To the Editor:
Should we be fighting in a country where United Nations’ statistics tell us that 45% of Afghan women marry before they are 18, and some as young as 16? These are forced marriages, where too many of them are raped and brutalized by their own husbands, in-laws, and, sadly, members of their own families. Sad, but true. An Afghan plastic surgeon, Dr. Shafiga Eanin, tells us that at any given time, he treats 10 Afghan women who have torched themselves rather than live under these inhumane conditions that seem to go unnoticed while fighting a war – a war that has no end.
Not much is ever mentioned of this. Maybe it’s because we are too caught up in trying to make some sense of why we are there, killing civilians as well as combatants.
A Morristown, N.J., engineering and consulting firm is being asked to oversee a $2 billion contract for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan that, in all likelihood, was caused by our own bombing and that of Russia.
We are told that they pleaded guilty in overbilling our government and have agreed to pay
$69 million in civil and criminal penalties – a staggering amount that could have been used for humane purposes in a country where women are used as pawns, or here in our country, which has an unemployment rate above 10 percent throughout most of the nation.
In Caton, Ohio, once an industrial giant, the United Way received a 33 percent increase in calls for the month of October from families and individuals looking for help. More than half the city’s children live below the poverty line, but few in Washington seem to care. We would rather fight a war without end, where another young American life might be lost at any given time. Hopefully not.
Can any of this change? It is not likely if we sit back and expect the next person to change it. We could collectively make a difference if we write or call our representatives in Washington and demand that we stop this unnecessary blood bath both of our troops and their civilians.
THOMAS J. BRAGEN