Afghanistan’s Forgotten War

Phil Fagan, onetime director of a youth center in Kabul, and Ogden Williams, my wife’s rumpled but dignified uncle, stand on a street corner in Georgetown on a Saturday afternoon and try to interest their countrymen in another people’s freedom. On behalf of the Afghanistan Relief Committee, they are peddling bumper stickers, leaflets, and decorative prayer rugs. But the most eye-catching of all their offerings are the photographs of the casualties from a war that is now two years old, the Afghan-Soviet war.

“The only people on earth today who are directly taking on the Soviets in a fight are the Afghans,” Williams reminds me. “They seem far removed from our line of defense, but if a people with their motivation can’t succeed, who can? They’re tougher than we are. They have a traditional hatred of foreign invaders. They’re totally prepared to accept death, to sacrifice themselves for freedom. They won’t tire out, either, and they won’t be bought off.”

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Bruce Chapman

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Phil Fagan, onetime director of a youth center in Kabul, and Ogden Williams, my wife’s rumpled but dignified uncle, stand on a street corner in Georgetown on a Saturday afternoon and try to interest their countrymen in another people’s freedom. On behalf of the Afghanistan Relief Committee, they are peddling bumper stickers, leaflets, and decorative prayer rugs. But the most eye-catching of all their offerings are the photographs of the casualties from a war that is now two years old, the Afghan-Soviet war.

“The only people on earth today who are directly taking on the Soviets in a fight are the Afghans,” Williams reminds me. “They seem far removed from our line of defense, but if a people with their motivation can’t succeed, who can? They’re tougher than we are. They have a traditional hatred of foreign invaders. They’re totally prepared to accept death, to sacrifice themselves for freedom. They won’t tire out, either, and they won’t be bought off.”