Don't lose focus

Americans are outraged, and rightly so, over reports Russia offered bounties to Afghan Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers there. That dead soldier could be someone's spouse, sibling, child, besides just an anonymous fellow citizen. But it's unclear if any of the 22 U.S. service personnel killed in 2019 were the result of a bounty.

The Taliban doesn't kill for money. They kill to take back their country from the American invader, who has killed with guns and bombs tens, if not hundreds, of thousands since we immorally invaded Afghanistan 19 years ago. And they are surely winning, as the U.S. just announced a second round of troop withdrawals, which will drop U.S. presence to a paltry 4,600 troops by fall. Besides that avalanche of dead Afghans, the U.S. invasion brought back 2,382 dead Americans, all killed for nothing in a war that should never have been fought.

Yes, let's express outrage that Russia would act to get Americans killed in Afghanistan. But our focus must remain on withdrawing remaining U.S. soldiers from a land that should never have been invaded and can never be conquered. Where's the outrage, indeed?

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn