Five More Americans Dead in Afghanistan – Is There An End In Sight?
Wars are necessary, or at least, it would appear that humans think so. It all starts with someone taking away your toy, when you are young. You want it back, so you learn to be combative. You also learn to slam the toy over the other kid’s head, so he won’t think of taking your precious item, ever again. Yes, we all have that slamming tendency, especially when we come up against people whom we can’t control.
We have been attempting to control the Taliban in Afghanistan ever since we went in there. As someone carefully explained in a media report awhile ago, there are no big towns in Afghanistan, save Kabul and a few others. Mostly, you have residents who live in a collection of small homes, in the middle of nowhere, so to speak. There are farmers who grow their opium and market it at a high price. For a while, they were raising wheat because wheat grew well, too, but opium rules. These natives are wishy-washy as to their allegiances. They can be real chummy with Americans, but when the Taliban shows up, fear gets them back in line.
It is rather doubtful that we can erase every last Taliban operative … ever. It’s a breed of fanatic that we don’t understand, who are pervasive and persistent. As much as we abhor the idea, there is no way to control those misguided souls, except temporarily. You see, their religious principles of wanting to subjugate the world, to their version of Islam, is very strong. If you will pardon me for saying this, their self-righteous fervor is not unlike the rigid fanaticism of the Catholic Church in Spain in the 15th century when they drove Muslims out, and burned the Jews who continued to practice their religion, during the Spanish Inquisition.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said yesterday that she believes the American people are tired of the war in Afghanistan and that they will not support another huge deployment of armed forces.
I hope that is true. I hope that we are all sick to our stomachs at the carnage of our troops. I don’t know the number of war dead on “our” side. I know that for one death, many mourn. Personally, I know of only one person who has undergone such a loss, as a parent. I can only guess that tears continue to come, at the least expected moment, as they will, until she herself dies.
We have many broken lives and broken dreams in this country because of the war. I speak for myself when I say that I am worn thin hearing about it. I can’t even envision how great a loss our fellow Americans have experienced, in all, since that fateful day of September 11, 2001. With major problems facing this country, we are spread too thin, trying to “save the world” by armed intervention. I am not sure when we appointed ourselves as Big Brother/Peacekeepers.
The ideological divide is far too great. We could stay “there” for a thousand years. We will never “win.” It’s time to count our dead and to say “enough is enough.”
With many thanks to those who have served this Great Nation, and to their families,
Respectfully,
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
September 12th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Amen to what you said. If we spent as much as we have on the war on homeland security we would be better off.