8Afghanistan was an American crusade to win the war against the "Evil Soviet Empire" and remake the world in its own image. This goes right to the heart of understanding the destiny of the Western Dream. Instead of a dream the US is caught in a nightmare. Now Americans long for a spiritual regeneration away from the vision of war as an honorable sacrifice to a vision of peace that serves all. No one seems able to make the process move in the right direction. We assimilated a profound understanding over four decades of how to envision moving from war to peace that is now in our novelized memoir, The Valediction: Three Nights of Desmond at the Kabul Hotel.