Darkness in Summer Heat: Afghanistan; Berlin.

Berlin: August 13, 1961

Biden vacations as Afghanistan goes Taliban. U.S. troops fly back in to evacuate our Kabul embassy. 

August 13. I recall another August 13, 60 years ago. On that morning, as described in Richard Reeves’ biography President Kennedy, John and Jackie Kennedy left 10:00 mass early in Hyannis Port because of the heat, changed into lighter clothes and set sail on father Joe’s yacht the Marlin for Great Island and lunch with friends.

Fifteen minutes out, Kennedy was called back to shore with the news that East German paramilitary police had laid barbed wire across the once-open border with West Berlin, preparatory to constructing a wall. Vacation time. Leaders with their minds elsewhere. By the time Kennedy finally received the news, Berlin had already been cut in two for eight hours.

It took 28 years for the Berlin Wall to come down. We have no idea how long the darkness falling over Afghanistan’s 38 million people will last, how long until that nation will be free from religious treasures destroyed, from no school for women past age 12, from adulterers being stoned to death, from thieves having one hand and one foot cut off.
 

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