‘It’s horrible to watch’: US veterans on seeing Afghanistan fall to the Taliban
June Spence remembers when she lost hope in the US military intervention in Afghanistan. Originally from Augusta, Georgia, Spence graduated from high school in 2009, during the economic recession. “You couldn’t find a job, so the Army was a pretty safe bet,” she said. “I grew up seeing American casualties on TV. And seeing all those welcome-home videos on YouTube, how great it was to be celebrated as a hero when you came back.” She had wanted to see the world.
Spence was stationed in a rural part of Kandahar Province in 2012. She was 21 years old. One day she saw three young boys, no older than 14, whom she recognized – they were brothers with whom she had often played before, mock-fights with pebbles and slingshots. They were pushing a wheelbarrow covered with a tarp. Inside, she found components for building IEDs.
“I caught three children transporting weapons of war and acting like we were all friends,” she said. “That’s homegrown ideological fanaticism. How do you win against something like that?”
Since the Taliban seized Kabul last week after 20 years of US intervention, Spence has been consoling her friends – many of whom are now raising money to help evacuate the Afghan interpreters and support personnel they worked with.
For most American veterans,
