Putin, and Afghanistan: A Peek at Two Rough Drafts of History

May 28 to June 9, 2003, we joined my cousin and her husband on a Baltic cruise on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary.  It was a marvelous time, Copenhagen start and end; St. Petersburg, Russia, June 3 and 4; the other days Stockholm, Helsinki and rural Finland, Estonia, Gdynia (Gdansk) Poland; Oslo, Norway.  A sampler, but a rich one.

But this trip was different: two days after President George Bush visited Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg (May 31-June 1, 2003) we were there, in fact, one of our tour bus stops was  the lobby of the hotel where the Bush’s stayed.  President Bush meetings with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.

At our  Copenhagen hotel, London’s  Financial Times (FT) for May 29, 2003,  opined on the upcoming Bush visit: Putin, Financial Times June, 2003.  A few weeks earlier, May 1,  2003, had been President Bush’s premature presumed-triumphal “Mission Accomplished” visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln off San Diego.

Back in Copenhagen as our trip ended, at the same hotel, another copy of the Financial Times, this one for June 7-8, 2003, featured a review of what has come to be described as “Charlie’s War” – the early 1990s U.S. dive into the deep end of the pool that is Afghanistan.  The U.S. descent into that over 30 year quagmire was helped along by then-Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson.

The entire and very interesting FT commentary is here: Afghanistan Charlie Wilson 1990s.  Note: the link can be enlarged for ease of reading.

I tend to save things for future reference, as was the case for these two articles.  Given recent history, they seem particularly relevant.  They are offered as food for thought – snapshots of a rough draft of history.  What we choose to remember, and what we choose to forget.

It is 20 years since I saved these articles, less than two years after 9-11-01.

They speak for themselves.

Personal opinion: in our country, at least so far, citizens elect our representatives.  If we criticize them – as we do – we are criticizing ourselves.

Register.  Become informed.  Vote.  Express yourself in other ways.