Russell Rhodes Blog

War Zones

Military aircraft fill Kabul Aiport, Afghanistan

“We will hunt you down and make you pay.”

President Joe Biden used those very words as he spoke about the twin suicide bombings near the Kabul, Afghanistan airport. So far, 13 U.S. service members and 95 Afghans are dead. More hurt.

Afghanistan is a war zone right now. It’s in chaos with no signs that things will get better anytime soon.

There are other war zones to talk about, too. Figuratively speaking. Hospitals in Florida that are battling the coronavirus. More on that in a bit.

Back to Afghanistan. The Washington Post chronicles what happened. “Dead people were everywhere.” It’s horrible to think how these people died just trying to get out. Horrible to think about how our American soldiers perished trying to help them get out.

What happens next? The evacuations have resumed. Some experts believe Afghanistan will now fall into a civil war. It looks like it already has.

President Biden is sticking with his deadline to get out of Afghanistan. Can he? We will see. It’s about as messy as anything we have seen.

This story is so complicated. Taliban. Isis. Other factions. I think we will be hearing those names for a long time.

For two nights now, I have watched NBC Nightly News report on the Covid crises in Florida hospitals. More than 17,000 people in our state are in the hospital. It has pushed the system to the brink.

Kerry Sanders was reporting from both Tampa and Miami. At Tampa General Hospital, the Covid Ward is at 90% capacity. That’s three times higher than it was during the worst of the pandemic last year.

90% are unvaccinated. The patients are younger and getting sicker, faster.

It’s bad right now. Besides so many people getting sick, health care workers are exhausted.

I wish I could go into the weekend feeling better about things. I can’t. Afghanistan and Covid. Those are the headlines. Not good ones either.