The recent actions in Afghanistan have made me take a closer look at the US involvement there. We send 10's of thousands of young men and women to a foreign land with the goal of creating a better life for the people there. Many of these young men and women have no idea what they are doing there. Remember Viet Nam? Remember all the awful things that our soldiers did back then? Are you surprised by the actions of some of our soldiers this time around? I'm not sure if I am or not. But it sure does bother the Hell out of me. Urinating on dead Afghans? Burning their khorans? and the worst yet, a US soldier killing 16 Afghan civilians including 9 children. What do these actions of a few say about the character of our military ? Can we use War is Hell and war as an excuse?
For our involvement to work, for it to mean anything, the young men and women we are sending there have to believe in what we are doing there. And we need to do a better job of screening the men & women we are sending there. We need to learn from these actions and do our best to assure things like this don't happen. Afterall, without the trust of those we are trying to help, we can not be effective in our efforts. I can only hope & pray that the Afghan people can forgive these actions and continue to accept our help as we help them create a country they will feel safe living in and prosper. If not and they find ways to retaliate. The question becomes: What Are we doing over there?
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