America has been committed to war in Afghanistan now for more than ten years, since October 7, 2001, in reaction to the Al Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
1,912 soldiers have been killed, and America has been assisted by a group of allies, most significantly Great Britain, in trying to overcome the Taliban and other terrorist forces that remain in that country.
But we are not winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan population, and we have done tremendous damage in loss of life and physical destruction without any real sign of progress.
Afghanistan was the bane of Alexander the Great, the British, and the Soviet Union, and this tragic killing of sixteen Afghans by one deranged soldier, on top of Koran burnings which led to violence and the death of a number of Americans in reaction to the destruction, should be seen as a sign that our nation needs to leave as soon as possible.
This is particularly the case when the Afghan leader Hamid Karzai demands that troops leave the villages, and stay on military bases. If that is so, our whole purpose of trying to pacify the countryside is no longer possible.
So let’s use this unfortunate circumstance to get out of this hell hole that Afghanistan has, sadly, become and spend our money on rebuilding our nation internally!
If anything is to be done in Afghanistan against terrorists, let it be by drones and the Air Force, not ground troops.
A decade after September 11, it is time for liberation from a decade of endless, worthless war!