LIVED THROUGH THIS

This Is My Vietnam

An Afghanistan veteran weighs in on whether what we did mattered in the ‘Forever War’

Left: U.S. evacuation in Kabul (2021). Right: U.S. evacuation in Saigon (1975). Photos courtesy of the author

On December 10, 2003, Taliban and al-Qaida operatives launched a complex attack against the small forward operating base I’d been stationed at for eight months. In the barrage and carnage that followed, my friend Steve and I were…