Enough Already In Afghanistan

I wanted to take a break from election politics to weigh in on the recent turmoil in Afghanistan. Yesterday, at about 3am local time, an unidentified 38 year old United States Marine, walked about a mile to the nearest Afghan town, and killed 16 people. Among the total were 9 children, and 3 women. The marine knocked on door after door at three houses, and then methodically killed the inhabitants of each home. When he was finished, he walked back to his base and went back to business as usual. The marine a staff sergeant based in Fort Lewis Washington State, has 2 children of his own. He had previously served 3 tours in Iraq, this was his first tour in Afghanistan. It is believed this marine may have been suffering from (PTSD) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.


A week earlier, 6 U.S. Marines were killed by rioting across Afghanistan, when U.S. forces mistakenly burned Korans. Four of those marines were killed by Afghan Security Forces, the same forces we are supposed to be training. The rioting was sparked by the Taliban, who is still very much alive and well in the country. As for this latest incident they claimed, it would "take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr." further calling our troops, "sick-minded American savages". Afghan President Hamid Karzai called it "an assassination, one that cannot be forgiven." This from a government leader who has been proven illegitimate, mentally unstable, and, plagued by corruption on a massive scale.

So my next question is, What are we still doing here? The country is no better than it was 10 years ago when we started this war. While meeting with initial successes early in the campaign, the years that followed have proved to be nothing but a giant quagmire. Can someone tell me what we are trying to accomplish here? To add insult to injury we now have cries from the Right, to engage in wars in Syria and Iran. Haven't we learned anything from 10 years and 2 wars? We have troops who have been put on multiple deployments in the region, like the staff sergeant in question, and our forces are quite literally burning out. Things like PTSD and suicides, are rampant in both active, and inactive troops. So again I ask, what are we trying to accomplish there?, and the bigger question, what have we won for our 400 Billion dollars and counting, besides the 17,000 brave servicemen and women that have been killed or wounded?

We prop up a corrupt government, have paid the ultimate sacrifice in both blood and treasure, and our people are now being killed by the very forces we are training to take over the country when we leave. The Taliban has had a resurgence in not only Afghanistan, but Pakistan, yet we remain? How many more of our brave armed forces do we have to lose? How many more staff sergeants have to snap? How many more billions of dollars must we spend? All questions no one has the answers to, but I think it's time, we at the very least, need to start asking the questions, don't you?