Get the troops home

The news is that three American service members died Tuesday in a Taliban roadside bombing in Afghanistan. Why are Americans still pointlessly dying in Afghanistan? The Pentagon ended American combat operations there in 2014. That decreased the American presence from 100,000 troops to 14,000. But why are any Americans still there?

My generation’s war was Vietnam. When I hear “Taliban” I think “Viet Cong.” When I hear of “American troops in Afghanistan,” I think “American military advisers in South Vietnam.” Will we never learn?

The best gift the American Congress can give our country is to bring every single American combatant home by Christmas. It can’t declare an end to the war, because Congress never declared war in Afghanistan (or Iraq, or Pakistan)—again, like Vietnam. The Constitution tasks the Congress with war-making powers, which it seems to have given up to the presidency late in the 20th century.

The Congress should not declare war in the region. We dumped Osama bin Laden’s dead carcass into the sea quite a while ago. We won on that day. What Congress should do is declare victory and call it quits.

While the Arkansas congressional delegation is in state for the holiday, let those of us who see them at the coffee shop, at church, or just on the street wish them a Merry Christmas, and tell them to get us the heck out of there! Now. No more weeping parents and funerals with military honors. Just dads and moms home bouncing their babies in their laps, cheering their kids at ball games and track meets, and sleeping in their own beds.

Afghanistan is pointless, and over. If only in the name of common sense and decency, let’s just stop. Aren’t we all sick of it?

CATHRYN HINSHAW

Little Rock