The War in Afghanistan is futile and a waste.

For starters, the cost in lives of our soldiers and our allies is atrocious. In total there have been 3,358 total deaths of U. S. and coalition forces; 2,259 of those deaths are from U. S. forces (1) The cost in lives of the war exceeds the number of people killed on 9/11. (2) To make the war "worthwhile". To justify that high number of fatalities, we must conclude that without the war we would have seen more 9/11s and possibly a higher civilian death toll in the U. S. than the total cost of the war in terms of lives lost. Can we justify the war on these terms? Is it reasonable to conclude that without the war we would"ve lost more lives and had more 9/11 type events? I answer, no. Why? Well, we must examine how we were attacked. All of the 9/11 hijackers came here legally from various Islamic countries (none came from Afghanistan) (3) This proves that the war alone would not keep us safe because Islamic terrorists exist in every corner of the globe. To think that a war in Afghanistan would simply stop Muslims from hating us and wanting to kill us is illogical. Especially, since our immigration system is so slacked that we allow extremists in legally. The war we are fighting is a religious one and a futile one at that. Simply waging a war in a single country against a religious enemy motivated by their prophet will not keep us any safer. Why? Because Islam is worldwide therefore the threat is worldwide. In order to be completely secure we must not allow Muslims into this country and we must not allow the "religion" to be practiced freely inside our borders without keeping a close eye on what is being taught in US mosques. Our borders are unsecure and as a result, terrorists are coming both legally and illegally into the country. (4) The threat isn"t overseas in one location. It"s here at our doorstep. The threat is from within the U. S. not from Muslims in a cave halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The only logical and cost effective way to secure America is from within and not with some foreign war. We could have turned Afghanistan into the next England or Israel and the threat of Islamic terrorism inside the United States remains unchanged. This simple fact alone means the entire war is futile and a waste. What has made us marginally more secure is the Department of Homeland Security, TSA and the Patriot Act. Not this foreign war. The Afghan war isn"t keeping terrorists from entering this country and operating. Increased internal security measures are. A new report from Harvard indicates that the total cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will reach between 4-6Trillion dollars when taking into account ". .. long-term medical care and disability compensation for service members, veterans and families, military replenishment and social and economic costs. .. " (5) So, cutting the bill in half for the Afghan war we could"ve kept around $3T and saved thousands of lives. It"s completely reasonable to think that even if we spent $1T on border security, new programs to locate Islamic extremism within the U. S. and immigration reform would have been a much better idea. A program I would create would be to have local police forces working in conjunction with Federal agents to attend and scout mosques periodically within the U. S. Why is this necessary? Well consider the fact that U. S. mosques have become breeding grounds for anti-western and jihadist teachings. (6,7) This again, proves that the Afghan war itself has done nothing to keep Americans any safer. The threat is here, not there. In conclusion: -You cannot stop the threat of Islamic terror without stopping Islam itself. The threat will remain as long as muslims exist. -Without the war we would have spared the lives of thousands of Americans and members of the coalition forces -The war is extremely expensive and its clear that even a fraction of the cost would have been better applied to securing the border and internal security programs. -The Deparment of Homeland Security, Patriot Act and the TSA are responsible for thwarting internal terrorist attacks and not the war itself. 1 . http://icasualties.org... 2 . http://www.statisticbrain.com... 3 . http://www.fairus.org... 4 . http://azcapitoltimes.com... 5 . http://www.globalresearch.ca... 6 . http://news.investors.com... 7 . http://www.clarionproject.org...