From the Los Angeles Times:
An explosion in southern Afghanistan on Thursday killed eight U.S. troops, officials said, an unusually large toll for a single incident.
Earlier in the day, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, announced the death of a service member in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan's east. The cause of the crash was under investigation, the coalition said.
A Pentagon official confirmed that the eight killed in the south were U.S. soldiers. Most of the troops in the south and the east are Americans. U.S. troops make up about two-thirds of the overall NATO force.
Coalition fatalities stand at 2482. We are not going to win the war in Afghanistan. What is the coalition accomplishing now? Are they even holding the line? Our departure will be a negotiated departure. With whom will we negotiate? The greater number of insurgents are Taliban. Unfortunately, that is the reality, and it is likely that we will negotiate with the Taliban. Whomever it is that we will negotiate with, why not now, rather than later before more troops are killed or wounded, before more Afghan civilians are killed or wounded? Why not now before we spend more billions which could be put to far better use than making war?
It's time to bring the troops home.
Shown above is the faded bumper sticker which I placed on my car at the beginning of the Iraq War. I no longer have the car, so the bumper sticker is gone, too. Originally, the colors were bright yellow, red, and blue. The photo of my old bumper sticker still serves to make my point.
May the troops who died rest in peace and rise in glory.
May God give comfort, consolation, and the peace that surpasses understanding to all who love the fallen.
May the God of peace fill our hearts with such a longing for peace that we do all in our power to settle differences with choices other than war.
