Time to exit Afghanistan

Wow! They printed my letter in The Wichita Eagle.

President Donald Trump’s new Afghanistan speech introduced more wrong policies. Experts agree that this new policy will deepen our military commitment, but not result in victory. The truth is that we cannot “give them democracy.” Keeping that government from falling will cost this country a lot of its young sons and daughters, along with a lot of Afghan civilians — and for what? For a government that could not stay in power if U.S. armed forces left.
The invasion of Afghanistan was a major foreign policy blunder. The people of Afghanistan resisted control by the Soviets for nine years and now they have resisted the U.S. for 16 years. If the U.S. pulls out there will be some instability, but eventually the Afghan people will develop their own government and one that does not rely on U.S. troops.
What we need now is for our leaders to develop enough backbone to do the right thing — admit that invading Afghanistan was a huge mistake and pull all our troops out. It seems hard for our leaders to admit defeat and do the right thing, but they need to do it.

STEVE OTTO, MAIZE