would write their epilogue is readily overpowered by new imagined perils elsewhere. Wars to civilize the barbarian are interminable; there is no dearth of places resisting love of humanity, earthly salvation, democracy, or freedom. The war in Afghanistan has been advertised as an imperial crusade—legitimate, moral, and honourable. Forgotten in this popular narrative, however, are simple verities about ‘just’ wars and their latent proclivity towards concealment and erasure. The unspeakable tragedy of Afghanistan is written by resistance.