By Derrick Crowe
This is the end of the second week since Osama bin Laden's death. During those two weeks, we've wasted four more American lives and another $4 billion, continuing a war strategy that contributed little to nothing to bin Laden's death and that makes no sense now that al Qaeda no longer resides in Afghanistan. The vast majority of Americans believe that this is the right time to bring the troops home, and they're right.
A U.S. Army carry team transfers the remains of Army Cpl. Kevin W. White, of Westfield, N.Y., at Dover Air Force Base, Del., May 4, 2011. White was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. (Photo: U.S. Air Force photo/Roland Balik)
Here are the names of the four U.S. troops that were killed since bin Laden's death (killed nowhere near bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, by the way). Their names were:
•Demetrius Frison (age 26),
•Ken Hermogino (age 30),
•Riley Spaulding (age 21), and
•Kevin White (age 22).
In addition, there have been at least 4 as-yet unidentified NATO fatalities as of Thursday, and two Romanians were also killed in separate IED attacks.
What do American politicians say to these families, two weeks after Americans took to the streets to celebrate what they thought was an end to this decade-long debacle? Sorry, but we had to keep your loved ones there to prop up Hamid Karzai's corrupt government? Our condolences, but we can't risk looking like anything but chest-thumping hawks with an election coming up?
The youngest of the four killed, Riley Spaulding, was around age 11 when this war started. A decade later, his colleagues are bringing him home, draped in a flag.
I don't know how the families of these troops feel about the Afghanistan War, but I do know how I and the vast majority of Americans feel about it: we hate it. We're tired of the wasted lives and resources. We want it stopped. We've wanted it stopped for months. And we want it stopped in a matter of months, not years. And we want our loved ones brought home as quickly and safely as possible.
Here are the photos of the homecomings of Frison, Spaulding and White. Hermogino's was not available. Take a moment, please, to look and consider the price paid for every day that goes by when we don't end this war.
For what it's worth, we've also wasted $4 billion on this war in the two weeks since bin Laden was killed. Four billion dollars, for what?
Four more Americans are coming home in caskets. Four too many. Get the rest of our troops home so their families can hug them instead of mourn them.
If you're one of the sixty percent of Americans who want our troops brought home, sign our petition at http://rethinkafghanistan.com.