Afghanistan

 

A 14th century miniature by the great painter Bizhad from a book of poems by Hafiz made in the city of Herat in Afghanistan. 

Remembering the people of Afghanistan today as a major catastrophe descends upon them in the form of a return to power of the Taliban. The Afghan military after 20 years and billions of dollars in military aid and training by the USA now melts like the morning mist before the onslaught. As in Vietnam in 1975, so now in 2021, the military we sponsored for years breaks and runs instead of stands and fights. It's a lesson for us that we will probably soon forget in another imperial adventure, but for the Afghans it's a catastrophe. 

Above is a famous painting by Bizhad made in what is now Afghanistan in the city of Herat back when it was renowned for poetry, calligraphy, and painting instead of armaments, drug trafficking, and fanaticism. It shows dervishes dancing in mystical ecstasy in a garden. Soon there will be no painting, no color, no dancing, no dervishes, no mysticism, no ecstasy, no poetry, in a theocracy ruled by violent puritanical religious fanatics determined to destroy everything this small painting stands for, and to reduce people to ghosts, "obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts."