The following is making the rounds on Facebook, regarding the needless deaths of 31 of our troops in the CH-47 Chinook crash in Afghanistan on Saturday.
31 lost, 31 unwanted visits, 31 doors receive that dreaded knock, 31 families with shattered hearts, 31 pairs of boots lined up with rifles and dog tags and helmets, 31 comrades remembered and grieved for, 31 funeral services, 31 names on newly made grave markers, 31 empty places at the table, 31 whose lives leave a void, 31 souls who gave all in service of our country. Let’s take 31 seconds to re-post this and pause to reflect on such a sacrifice as 31 gone forever.
To be sure, even in peacetime, we can lose troops in horrific accidents like this one. But, since they were in Afghanistan, since they were on a rescue mission, but for the Afghan war, these American fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, would be alive today. And the sad truth is, what did they die for? Yes, they died trying to save others, and that is noble and honorable. But why were they, or we, still in Afghanistan? It is time to leave. It has been time to leave for some time now. We have defeated our enemy there. We cannot afford both continued waste of money and a waste of lives.