Kyle Rittenhouse is neither a hero nor a villain.  On August 25^th of 2020, 17-year-old Rittenhouse was a scared kid volunteering to provide security to a beleaguered car dealership owned by the Khindris.  The family did not specifically ask Rittenhouse for help, which is a fair point of discussion, and provides context.

So Easily Avoided

Given the exculpatory evidence available (both eye-witness and video, for Heaven’s sake) the Prosecution’s insistence in charging Rittenhouse at all should go down as one of the most puzzling decisions in realm of criminal justice.  But it won’t.  Because we don’t live in a world where we weigh evidence and make rational decisions based on law.  We live in a world where prosecutions are political and assistant DAs look at every case through the lens of  “will this help get me to the United States Senate of The Governor’s Mansion?”        

…Or How To Teach Someone Absolutely Nothing

“We need to let them fail.”  I said to my boss.  

Some people ask me what my job was over there.  I simply say – even to fellow veterans – that I was a Brigade XO.  Second in command.  And then everyone lets it go at that.  Saying I as a Brigade XO is so much easier than saying, “Deputy Commander of Region Support Command North (RSCN).”  Because then I’d feel obligated to give the definition and explain the function of a Regional Support Command, how it differs from a Regional Command, and how both nest into the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A – an acronym within an acronym), and how NTM-A nested within CENTCOM (ooh – another acronym).  Then of course, there was NTMA-A’s relationship with Untied States Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), also under CENTCOM.  Two made-up commands with vaguely defined missions co-located under CENTCOM.  Wee

Afghanistan is not a Nation-state.  It’s a collection of tribes.  The area of Central Asia we call “Afghanistan” is a construct of 19^th century politics between the British and Russian empires.  If Western Civilization has one flaw, it’s our obsession with drawing national boundaries around every square inch of real estate on Planet Earth.  We even draw boundaries around water.  Go find a world atlas and look for Micronesia in the South Pacific, if you’re skeptical.

But Borders Are So Tidy.

Around 1880, British diplomats looked at the 250,000 square mile region between Tibet and Persia and figured, ‘well, we have to call it something.’  The obvious choice was to name it after the ethnic Pashtos, or Afghans since they were the largest ethnicity comprising just a little over 40% of the population.  Pashtos are further divided into numerous tribes: Ghilzali and Durrani being the largest, followed by the Jaji, Safi, Wardak, Shinwari, Tani, Mohmand, Jardan, Khungiani, and Mangal, to name a few more.