Tuesday November 27, 2012...What a Waste

Since the 2001 invasion, 2,158 American troops have been killed, 294 this year alone. Over 18,000 soldiers have been wounded, many with permanent injuries. Thousands of combat veterans are suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

A Newsweek article published in 2006 reported that, “The intelligence community generally agrees that the number of true A-list Al Qaeda operatives out there around the time of 9/11 was no more than about 1,000, perhaps as few as 500, most in and around Afghanistan.”

Although most of those directly responsible for 9/11 have either been captured or killed during the 11-plus-year war, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Osama bin Laden, and numerous Al Qaeda members have also been killed, much of this lost membership has been replenished by new recruits, and has spread internationally. A Wall Street Journal article published last year revealed that as of September 2011, Al Qaeda’s numbers were between 200 and 1000.

So 2,158 Americans killed and 18,000 wounded and the number of Al Qaeda members has remained at 1,000. Why did all those young men have to die? What was accomplished in the longest war in American history? WHAT A WASTE! Why are we still in Afghanistan and what are we accomplishing?