US-Afghanistan War —The Futility of War

From the Peace and Social Justice Center of Kansas, Summer Newsletter:

         The ongoing 15 year US War on Afghanistan is a sadly perfect example of how war as a remedy for injustice and terror creates those very things. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have died, large parts of the country have been contaminated by munitions, and nothing permanent has been built. Our taxes continue to be wasted as we build schools and roads there that then are destroyed by more battles. The women we claimed to be liberating are still bearing the brunt of war deaths and injuries. Bombing weddings and other gatherings, accidentally or not, invites retaliation and does not encourage women to go out into the world. And US personnel are still being killed. In the meantime while we wage a futile war our bridges and schools are crumbling because our taxes go to waste.
           All this because we had to start a war for revenge and now can't quit it because politicians don't want to lose face and don't want to confront the military desire to keep going no matter what. There has to be a better way and it starts with withdrawing from these wars by cooperating as much as possible with international institutions, and then using the massive wealth in the US to create a public jobs program to rebuild and clean up our country. Anything less is not sustainable.

Pix by University of Texas Libraries.