We don’t want to live in an angry veteran of a country
Trent Reedy
Remember Lt. Dan from the 1994 film Forrest Gump? After Forrest Gump saves him in Vietnam, the lieutenant descends into alcohol and anger, struggling to adapt to life without his lower legs. I was luckier than Lt. Dan. I returned from the war in Afghanistan in 2005, physically and mentally healthy.
Then President Joe Biden presided over the betrayal of our mission in Afghanistan and the abandonment of millions of good Afghan allies, including many Afghans with whom I’d served. Then I knew anger. And nightmares. Bearing a particular responsibility for my Afghan friend Jawad Arash, with whom I wrote the anti-Taliban novel Enduring Freedom, I felt worried and hopeless. If I couldn’t save my friend and his family from the Taliban, what good was I?
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For two years, my anger burned within me. I’ve been short with people, almost hoping for a fight. I forfeited friendships with those who supported the Biden betrayal of Afghanistan. I drank too much.
But, in my last column, I told you about Jawad Arash and his family finally arriving in America. The difference in my life, now that his family’s safe, is profound. I’ve slept through the majority of nights. Instead of nightmares about Jawad’s death, I dreamed about discussing (with actor John Goodman, believe it or not) a better life now that my friend’s safe. I’m working out. My liver and wallet are grateful for a drinking reduction. I’m trying to find my way back to peace.
Lately, I’ve wondered if America has a national anger problem. The 2020 riots. Rampant theft and vandalism. The unceasing social media vitriol. Many people seem upset.
The other day, at the lake, near the beach, three men read aloud from the Bible. No commentary or engagement with anyone. Just reading. I could hardly hear them.
One man raged about their reading. He screamed a line from the Bible he thought meant people shouldn’t preach. “They are literally raping goats!” he shouted. The only thing they were doing was reading. There were no goats present. I considered confronting him for being a worse disturbance than the readers. Had this happened last summer, when my fear for Jawad Arash stoked the fires of my fury, I might have fought him.
But now, because I’m trying to find peace, I didn’t confront the man. I thanked the readers and took my float onto the water. On a different shore, young men were swinging from a rope into the lake. They had the Afghan look and accent. “Where you guys from?”
“Afghanistan,” one of them said.
“I love Afghanistan!” I answered. We spoke of the war, about how they’d worked for America, but evacuated right before the Biden betrayal. We lamented the tragic loss of all we’d accomplished in Afghanistan.
I declined their father’s offer of a cigarette. He asked, “Do you mind if I smoke?”
“Friend, there’s no Taliban here! Do whatever you want!”
We laughed. They spoke of houses, cars, and everything they’d lost when forced to flee Afghanistan. They weren’t bitter, but determined and optimistic. They’d never scream at someone for reading in public, coming as they did from a country where the Taliban would do far worse than scream for such things. These Afghans were grateful for their freedom.
Are we grateful for ours?
Perhaps I’m reading America wrong and most people are content. But if I’m right, and we are living in an era of bad feelings, if you’ve been tempted to rage about the state of America, I implore you to seek peace, to pursue the justice and change you seek with an attitude of kindness. Believe me. Even if our anger is justified, we don’t want to live in an angry veteran of a country.
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By the end of Forrest Gump, Lt. Dan finds peace. I must still help an Afghan interpreter and guard I served with, so I’m struggling. But I’m working toward peace and toward being kind and friendly again, like those Afghans at the lake.
Trent Reedy, author of several books, including Enduring Freedom, served as a combat engineer in the Iowa National Guard from 1999 to 2005, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
*Some names and call signs in this story may have been changed due to operational security or privacy concerns.