Christopher Drake, Nawab and The War With No Name

Dear Mr. President,

The War on Terror has disappeared from public view even though there are still 66,000 troops in Afghanistan and armed drones over Pakistan, Yemen, and who knows where else, waging America’s version of jihad on the Muslim world. Bush called it a Global War on Terror and told Americans to support the war effort by shopping. You’re more subtle; you don’t use Bush’s name for the killing and violence against those he—and you—declare our enemies. You don’t even admit it’s a war. You weasel-word it, call it targeted assassinations, call it a fight against terrorists, call it anything but war. So it’s become the War With No Name, the first war in our history without a name, an invisible war erased from America’s consciousness and conscience. And that suits you; it goes along with the secrecy and opacity of government under your reign, the lockdown of information and suppression of those who would dare reveal the truth, the hypocrisy and transgressions committed in our name. But the War With No Name was real for a 20-year-old boy from Louisiana named Christopher Drake; he was the 2,209^th U.S. service member to die in Afghanistan. It was also a grim reality for a young man named Nawab who lived in Ibrahim Kheil village in the Nerkh district of Wardak Province. He was picked up by an American Special Forces A Team on January 30 and what was left of him—a few shattered bones, chunks of flesh, the lower half of his jaw and a few scraps of cloth—fit into a small box brought to Kabul for identification. (Today’s NYT, p. A4) His mother described the embroidery she had sewed on his shirt; it fit perfectly with a scrap of cloth, the only positive ID. Nawab was one of 17 men picked up by American Special Forces and their notorious Afghan partners, trained, equipped and under the command of the Special Forces (or maybe the CIA). The Special Forces will not admit they picked up Nawab or any of the other 17 villagers even though there were eyewitnesses. The American military has conducted 3 investigations and found nothing, it says, although they won’t release any of the findings Your War With No Name may not have much reality here in America, but it’s very real in Afghanistan and wherever we send drones and teams of assassins. Your war may not have a name but it has victims with names: Christopher Drake and Nawab and Qasim and Sadaullah and Abdulrahman… It’s a long list, part of the legacy of our Global War of Terror. And that’s your legacy, Mr. President.