STATEMENT BY DAVID GAINES
COMPOSER OF "THE LION OF PANJSHIR"
ON THE SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN

August 15th, 2021

Seventeen years ago, when my second symphony "The Lion Of Panjshir" premiered here in Maryland, I was very hopeful that this tiny gesture of support for the people of Afghanistan would be part of a positive and permanent change in that country's sad history of misfortune and destruction. None of us involved in this project - and certainly not its focus, Afghanistan's national hero Ahmad Shah Massoud - could have imagined that the country would slide back all these years later to where it was just prior to Massoud's assassination at the hands of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

A pervasive and global feeling of helplessness has arisen today in which I share, and about which I am profoundly disappointed. However, I ask you to consider lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness, as the saying goes, and urge you to donate what you can to the International Rescue Committee's Afghanistan appeal. Furthermore, I join with all of Afghanistan's supporters around the world in urging all developed countries to open their doors quickly to Afghan refugees, and to do everything possible at this point in terms of diplomacy and sanctions to isolate the Taliban regime and protect the status of Afghan women and children.

Finally, I am reminded of something one of Massoud's aides said after his death, as quoted by Sebastian Junger and used as part of the narration in "The Lion Of Panjshir"- something I hope people of good will around the world will take to heart: "Now we are all Massoud."

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