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Walter's Perspective: Why Are We In Afghanistan?

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's been almost a week now since our Navy Seals were killed in Afghanistan, and still their bodies are in pieces and we don't know and may never know exactly what happened. But what I, for one, do know is how angry I am that it happened. 

For what reason are young Americans in that God-forsaken place? To catch a Taliban hiding in a hole in a mountain? Or to protect Helmut Karzai and his family of thieves? Or to stabilize a country that cannot be stabilized?

What the big mouths in Washington are saying is that our troops are "dying for the values that bind us together as a nation, with a sense of common purpose giving their lives for their country."  

Come on. They're giving their lives for the politicians who are sending them to Afghanistan, and preaching about how important it is for Americans to die there.

OK. If it's that important, the pols ought to practice what they preach -- get into a Chinook and go there themselves.

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