In the last 12 days, nine U.S. troops have been killed by “insider” Afghanistan attacks, meaning Afghanistan government forces have launched the attacks. Some 40 U.S. personnel have been killed in these types of attacks in the last year.
Finally, the airplane designated for use by an American general, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was damaged due to an attack, supposedly launched by insurgents.
It is one thing for Americans to have to die in combat against enemy forces. But for our men and women to be held at risk by supposed allied military forces is inexcusable, in our view. Just who are we sending our men and women into combat to support?
Since late 2009, our armed forces have continued to engage in combat in Afghanistan after President Obama ordered an increase in the numbers of such American forces. We challenge the administration and our military commanders to show how that decision improved, measurably, our ability to bring combat to a close on terms agreeable to American interests.
We continue to engage in combat against Taliban enemy insurgents with little or no progress to bring the Taliban and their supporters to a final negotiation to end combat. That in itself is a sad outcome after 11 years of warfare.
But now it seems, on an increasing scale, we are engaged in combat with Afghanistan government forces as well. To us it is is inexcusable to subject our military personnel to such conditions. We cannot understand how it would be possible to establish reasonable rules of engagement clearly telling our combat troops how to identify their enemy.
Face it America, we have lost the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. We have not won the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan, yet we continue to subject our combat forces to deadly conditions. Why do we continue to do so?
The people of America deserve a straight answer to that question. The administration, as well as the politicians we have elected or who are running for office, need to answer this question.
Opinion
Our View: Troops deserve better
- Opinion
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Our View: Spying on us
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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Our View: Pass on the legacy
Forty hungry members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry began gathering corn at the Rader farm near the village of Sherwood when they were ambushed by a guerrilla band of about 70 Southern sympathizers.
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Our View: Big Brother looms large
The federal government, working under the cloak of secrecy, has been having a heyday at the expense of all Americans.
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Our View: Disgraceful military assault
We want to make one thing clear: A sexual assault is not a sex scandal. Nor can the rise in sexual assaults in the military be justified in any way.
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Elliott Denniston, guest columnist: Right-to-work laws only hurt workers
Middle-class workers have been fighting an uphill battle for the past 30 years.
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Your View: Food drive efforts
Branch No. 366 of the National Association of Letter Carriers along with the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the American Postal Workers Union and the U.S. Postal Service would like to thank all the area communities that participated in the 2013 Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
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Your View: More about tax credit
The Globe’s editorial in “Our View” (May 10) may have left readers with a few inaccurate impressions.
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Other Views: Sickening disparity
Don’t feel bad if you don’t understand the wide, sometimes huge, discrepancies in fees hospitals charge for the same procedure. Or if you don’t understand the arithmetical magic the hospitals use to arrive at those fees.
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Carol Stark: America in need of more 'momisms'
Several years ago, I attended a writing workshop where one of the sessions was called “Tell it to Mom.”
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Our View: Keep learning
Donna Maus, a biology teacher from St. Mary’s Colgan High School in Pittsburg, Kan., told a group of top students, their parents and their teachers something we think everyone needs to hear.
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