America Unspun

I was sitting in my living room this Sunday morning watching the movie Gladiator on television.  In the scene where Maximus is sitting in the Emperor’s tent whispering “as men”, this is the dialogue:

MAXIMUS: Five thousand of my men are out there in the freezing mud. Three thousand are cleaved and bloodied. Two thousand will never leave this place. I will not believe they fought and died for nothing.

MARCUS: And what would you believe?

MAXIMUS: They fought for you and for Rome.

MARCUS: And what is Rome, Maximus?

MAXIMUS: I have seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark. Rome is the light.

MARCUS: Yet you have never been there. You have not seen what it has become.

The implication is that Maximus and his troops fought for Rome, the Roman ideal, and the Empire as the pinnacle of civilization.   If they had not fought for that, then for what did they fight for?  If Marcus Aurelius did not believe that Rome was worth the lives of those men and their service, then they did indeed fight and die for nothing. 

I immediately thought of my own experience in the U.S. military and our shameful retreat from Afghanistan.  That’s right – a retreat.  You may call it what you wish, but I wept as I watched our President cut and run from Afghanistan after more than 20 years of fighting.  I watched as our nation simply abandoned the people of Afghanistan and left them to their fate as the Taliban returned to power.  I thought of all the time, treasure, effort, and yes – lives, spent in order to free the people of Afghanistan from the Taliban.  All that effort was, in the end, wasted and for what?

I saw that scene in Gladiator in a new light as I made the comparison for the first time.  Even the fictitious character Maximus understood that if his legionaries were not fighting for the ideals of Rome, then their sacrifices were indeed all for nothing.  I feel the same.  For the United States of America to walk away from its commitment to the Afghan people and to allow the Taliban to assume control is shameful.

Our troops fought for the United States, the American ideal, and the Republic as the pinnacle of civilization.   If they did not fight for that, then for what did they fight?  If President Biden did not believe that American idealism was worth the lives of those men and their service, then they did indeed fight and die for nothing.