Editor,

Lately some thoughts have been troubling me, so of course I choose to share them. Our war in Afghanistan has gone on far too long. It is the longest war we have ever chosen to start, 11 years and counting, and on the surface one of the most futile and stupid. The American public is fed up with it, President Obama pledged to end it, yet it goes on. To date we have squandered 228 billion dollars and hundreds of American lives. What’s going on here?

We are all aware, to some degree at least, that the Afghans, like us, are fierce defenders of their country. In the late 1970s and 80s they kicked out the Soviets after a nine year war and prior to that they drove out the British who attempted to rule them. Why then do we persist in this folly when it is increasingly clear we too are almost certain to be driven out? To try to discover why we are there, and continue to squander American lives and taxpayer dollars, we have to start at the beginning, the source of our aggression.