America marked 10 years at war Oct. 7, 2011. Some 6,279 soldiers have died since the war was declared in 2001. Another 46,162 soldiers have been wounded.

Why are we still fighting?

Jeremy Cloud

On Sept. 11, 2001, a series of terrorist attacks destroyed the Twin Towers in New York, attempted to destroy the Pentagon, and led to a group of courageous airline passengers’ deaths when they brought down their plane rather than allow terrorists to fly it to its target, which is still unknown.

President George W. Bush responded by declaring war on Afghanistan.

That bears repeating: In retaliation for a terrorist attack, the president declared war on a sovereign nation that he suspected to be harboring terrorists.

Two years later, President Bush declared war on Iraq based on faulty evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed nuclear weapons.

Finally, while Congress allowed the president the authority to pursue terrorists in Afghanistan, and gave its approval for the Iraq War, Congress never approved an outright war in Afghanistan, and was led to believe Iraq posed a nuclear threat.

In short, America’s longest war has been costly, unsuccessful and an utter crapshoot across the board.

And we’re still fighting! In a war that can’t be won, for goals that are unachievable, our soldiers are dying.

Through a deep recession, and heading toward another, the military budget is as high as it’s ever been, and growing.

The time has come to end the operations over seas and bring the soldiers home.

Not “reduce to a police force.”

Not “gradually withdraw.”

Leave.

It’s time to admit that “terrorism” is not an opponent that can be fought head to head, that there can be no line in the sand to cross and declare victory.

It’s time to pull back and rebuild the country our soldiers have died to defend — and time to let our country heal from a decade long bloodbath.

It’s time to honor the memories of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks with something more than death, pointless war, and a generation that has never known peace.

To contact Jeremy Cloud,

email editor@occc.edu