Kind thoughts needed - our nephew is being sent to Afghanistan

[derby378]

Louis has recently graduated boot camp at Twentynine Palms, CA as an honest-to-goodness Marine. He has now learned that when he reports back from his Thanksgiving furlough, he will be deployed to Afghanistan.

I have had conflicting views of our continued role in Afghanistan for a long time. Hunting down the Taliban was (and still is) a worthwhile effort, as these fanatics are a clear and present danger to the future of Afghanistan. However, it turns out that Bush's motivation for going into Afghanistan wasn't so much to capture those responsible for 9/11 as it was to prop up a puppet government to build and secure a new trans-Afghani oil pipeline running to the Persian Gulf - which never resulted in cheaper fuel prices for Americans, but certainly resulted in a windfall for many of Bush's corporate campaign contributors.

So do we stay or go? Do we keep the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan by supporting an equally-corrupt Karzai administration, or do we pull out and save the American taxpayer from bankrolling an increasingly futile mission? In any case, our beloved Louis will find himself smack-dab in the middle of it all as a newly-minted Marine, in a rapidly deteriorating situation that may not be solvable either by his M4 or by a diplomat's pen.

ChickMagic and I ask that you keep Louis in your thoughts and prayers, that he'll make it through this tour of duty safe and sound, and that he'll return to his family soon.