Crazy.

Editor,

The only reason the U.S. can come up with for fighting the Taliban is that if the Taliban take over Afghanistan again, they might let al Qaeda set up training bases there.

We have cruise missiles, B-1 bombers, aircraft carriers, spy satellites, every type of high-tech weapon known to man. We might also have some human friends willing to infiltrate the Taliban or al Qaeda and tell us what they are up to.

Why, then, do we need 60,000 or 100,000 or however many thousand troops we have on the ground in Afghanistan? If our interest is to disrupt terrorist plans and/or destroy al Qaeda's bases, why do we need an army in Afghanistan?

This is crazy. The American economy is falling apart. American society is becoming increasingly unstable under the constant brow beating by right-wing demagogues. We can leave Afghanistan. The world is not going to end if we do.

Framing terrorism as warfare and responding to it with a war is the biggest mistake our country has ever made.

re: "President Obama in Kabul" (3/30/2010)