Dear Editor:

Our president has decided upon “War Everlasting”in Afghanistan...

We've been down this road before. Who is going to fight it? Who is going to pay for it? Remember that no one, no country, has ever long succeeded by military operations in Afghanistan during known history; not the Mauryan Empire of ancient India, Alexander the Great of Macedonia; Umar, the Arab Caliphate; Genghis Khan of Mongolia, Tamerlane of Persia and Central Asia; the Mughal Empire of India, various Persian Empires, the British Empire, the Sikh Empire, and then the Soviet Union.

Yet we know who will pay, fight and die in this war. It will not be the likes of Jared Kushner and Ivanka, nor their class mates nor contemporaries; they will stay safely at home reaping dividends and safety while others not so fortunate return in body bags. Again the ranks will be filled with a largely working and middle class; patriotic men and women expected to sacrifice their safety and future embarking upon a “Fools Errand.”

I see no eventual withdrawal from this “Graveyard of Empires” without losses militarily, politically, financially, and human. We will not effect change, peace nor progress upon this “Graveyard of Empires,” nor shall we not be spared in the annals of history. The die is cast -- our future is before us. I grieve for what is coming.

Ronald J. Riml
East Boothbay
(Vietnam '66-'69)