In my opinion, our military can hardly afford another front in the Middle East to defend and protect. For one thing, we have been in a state of protracted war for a decade with no end in sight. The casualties keep mounting with some coming from our supposed allies in the war on the Taliban and al Qaida. Actually, these casualties are murders rather than combat related deaths. When will the president speak out against the carnage being perpetrated on our service personnel in Afghanistan by those we are there to protect and assist in helping themselves?

I have long said it is time we let the Afghans defend themselves. As a matter of fact, it was only supposed to be a retaliation for the terrorist attacks on our country on Sept. 11, 2001. The retaliation has lasted 11 years and is still not over, nor will it ever be under the present troop levels and rules of engagement.

After the initial strikes in Afghanistan, we went off halfcocked into Iraq plundering for weapons of mass destruction that were not there. A trove of faulty intelligence was blamed for the intrusion. Doesn’t it seem we are getting a lot of intelligence lately that isn’t very intelligent?

Perhaps the CIA should be renamed the CPIA, Central Perchance Intelligence Agency.

However, we have learned since the presidential election that sometimes the director of the CIA may be preoccupied by a little extra curricular hanky-panky. The moral of the Patraeus indiscretion is as old as time itself. As long as there are Samson’s around, there will be Delilah’s and vice versa.

Patraeus is credited with saving embarrassment in Iraq by implementing the surge. However, it didn’t take a military genius to figure out we didn’t have enough troops in the country to effectively stabilize it.

After we depart having spent much blood and treasure to stabilize and rebuild the country, they will again turn to their old ways and align against us.

As far as Afghanistan, we are not winning the war there either, only prolonging the take over of the Taliban and al Qaida. Once we clear out, the Taliban and al Qaida will move back in from Pakistan. In the mean time, our military personnel are worn to a frazzle. Some have had as many as four or five deployments to the region. Is it any wonder some are beginning to go berserk? It is stressful having to sleep with one eye open anticipating being shot by a host nation soldier or policeman.

In my opinion, bring the troops home and stop the flow of our borrowed money to the Middle East regimes. The only friend we have in the Middle East is Israel.