The Issue: Whether US troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan, given the escalating tension there.
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Obviously, our troops are under a lot of stress due to multiple tours of duty and combat, which is wrong (“Obama’s War,” Editorial, March 16).
During the Vietnam War, military servicemen served 12 months in combat and then were sent home.
It’s time to pack up, get out and let the Afghans handle their own problems.
Joe DePascale
Brooklyn
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The Obama administration’s “peace talks” are nothing more than surrender talks.
And as soon as we are out of Afghanistan in 2014, the Taliban will go back to doing exactly what it wants — run a totalitarian, radical religious country where women and minorities are persecuted.
President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton know this, but apparently don’t care.
For Democrats, surrender is always the only option.
Phil Gingerella
Westerly, RI
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This latest incident is just more evidence that it’s past time for our forces to leave Afghanistan.
But our munitions companies probably don’t want us out until they can have their next “war” safely under way in Iran.
Edward Linder
Elmhurst
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Do you not remember when the United States invaded Afghanistan? Or why President George W. Bush invaded?
Do you not remember Bush promising the American public that Osama bin Laden would be taken “dead or alive”?
So how is this “Obama’s War,” and how has this administration fallen short of the announced reason for the initial invasion?
If you lived through the Vietnam War, you would know there is no comparison.
Our actions in Afghanistan were not taken to deter a takeover by Communists. We invaded Afghanistan out of vengeance for the attacks on 9/11.
Mission accomplished. The sooner out of there, the better.
Howard Zimmerman
Manhattan
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Our military investments, first in Iraq and now in Afghanistan, are having an increasingly negative effect on US troops, US debt and the US population as a whole.
I never served in the armed forces, but I remember very vividly how many young men tried every way, even moving to Canada, to stay out of the Vietnam War.
Several days ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta remarked that “war is hell.” If this is the case, then why does humanity engage in it so much?
The US troops that continue to fight are doing American citizens a greater service than we can ever repay.
How can the war- mongers in Washington ever wash their hands of the blood of the fallen and injured troops due to two wars that lasted entirely too long?
Timothy M. Bledsoe
North Augusta, SC
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As Obama boisterously stated, “this is the war that needs to be fought,” i.e., sending thousands of additional troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Obama firmly believed that routing al Qaeda from Afghanistan soon after 9/11 wasn’t good enough.
History shows that the people of Afghanistan have few long-term allies and choose to live within small enclaves with no central government.
The United States can’t make a turnip into a rose. We’ve spent too much money and have lost too many lives for a job that was already done.
Theodore Miraldi
The Bronx
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The military-industrial complex in this country won’t allow us to give up one conflict without another one to go into.
If we accelerate the withdrawal from Afghanistan due to the killing of civilians, we will start a conflict with Iran.
The United States would be able to fine-tune its military superiority by using the mass amounts of technology and manpower against a more advanced army than Afghanistan’s, which Iran has.
Ray Hackinson
Ozone Park