The High Cost of the War in Afghanistan

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It’s Time to Stop Nation-Building in Afghanistan and Bring Our Troops Home

by Lee Enochs

Last week, President Trump surprised many Americans when he stated in a nationally televised address that he was increasing America’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan. This was particularly shocking to Libertarians and other conservatives who are sympathetic to the President’s “America First” foreign policy.

Not surprisingly, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) published a poignant op-ed for the Hill late last week wherein he detailed his reasons against America’s continued and costly involvement in a war that has lasted for over 16 years and is devoid of any clear military objective.

I concur with Senator Paul that America’s military should withdraw from Afghanistan immediately. The war has cost America over $5 trillion dollars and thousands of Americans lives.

As of October 18th, 2016, there have been 2,390 U.S. military deaths in the War in Afghanistan. 1,838 of these deaths have been the result of hostile action. 20,049 American servicemembers have also been wounded in action during the war. In addition, there were 1,173 U.S. civilian contractor fatalities.

The war in Afghanistan is also highly problematic since President Trump has not clearly delineated America’s military objectives in this costly war. For these reasons alone, we should pull out and bring our service members home immediately.

The time for globalist interventionism and nation-building is over. It is high time for the people of Afghanistan to be a sovereign people who can govern themselves whether or not they adhere to an Americanized version of democracy or not.

America can no longer afford to set the geo-political course or other nations. We must pull out of Afghanistan at once and focus on our immediate needs at home. In particular, we need to reduce the national debt of this country that is now over $20 trillion dollars, in part, because we are trying to nation build were we do not belong. For these reasons and more, we should pull our troops out of Afghanistan and bring them home now.

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