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PAGE 4A BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ” - Henry Ward Beecher ~ Afghanistan a misadventure that cost lives The recent chaotic withdrawal from Af ghanistan had a sense of deja vu about it. Those who remember the fall of Saigon in 1975 no doubt saw the link with the Afghan situation; a city under attack and Americans and their allies attempting to get out in a mad rush. In 1975, the CIA and other intelligence agencies thought Saigon wouldn't fall for many months; it fell within weeks, just as Kabul did. There was debate about Viet nam in 1975 on how to evacuate American citizens and allies, a debate that we also saw with Af ghanistan; who gets to go, who has to stay? And then there was the air lift. In 1975, it was the dramat ic evacuation by helicopter from the rooftop of the American Embassy; in August 2021, it was the flights from Kabul and the thousands of people attempting to get on a plane. And in both instances, there was a lack of American troops to secure the area so that an evacuation could be done with less chaos. • •• All of which says this: American leaders never seem to learn from past mistakes; they make them over and over. I'm not sure why American military leaders didn't fly in troops to secure the Kabul airport better. Despite some offi cials claiming that Americans were caught off guard by the rapid Taliban takeover, I'm told by those who are in a position to know that every American command er knew the Afghan army was weak and would fall quickly to the Taliban. So why didn't we do more to secure a more orderly withdrawal? We may never know the answer to that. The chaos has quickly become a political sword as a way for Republicans to wound Democrats. In 1975, it was a Republican president who oversaw the fall of Saigon and the chaos that ensued; today, it was a Dem ocratic president who oversaw the chaos in Kabul. Ineptness doesn't have a party label. • •• As you recall, the ill-fated adventure of America in Afghanistan began in chaos, too. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 — we just saw the 20th anniversary of that tragic day recently — Americans were united in striking back against those who had aided Islamist militants. And we did, eventually tracking Osama bin Laden to Pakistan and killing him. But at what price? Trillions of dollars spent, thousands of lives lost in Afghanistan — for what? What did America gain in Af ghanistan after 20 years of lives lost? About as much as we did in Vietnam and Iraq, which is to say all three were ill-advised and ill-fated military ventures driven by American hubris. • •• We Americans like to think that we can impose our cultural, so cial and political values on other nations. We want to believe that our mili tary might can do more than just wage war, that it can be used for “nation-building.” But it's impossible to help a nation build a civic culture amid its own civil war, which is what defined both Vietnam and Afghanistan. Short-term, American forces did some good things in both countries. But it was only through military presence and the use of violence that we were able to do that. In the end, both countries went back into their own version of the dark ages after the American military left. So did we really accomplish anything, or did we just delay the inevitable? • •• Maybe the chaos was inevitable. Obama tried to get out of Afghanistan. Trump tried. Maybe they delayed because of the cha os that would happen. Doing nothing is sometimes a strategy. We went in with good intentions, but we couldn't stay there forever. We lost the war the day we started it. There was never going to be a good outcome, only a less- bad one. It is haunting, however, to think that so many American lives were lost there with seemingly nothing accomplished. A lot of Americans died in Vietnam in vain. In Iraq. Now Afghanistan. Will we ever learn? Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Main- street Newspapers. He can be reached at mike @ mainstreetnews. com. mike buffington GUEST COLUMN Your hospitals are in crisis; vaccinations and masks will save lives By Andrew C. McKown Pulmonary/critical care physician The third wave of COVID came and went in early 2021. With the advent of highly effective vaccines, we all hoped COVID would be contained for good. Ev eryone wanted life to go back to normal. Much of Georgia's populace attempted to do so, but enough people have not yet got ten a vaccine that we are in a crisis yet again. There were almost no hospitalized pa tients in Athens with COVID by the end of June 2021. Now our local hospitals have been inundated. Both St. Mary's Athens and Piedmont Athens Regional are used to serving several surrounding counties as referral centers, but now the critically ill population in the immediate vicinity exceeds our standard intensive care beds. Piedmont Athens has expanded its inten sive care units into other areas of the hos pital. Even with the extra beds, we maintain a waitlist of patients to get into the intensive care units. This means we must hold them in the Emergency Department or gener al medical wards. Every day, we have to examine the surgery schedule and decide whose care we need to postpone. There is no mystery as to why — the hospitals are filled yet again with patients suffering from COVID. What do these patients have in common? Ninety-plus percent are un vaccinated. This fourth wave is worse than the pri or. For starters, it is entirely preventable. There would be no capacity crisis if ev eryone would get what has proven to be a safe and effective vaccine. Additionally, the demographics have changed, and our patients are sicker. Earlier in the pandem ic our patients tended to be older with co morbidities. This wave we are caring for previously healthy patients in their teens, twenties, thirties, and forties on the ven tilator. I find it dizzying, angering and disheart ening to go from caring for young people on the brink of death one day only to try to do some basic shopping the next, sur rounded by people walking around un masked and presumably unaware of the crisis in our hospitals. I ask myself, “Do they not realize that this isn't just about COVID?” If they or their loved one gets into a car accident, become critically ill from something other than COVID, or need an emergency surgery, what do they think is going to happen? We will care for them — but where? How? Your hospitals are in crisis. Your health care workers are stretched almost beyond capacity. Is the mild discomfort of wearing a mask too much to ask? I wear one all day long. Yes, the studies have been done — they are proven to work. The same is true for the vaccines, which by this point are not experimental. They have been proven to be safe and effective. You will trust me to care for you when you are sick in the hospital — please trust me now by doing the things to avoid meet ing me in the hospital in the first place and to ensure there are enough resources for me to care for you if you are critically ill. Masks and vaccines have both been prov en to be safe and effective. Help us end the COVID crisis. Wear a mask and get a shot. It could save a life — it might be your own. Andrew C. McKown. MD. is a pulmo nary/critical care physician at Athens Pul monary and medical director of critical care at Piedmont Athens Regional. What is the point of vaccine refusal? I read the news from a lot of sources most every day, hard as that is. The more I read about COVID vaccine refusals, even from those in health care, the more flummoxed I am about the ignorant stubbornness of so many people, much of it along political lines. My goodness, this is a public health crisis that affects every single per son in this world. It seems to me that those who still refuse to get a COVID vac cine after all we’ve been through with more than a year and a half of this pandemic are trying to prove some kind of point. What that point is, I really have no idea. Other than those whose medi cal condition prevents vaccines, thus leaving them entirely vul nerable to the decisions of oth ers, there isn’t one legitimate reason not to get a vaccine that can likely save your life and the lives of the those around you. The selfishness of that choice is overwhelming to me. Really what is the point? Is it, “watch me die if I want to?” Is it “watch me take up valuable hospital space so that there is no room for you or your loved one?” What is it? Some political officials, includ ing our own Gov. Brian Kemp, say President Biden’s vaccine mandate (which really isn’t a mandate since you can test once per week if you just can’t bear to take the shot) is a government overreach and un-American. Right. All this buffoonery in states that have some of the highest real and long-held vaccine mandates to attend public school in the country. And just how many vaccines do you think the military requires? A healthy defense force is imper ative for obvious reasons. This virus, as we’ve all seen by now, unless we live in a deep dark hole in the ground (or in our own mind), is as big a threat to the health and wellbeing of our citizens and our economy as any disease we’ve faced. And it keeps changing as it keeps infecting unchecked in so many areas, all because so many of us refuse to try to stop it — first by wearing a piece of mate rial over our mouth and our nose — and because we refuse to take a vaccine that can put us all be yond this. It is remarkable that we find ourselves in this place at this time, when we are all are gener ally more than happy to reap the benefits of modern medicine, in cluding when we need to be hos pitalized for COVID. I am dumbfounded. The long history of vaccine mandates in this country that have kept us healthy of so many previously dangerous diseases, and which are largely unques tioned, leaves me even more amazed. Vaccinations are truly a miracle of the medical world, teaching the body to defend itself against a disease that could oth erwise sicken and perhaps even kill it. I am running out of adjectives for my feelings. And don’t get me started on re ligion. Write a Letter to the Editor: Let us know your thoughts: Send letters to sthompson@barrownews- joumal.com. Please put “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line. Please include the city of the writer. The first commandment as a Christian is to love thy neighbor as thyself — not religious free dom. I really can’t bear the hy pocrisy of that argument. Nobody is dragging you to get a shot, but if you don’t there should be a price to pay. The vaccine/ testing requirements are simply a way to try to put the price of your decision squarely on you instead of on those around you that you might infect. Right now, your choice allows a deadly disease to keep circulat ing. We are behind most wealthy countries in vaccination rates. Poor countries are begging for more while we throw them away. My pulmonologist, Dr. An drew McKown, wrote an excel lent opinion column published in MainStreet Newspapers. He also serves as the critical care physician for Piedmont Athens Regional. In it he expressed my feelings exactly, and I certainly don’t see firsthand what he does day in and day out. He said he found it “dizzying, angering and disheartening” to care for young people in the hospital on the brink of death and then go out in pub lic to do basic shopping and find himself surrounded by people walking around unmasked and seemingly unaware of the crisis in their local hospitals, pushing the point that it isn’t just about COVID, but also about hospital care for victims of a heart attack, a car wreck or any other emer gency. “Is the mild discomfort of wearing a mask too much to ask?” Dr. McKown asked. “I wear one all day long. Yes, the studies have been done - they are proven to work. The same is true for the vaccines, which by this point are not experimental. They have been proven to be safe and effective.” You may not trust Dr. McK- own’s statements for reasons that remain a complete mystery to me in terms of common sense. But he is also right when he said in his letter that you will most cer tainly gladly trust him to care for you when you go to the hospital and are in need of care — care that may not be able to receive right away due to the line in front of you. I’m sorry but your person al choice ends where society’s right to life and health begins. It’s the reason and basis for laws, rules, regulations, vaccines and so much more and it is way past time to face that fact with the COVID vaccines. That’s the way it has always been in a society that survives. Margie Richards is a report er and columnist for Mainstreet Newspapers. She can be reached at margie@mainstreetnews.com. The Barrow News-Journal Winder. Barrow County. Ga. www.BarrowJournal.com Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Thompson Editor Susan Treadwell Advertising POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Barrow News-Journal PO BOX 908 Jefferson, Georgia 30549 Published 52 times per year by Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Winder, Georgia 30680 (USPS 025-132) Phone: 706-367-5233 Subscriptions: $45/yr., $40 for seniors. m \ IS * margie richards