Republishing “Left Behind” Story
“SAVING AZIZ”
august 12, 2021 by thomas balzac
Dear sir, Hello. Good morning. Hope everything be ok there with your. Sir, still I am expecting for embassy reply. Did you get any reply from embassy? hope to hear something positive from side of you, because day by day the brutal Taliban making the conditions of life hard and dangerous here. believe us, our family is in very bad situation. all my family worried about me, cause of worked with USA military. sir, kindly do something for me, cause if we delay, Taliban will kill me. So better we do faster. Once again, thanks a lot for your humanitarian assistance. Expecting for your reply. Best regards, Aziz”
Balzac’s Afghan friend Aziz truly fears for his life today. He was recruited locally 20 years ago by the American Government, to be one of the interpreters and assistants helping out in the American/Ally “green zone,” following 9/11….
August 7, 2021 — Aziz: “Aug 7 at 11:58 AM Dear sir, First of all, Thanks a lot for everything’s that you are doing for us. If we not be exiting from here, soon Taliban will find me and direct kill me. So before they find me kindly please help solve my problem with embassy….”
The George W. Bush Administration’s misdirected anger and naïve sense of vengeance (something the Afghan culture had inculcated into law more than 1,500 years ago) commanded, lured, our young men and obedient Ally soldiers into Afghanistan.
August 7, 2021 — Aziz: “Highly appreciated for all your useful help, and for all your hardworking regarding getting Visa for us. We will never forget your help sir. Did you contact with embassy? if yes, what was their answer? once again I respectfully request you, kindly discuss with embassy regarding Visa and solve the problem of my HR LETTERS as soon as possible, because we are in very bad situation here. Day by day everything is going bad….
American newspapers wrote-off this sin as “collateral damage;” and said little more about these rogue armies that were ignorantly tilting at windmills in a beautiful independent country whom America illegitimately, wrongly, had marked as a haven for terrorists.
Thomas Balzac — May 10: “Aziz, sorry for late reply, i had forgot this email password. How are you and family? I hope & pray better since your last email?? Terrible news about the troubles lately, sad for the children, the students …. Did you know anyone? Will you be able to get your VISA in order now with our govt. so you can move away with your family to safety? I hope so, my friend! Take good care!. ~thomas balzac
August 7, 2021 –Aziz: “Please do something and attempt to solve my HR letters with embassy. Really day by day I am growing disappointed, there is no doubts Taliban will catch me. really i am afraid and worry from that days which day Taliban catch me and my wife be widow and my children be orphan
Kindly never allow bad things happen in our family
The only way I can get my answer and solve my problem that’s you sir. Best regards, Aziz….”
August 7, 2021 — Thomas Balzac: “Aziz! OK I will check on your visa application status, 200 Afghans like you came to the USA last week, the beginning of helping with many more to come. I will give your name to the US Embassy and also to a CNN reporter friend, to see if they can see what you must do to get your visa approved for you and your family. But until then, keep trying to call the embassy and check on your status. Be careful, my friend! ~thomas”
Newspapers and other media, today, are saying just as little about America leaving Afghanistan as when we began bombing — even less about those citizens such as Aziz and his lovely family — left behind by our Government — whom were promised safe passage to another country should “the Taliban” threaten their lives.
The threats to Aziz from “the terrorists” have gone on since the occupation’s beginning, many times over the past two decades, Aziz tells his friend.
Balzac does remember the musicologist telling him often that a “Taliban” that morning had pointed a finger “like a gun” at him as he drove his truck from his home to the Green Zone. The bad guys perceive him as having helped the invading Western forces in more substantial ways than just being a clerk translating invoices, driving a supply truck, and teaching girls and boys.
August 3 2021 — Aziz: “BOMB EXPLOSION NEAR MY HOUSE — Dear sir, Hello, Hope everything is fine with you. Sorry if I disturbed you in these days by sending many emails to you. As I said, right now we are in very bad situation. Very afraid from Taliban. They never know the value of humanitarian. They are enemy of education, so I never want my children grow up under control of Taliban. See sir, yesterday that bomb explosion happened just near my house just 1km far from my home. Really very hard to live here hereafter. No job, no education, no safety. Once again I kindly request you sir do something to help exiting my family from Afghanistan to other country. Best regards, Aziz.”
America and her NATO skirt-followers should have realized Russia’s folly years earlier into the graveyard of empires; in the end, they all proved to be impotent superpowers. But, as if only an aside from all their powerplay, these Governments know their friends, such as Aziz and his young family, are being left behind, perhaps to die — or worse, to be tortured — and just don’t care.
Thomas Balzac — June 2020 — “To: Aziz hello, my friend, I will keep trying but also you must contact the Embassy and re-apply for your visa if possible. There is some talk that families like yours who apply will be taken to another country to live, while your application is being reviewed by our Government. Keep your ears open to hear any news about your visa, soon. Apply for your visa again, or call and ask what is the status. I will also write whoever I can. Take care, friend!~Thomas PS — lovely photos of you family!(:”
With the real 9/11 murderers 1,500 miles away in Saudi Arabia, not in caves targeted by American Exocets, where babies are being fed goats milk by their mothers; nevertheless, these young soldiers — whom the great inventor Nikola Tesla in 1900 called “the flower of humanity” — were then ordered to create self-trauma: to blindly kill mothers suckling their babies in caves….
Aziz is now himself traumatized, “in hiding,” today, having fled his home near Mazur when the Biden troop withdrawal began. The Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the remnants of the Islamic State are coming for him, he tells Balzac.
August 2021 — Thomas Balzac: “Aziz! You must check on your visa application status, 200 Afghans like you came to the USA last week, the beginning of helping with many more to come. I will give your name to the US Embassy and also to a CNN reporter friend, to see if they can see what you must do to get your visa approved for you and your family. But until then, keep trying to call the embassy and check on your status. Be careful, my friend! ~thomas”
Balzac has worried about Aziz for many years but has been most worried these past few months, when the pullout of soldiers from the Green Zone got rolling in June.
Aziz is Balzac’s friend from two decades ago, when the two musicians met in a friendly nonpolitical Yahoo chat room while the composer was researching the musical instruments and songs of Afghanistan, particularly the Mazur region. Aziz has a doctorate in musicology, and computer programming.
August 2021 — Aziz: “Dear sir, Ok noted with many many thanks! Really your email gives me energy. Thank you for your humanitarian sense. I will never forget your support and help. Yeah exactly I want to move our family toward safe country of course by your help. Once again my son want to send his picture for your with best and full love. I will keeping follow the status of my Visa from here but kindly your following from there too as you followed in past. Thanks a lot! Best regards, Aziz.”
At the time, 20 years ago, Balzac was composing anti war songs with an Afghan flavor, utilizing local musical instruments and parts of traditional songs transcribed into music for the classical guitar, cello, and saxophone.
Business of late for the, now old Balzac, has been picking up, Second Lines are more frequent during this period of the Great American Pandemic. There will likely be a second wave of deaths in the coming weeks, due to the so-called “variant” — and due to the obstinance of half all Americans.
It has been quite a number of years since Balzac had contact with his friend, as the artist long ago forgot the password for his Yahoo account; meanwhile, Yahoo’s chat rooms were taken down, apparently too much free speech was going on, or too many violations of the platform’s rules that caused it to die.
Aziz — Feb. 1: “Dear my best friend, Hello. Good evening. Thanks a lot for your reply. No sir still I am jobless and worry about my children future. Really very bad situation here. No job, no incoming, no security. Fucking Taliban destroyed everything. Many thanks sir for your thinking about me and my family. Thanks a lot for your always support. Your sincerely Aziz. Note: if you use WhatsApp kindly add me in your WhatsApp.
…Continued here:
[Editor’s note: if there’s anyone “out there” who might can help me help Aziz and his small family, you can contact Thomas Balzac @: vieuxcarretimescom@gmail ]
