I hope that President Obama will get us out of Afghanistan rather than increasing troops. The reasons for staying are:

1. The Taliban will bully Afghanistan into extreme Muslim fundamentalism where girls can’t get an education, where people are ruled by tribal leaders who will hide al-Qaida leaders and where poppies will be their cash crop.

2. United States military pride. Pride goeth before destruction.

The many and important reasons to leave Afghanistan are:

1. American military lives, NATO military lives and Afghanistan civilian lives are being lost.

2. History tells us we can’t win; Alexander the Great, Great Britain and Russia were’t able to conquer Afghanistan.

3. We are wasting great amounts of financial funds that could be going for security here, health care, infrastructure repair, education, and jobs.

4. Our occupation is the best recruitment tool that the Taliban have. If we leave soon the Taliban’s strength will decrease.

5. We will get out of Afghanistan sooner or later without a victory, so why not now?

6. The Afghan government is very corrupt and isn’t worth defending; the people don’t support it.

7. Most important is that we and the world must concentrate efforts on lowering our carbon imprint and preventing flooding in Bangladesh, the Philippines and the Pacific Ocean islands. We here in Wisconsin are experiencing the effects of climate change with the very wet spring and very wet fall that we have had.

We must leave Afghanistan as soon as possible and Iraq and Pakistan, too. Let us hope President Obama doesn’t fall into the war trap as President Johnson did.

Vera Boone