To the editor:

Syndicated columnist Jamie Stiehm has never been to Afghanistan. Yet, in her article headlined, “The tragic march of 2021: Will it ever end well?” she takes the word of a person who spent one year deployed to Afghanistan who said, . .. “the majority of the people are illiterate and hostile, or at best, indifferent to the goals of the occupation. . .”

It seems to me we have become too far removed from history — our history and the history of other nations. Perhaps the reason is that many people in America have not known what it is like to not have opportunities to attend school. But there are some who remember they had other responsibilities.

The majority of Afghans are hostile? If that is true, why are so many trying to flee from hostility?

Indifferent to the goals of the occupation? Why then were so many Afghan men willing to risk their own lives to help our soldiers and to learn how to be soldiers to fight the Taliban alongside our soldiers?

Stiehm also states, “More American soldiers were never going to turn the useless Afghan army and police into a fighting force.” We have an organized military because we live in a democracy where we can prepare to fight for our freedoms. What opportunities do terrorist rulers provide?

We need to be grateful for what we have and willing to help others who can only wish to be in a different place.

Trudy Madetzke

Marshall