Daily Times May 25, 2021 A quiet storm is brewing in our front yard and it is one that will impact the future configuration of the entire region. The Americans are committed to leaving Afghanistan by September 11, some twenty years after their blustering re-entry to the region. They will leave behind a power vacuum and nature abhors a vacuum of any kind. The question on everyone’s lips is, who will step in and fill the void? There are just two contenders: the Afghan government and the home-grown Taliban. An Afghanistan in turmoil does not suit the region’s neighbours. The Afghans themselves have suffered immensely during the past four decades. This began with the Saur Revolution in April 1978 that saw the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) stage a pro-communist coup and assassinate President Mohammed Daoud Khan and overthrow his government. Then came the decade-long bloody Soviet occupation, whose retreat was followed by another 10 years of infighting and civil war. All of which brings us to back to the last twenty years of foreign military occupation. Enough blood has been spilt to turn all Afghan rivers red. Yet these resilient people somehow find a way to maintain carry on while maintaining their sanity.