Afghanistan solution? Leave

Re “Soldier held in killings is from a troubled base,” March 13

Afghanistan has become a deep hole, with supposedly no escape.

But there is one: Just leave. I cannot remember now exactly why we are there. Our men’s lives are not worth losing over tribal fights. This has been going on for centuries, and we cannot solve it.

Doris Waterman

Newport Beach

After the questionable Vietnam War, military conscription was eliminated, hence the voluntary military.

That has made it easier for presidents and Congress to wage war without the outcry from draftees.

Now, the military has not been large enough in numbers, and soldiers have been cruelly sent back to the hell of war time and time again.

One must ask whether the numerous tours by the soldier accused in the Afghanistan massacre (he had previously served three tours of duty in Iraq and was on his first posting in Afghanistan) may have caused this.

Ken Johnson

Piñon Hills, Calif.

For far too long, our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been not against nations but people of the nations we find distasteful, even though the people do not pose any viable threat to our way of life.

Afghans do not want the American presence among them, and Americans do not want to be in Afghanistan. So why is it so hard for Washington to accept it?

We can never root out one or even a few bad apples in our armed forces — who disgrace a proud and distinguished group of men and women serving with valor and honor — but we can end this long nightmare, thus sparing another Afghan village a future rampage by another rogue soldier.

End this war, and end it now.

Dodd M. Sheikh

Redondo Beach

We need to get out of this culture of war that Republicans demand and Democrats refuse to stop.

Trillions of dollars no longer spent on wars with no end could mean affordable healthcare for all Americans, a step toward balancing the federal budget and maybe even resurrecting our space program that we all took so much pride in.

Can’t we just bring our troops home now?

Annie C. Schuler

West Hollywood

I read The Times from front to back every day, and it hurts to see the Syrian crisis and the Afghans slain, and the high gasoline prices and rents going higher. But nothing compares to the troubles of our returning troops.

I lost friends in Vietnam. I saw the condition of those who returned and the way the public treated them. It sickens me to read that the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are not getting the best of treatment.

Let’s help them. They put their lives on the line for us. We must put them first now.

Lolly Hellman

Venice Beach Re “How will it end?,” Opinion, March 14

Since your headline asked: “Badly.”

Gerald Sutliff

Bakersfield

The Op-ed asks: “Are our troops going to leave too soon to prevent civil war in Afghanistan?”

Afghanistan has been at war for many, many years, and we’ve been there for about 10 years, so why would that change?

The author goes on: “Is an extremist Islamic state, jeopardizing Western inspired achievements in education and women’s rights, inevitable?”

At what point exactly did American lives become responsible for the medieval way Afghan men treat their women?

Tim Clark

Los Angeles