Why are we fighting the Taliban?

Editor,

I live in a neighborhood with many young families. I see and hear quite a few young children every day as I go about my business around town, and they are a constant source of amusement and joy for me, the way they jump around and laugh and play.

Every time I read an article about yet another incident in which Aghan or Pakistani (or Iraqi) children are killed -- killed! -- my heart breaks for their parents and all their friends and relatives who loved them.

I try to imagine the heartache and sorrow that my neighbors and even I would feel if children in my own neighborhood were killed senselessly by an occupying force. Leave aside the anger and the "recruitment of terrorists."

What the heck are we fighting the Taliban for now anyway? They do not threaten their neighbors. They do not threaten our interests, and they do not threaten us.

And yet the killing -- our killing -- goes on.

Why?!??

Re: "An Afghan Comes Home to a Massacre" (3/13/2012)