Last December the Washington Post published secret Pentagon documents showing the official lies that have undergirded the U.S. war on Afghanistan for the past 18 years. The opening paragraph of the article puts the matter bluntly: “A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”
I can’t help but wonder whether Sgt. First Class Javier Gutierrez, of San Antonio, Texas, and Sgt. First Class Rey Rodriguez of Las Cruces, New Mexico, read that article. Both men were killed last Saturday in an attack on a joint-U.S. military operation in Afghanistan. Both were 28 years old.
In fact, I can’t help but wonder whether their families read the article. If so, what will be going through their minds at the funerals of both men, when some Pentagon spokesman states that they died fighting for “our freedom.” Won’t both families know deep down that that’s just one more lie piled onto all the other lies?
The truth, as painful as it might be, is that both men have died for nothing. They certainly didn’t die protecting our freedom because our freedom is not being threatened by anyone in Afghanistan or by anyone else. All that one has to do is visit the east coast and west coast and see that no enemy nation is invading the United States. The same holds true for the U.S. northern and southern borders.
The two men died for the “right” of the Pentagon and the CIA to meddle and intervene in the Afghanistan and other parts of the world. They died for what is called interventionism, which is the same as dying for nothing because interventionism is not worth dying for. For that matter, it’s also not worth killing for.
U.S. soldiers don’t belong in Afghanistan. They belong here at home. Those people who are killing them want to rid their country of foreign troops. Americans would do the same if there were foreign troops occupying the United States.
There are currently 12,000-13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon’s policy is to slowly bring them home.
That is a ludicrous policy. The more they bring some home, the more dangerous it becomes for the smaller number left behind. They become more vulnerable to the types of attacks that killed Gutierrez and Rodriguez.
Even one more U.S. soldier killing and dying for interventionism and more Pentagon lies is one too many. It’s obviously too late for Javier Gutierrez and Rey Rodriguez and their families. But it’s not too late for the others who are still there. Bring them all home, now.