The US has announced that it is about to begin peace talks with the Taliban. At such times, it is worth remembering the cost incurred in Afghanistan over the past 12 years, and questioning whether the losses have been worth the effort.
In the January issue of Prospect, Margaret Evison wrote about her experiences when her son Mark was killed in Helmand. She describes how hard it was to handle his death—both for her and Mark's fellow soldiers:
"Five of them separately and very bravely met me, prepared to talk to the mother of their dead leader. It was not easy, for them or for me. This felt very close, and I cried, unable to control myself for them. I realised then how painful it was to them too, how they had no one to share this with, how they just needed to let their thinking selves peek into this emotional box unfrightened and let something out, crying as they did so...
But this experience allowed me partially to understand the army’s stiff upper lip approach to death. Two of the men were subsequently diagnosed with PTSD, but the others also silently suffered symptoms: nightmares, flashbacks, replaying what happened and other ways it could have been, unable to get relief. Talking and words were not part of their training, their culture, and often not part of their childhoods. The words were hard to find." Read the full article here
