Dear Editor,
My heart goes out to the family of Douglas Jeffries who was killed in
Afghanistan. I know their hurt for I have lost two children of my own. I
can understand young Jeffries wanting to better himself by joining the
military since there was no other obvious alternative. I did the same at
age 16 in 1947. It worked out differently for me and it saddens me for his
fate.
I would like for Connie Owens and the majority of Americans who make a
similar statement, "He gave his life for his country" that this is not true!
He died for a bunch of heathens who do not understand democracy or even
want it. They have demonstrated this for centuries! On 09-11-2011, 80 of
our young troops were injured by an IED in Afghanistan. They are dying for
the unconstitutional acts of two idiot presidents and a bunch of cowards in
Congress who won't stop it. We have 100,000 troops who are fighting a few
hundred Taliban insurgents. Only the politicians and Generals will tell you
that we are winning!
The Soviets could not win their nine year war in Afghanistan. Toward the
end of that war America helped Osama Ben Laden by furnishing arms and
financial aid. When the Soviets pulled out OBL turned those arms on
America! We have outlasted the Soviets who were smarter than the US is and
left. We are now suffering more casualties than we did in the early years
of this war. This war is no different than my lifetime war on rats, mice,
gophers and ground squirrels. I can put out poison, traps and shoot some
but after years the signs are that at best, it is a break even situation as
they are still there in force!
The September, 2011 VFW Magazine gave a 10 year report on the Afghanistan
war. Here are some of the highlights:
Total US deaths are 1639, as of July 5, 2011 including 499 in 2010 alone.
(More have committed suicide than have been killed in action.)
$40 billion in foreign aid paid for by the taxpayers for various
reconstruction projects. (How about our own reconstruction projects like
our failing bridges and highways?)
The U.S. Has helped to build or renovate 680 schools and train more than 15
000 teachers since 2004.
U.N. figures show a steady increase in Taliban attacks on schools from 98 in
2005 to 610 in 2009. (We build them and they destroy them!)
Cell phone users have skyrocketed from 50,000 in 2002 to more than 19
million in 2009.
(I wonder how many of these were used as triggering devises for IEDs?)
A Sunday Times article has dubbed the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as the
"Three Trillion Dollar War." What a waste of life and money!
BTW, if you think that a Seal Team killed Osama Ben Laden in May, 2011 in
his "mansion" then you still believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the
Easter Bunny!
If young Jeffries had been deployed to our Southern Border then we could
have said that he was truly serving his country.
I pray for our troops every day and will continue to do so. I hold the
Congress, the president and the military hierarchy in contempt for
continuing this carnage and insanity! John McCain and some others have
never seen a war they didn't like.
Thank You Very Much ... Bob Inabinette bobeye@hughes.net from Springville, CA.
