Opinion

Let’s bring the troops home now

Posted June 04, 2013 5:00 am

The PBS Memorial Day program at the National Mall was outstanding. The information on the 27 veterans who kill themselves each day because they are not getting what they need from the V.A. hospitals was very moving.

The president gave us good news that we will be out of the Afghan war by a date next year. As a historian I must warn about what happened near the end of World War I: the Armistice was set at the eleventh hour of the 11th day of November. Before that hour many hundreds were killed on both sides, which fired on each other before 11 a.m. Nov. 11, 1918.

Why wait for next year? We killed the head of the snake; let the president say “mission accomplished.” Let’s bring the troops now and save thousands of lives. Why wait for just before the midterm elections? If the militants reestablish themselves and set up an infrastructure; we can then knock it down.

Ed Smetana

Arlington Heights

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