Biden on Afghanistan

Biden on Afghanistan — Inland Empire Bulletin—April 14, 2021

Re “U.S. eyes exit from Afghan war by Sept. 11” (April 14):

So, President Biden wants to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. It’s high time. We never should have sent troops there in the first place.

He wants withdrawal on or by Sept. 11. That’s nearly five months away. Why not June 11, or even May 11? The idea, he says is to memorialize those who tragically died on Sept. 11, 2001. But why? There are plenty of ways to memorialize those lives lost, but to keep the troops in Afghanistan is not right. We have to remember that in that senseless war many times as many lives were lost as were on 9/11. Why continue that?

But many in Congress and elsewhere don’t want withdrawal at all. They claim that if our troops leave there may “be another 9/11 as a result.” Is that their idea of a joke? The humor escapes me, as I take the loss of life very seriously. If U.S. interventionist policy was not the cause of the first 9/11, I don’t know what was.

We need to pull all the troops out of Afghanistan and everywhere else in the world, and end these senseless wars.

— Alice Lillie, Pomona