War no longer worth the effort

Like many Americans, I've become increasingly disillusioned with the War in Afghanistan.

If I thought the Afghan people actually wanted us there, actually wanted an open, honest democracy, a nation interested in entering the 21st century, I might feel otherwise.

But I don't think they do.

To be honest, we messed this up from the very beginning. Our invasion of that country was in direct response to its support of those who planned the 9/11 attacks. We wanted revenge and we wanted to destroy the Taliban.

Then we got distracted. We had the Taliban and al-Qaeda on the run but decided we needed to destroy Iraq first, for reasons that passeth all understanding (and were largely hyped and faked). It's only in the last two years that we've come back to Afghanistan as a major focus of our efforts, and in the meantime, the Taliban have managed to entrench themselves.

They're a dangerous, 14th-century mentality that really does need to be destroyed, a cancer on the world that needs to be removed. And we can do that -- eventually.

It would be nice if the rest of the Afghan population felt the same way.

But that doesn't seem to be true. They don't seem to care who is in charge, as long as they're not being bombed by somebody (understandable, but a little short sighted). Without the full support of the people involved, you can't win this type of war.

In the meantime, they're taking the treasure of America, which we would clearly use for other, better purposes, and lining their own pockets with it, instead of honestly trying to build their country.

I'm not sure more American lives are worth it at this point. If we pull out, the Taliban will take over. I'm sure of that. Which means we'll have to bomb them every now and then just to keep them marginally honest on the world stage. But we've had our revenge, and the cost in American lives and treasure is no longer worth it.

-- Kelly Everitt