Letter: The US should pull out of Afghanistan immediately

Editor,

After World War II, many of the Nazi military leaders were put on trial at Nuremberg and hanged for their crimes against humanity.

One of these leaders, Hermann Goring, gave a memorable quote before he was sent to the gallows. Goring said, “The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

So at the risk of being labelled a pacifist or unpatriotic, let me state that the U.S. should have pulled out of Afghanistan years ago.

This thought came to my mind after listening to different mainstream media personalities discussing President Trump’s latest reshuffling of his cabinet. According to both liberal and conservative commentators, Trump’s new appointments John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel are an indicator that the president is angling for new wars with countries like Russia, North Korea or Iran.

This analysis did not cut the mustard with me, because isn’t the U.S. military still fighting in Afghanistan? In fact didn’t President Trump engage in a complete flip-flop on Afghanistan by saying that he plans on sending around 3,000 more American soldiers to carry on the fight?

Let’s say that the U.S. currently has 14,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, during the Obama administration there was a point in 2011 when the U.S. had deployed around 100,000 soldiers to militarily defeat the Taliban.

If 100,000 U.S. soldiers in 2011 were unable to militarily defeat the Taliban, then how in the hell are 14,000 U.S. soldiers going to militarily defeat the Taliban in 2018?

If U.S. politicians want the public to believe that we must continue to stay in Afghanistan in order to protect the nation from another terrorist attack, then let’s remember that Osama bin Laden has been dead for years, and the U.S. taxpayers never agreed to make Afghanistan into our 51st state. If the true reason for the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan was to kill Osama bin Laden and to dismantle al-Qaeda, then all U.S. soldiers should have been pulled out of Afghanistan immediately after bin Laden was killed.

Americans hate losing, but does the American public really have the stomach for a 100-year war?

The U.S. war in Afghanistan has become the longest war in the history of the U.S. and there is no military victory in sight. This war has been going on for almost 17 years and how many more American military personnel have to die in order to protect the pride of spineless politicians who are scared of going down in history as the politicians who lost in Afghanistan?

Although he was testifying about Vietnam, former Sen. John Kerry’s words about Vietnam in 1971 are just as applicable to the foolish U.S. occupation of Afghanistan in 2018. Kerry said, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”

Muhajir Romero