October will mark the 16th year since President George W. Bush announced the first strikes against Afghanistan. In June 2010 we surpassed Vietnam as the longest conflict in U.S. history.

President Obama ended the combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014. But the U.S. and Afghanistan governments reached an agreement to keep some American troops in the country even after the combat mission ended. Coalition troops remain in the country as well.

Three presidents now have their hands tied to Afghanistan. President George W. Bush addressed the nation from the White House to announce the first airstrikes in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001. Obama made major prime-time addresses to announce both troop build-ups and withdrawals, and President Donald Trump used his first prime-time address from the White House to speak about the war.

The number of troops serving in Afghanistan has been approximately 8,400.  We are going to extend that number past 12,000.

We have lost 2,403 soldiers in Afghanistan. 2010 was the deadliest year losing 499 U.S. soldiers and 711 total coalition forces killed. By comparison 4,523 U.S. troops have been killed since the Iraq war began in 2003.

The citizens of Afghanistan have paid a heavy price. Tens of thousands are thought to have died since 2001.  The United Nations recently reported that 3,498 Afghan civilians were killed in 2016 alone and 7,920 were injured, making it the deadliest year for civilian casualties since he U.N. began counting in 2009. At the half year mark of 2017 in July 1,662 there had been 1,662 deaths and 3,581 injured.

Brown University has a Cost of War Project. The group estimates the total cost of the war to be $783 billion through fiscal year 2016.  That number swells to $1.8 trillion when factoring in long-term spending like veterans' care interest on debt, researchers found. One Congressional Research Service Report estimated the operational cost of the war in Afghanistan was $686 billion through 2014.

When will it end? President Trump said he does not want to nation-build but only stay long enough to eliminate the terrorists. If this is the plan, then I don't think we will ever leave Afghanistan. There are always new terrorists being raised up. ISIS and the Taliban are teaching Children to hate America as well as Christian nations and countries where women and people are treated equally. We may kill more and have more control in the nation of Afghanistan but there seems to be a root of evil that will never be eliminated.

Sadly, people in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern nations have fought among themselves for centuries. While we don't want Afghanistan to be wide open for terror cells to once again topple and control towns, just how long will we stay to fight this enemy? While I like President Trump's vision to eliminate all the bad guys and then get out of the country, I personally don't see it happening. Because, as soon as we leave, the terrorists who have been hiding somewhere else will return and we will back in Afghanistan again. This means for the rest of our lives we will work in America to pay taxes to maintain military bases in Afghanistan so we can keep several thousand troops present and ship more soldiers there quickly as the tide of violence returns.

By the way, just a medium-size military base costs about $1.553 billion to operate a year. A small base costs about $828 million, more or less, to operate each year. One spokesman for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force says there are nearly 400 U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan including camps, forward operating bases, and combat outposts. In addition, there are at least 300 Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police bases, most of them built, maintained or supported by the United States.  So do the math and you can see why somebody in America has to work just to keep these mega money drainers operating.

Now you know why you can't have your full Social Security retirement check at 65. Your money is going elsewhere and will be for a long time – probably forever.

Will our war in Afghanistan ever end? The end is not in sight.

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Afghanistan – The End Is Not In Sight

"And then one day, for no particular reason, people were mad at statues." — Forrest Gump if he were alive today

In the divisive issue of what to do with Confederate statues around the country, one reason we should take a breath here and not engage in the politics of history is to understand the past. Totalitarian regimes like the Nazis, Bolsheviks, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, North Korea’s Kim family, the Taliban, etc. all tore down statues relating to any history they did not like and rewrote all narratives to make themselves the heroes.

Yet the dream of the Saul Alinsky-left is to cause turmoil, rewrite history in their favor, and divide a country to gain power in the tumult they create. Every totalitarian movement manufactures an enemy; Hitler made the Jews his (and Germany's) scapegoat. It never ends well.

The small number of 200 “white nationalists” in Charlottesville were able to get the attention of a nation of 330 million people by espousing idiotic views. What are white nationalists? They should just be called Klan Lite.

All this conjured-up hyperventilating about Trump's response to Charlottesville is just more of the condescending indignation of a press that wants to delegitimize his presidency any way it can. Parsing the phrasing of a response is just a silly word game. No one could rationally believe Trump is a white supremacist any more than he or she could reason that he is a Russian pawn.

The tired article of faith among the media and the left is that anyone who disagrees with them politically is a racist. This is particularly acute for us Southerners. They think we all watch "Gone with the Wind" backward so that it will have a happy ending.

We are a nation that likes to fight. Sending more troops to Afghanistan and doubling down on a $2 trillion mistake is the latest. War is just another unfunded government program. We are so eager to fight we are about to fight another civil war — over our last Civil War.

Almost all countries on earth were involved in slavery at some point in their history. America hasn’t had slaves for 150 years, unless you count Wal-Mart employees and interns at CNN.

The slicing and dicing of purportedly wronged voters into buckets of victims, known as identity politics, was accelerated under Obama. That is why we cannot be totally surprised when small groups of disaffected whites start to coalesce around their own “identity” concerns.

Racial issues are intensifying, yet racial double standards remain. Whites can listen to rap music, but we certainly cannot sing along.

Polls tell us that race relations, long on the mend, got worse under Obama, a man uniquely positioned to make them better. To call a nation that twice elected an African-American president "racist" seems at odds with reality.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden's theme was that we need to have uncomfortable talks about race with each other. In my view, that dialogue between whites and blacks is difficult in cities like New York and Los Angeles because neither side speaks Spanish.

Biden has done his part in the race wars. No one did more to dispel the myth of white supremacy than Joe Biden.

Signs of “No Free Speech for Fascists!” appeared at the Charlottesville counter-protests, yet free speech is the best way our society has to identify the idiots who live among us.

When does this path to totalitarianism end? Trump is right: Robert E. Lee now, but will Jefferson and Washington be next? I told my Washington and Lee University grad buddies that, at this rate, they will have to repeat college.

It’s easier for opponents to call Trump racist now, rather than resorting to their narrative of the last six months calling him a communist, because that only increases his support among Democrats.

It might again surprise the media, which condescendingly manufactured this faux indignation over Trump’s initial response to Charlottesville, that it actually might help Trump.

He remains the Road Runner to their Wile E. Coyote.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: In the path of totalitarianism

Putin, Castro, et al are all multi-billionaires. North Korea’s "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-Un, and his family are billionaires too, while his people starve in obsequious servitude. Communism always works well for the ones in charge of it.

Communism and socialism tout their great achievements “for the people” — free health care, free education and equality. But their failures remain breakfast, lunch and supper.

President Trump tried diplomacy with North Korea early, agreeing to meet with leader Kim Jong-Un "under the right circumstances." A Nobel Peace Prize- winning overture if you’re a Democrat, but an “uninformed diplomatic blunder” if you’re a Republican.

To sum up, years of policy failures, looking the other way, and diplomatic back-door payoffs to North Korean regimes when they threaten us have kicked the can down the road and gotten us to this point. I like what Sen. Lindsey Graham said: “President Trump inherited a mess. All those 'smart people' who are criticizing his rhetoric and his policy, how well did you do?”

The result? North Korea is on the verge of getting a nuke that could hit California, and some say it could eventually reach some of our good states, the ones in the South.

The Washington Post reported recently that a long-range ICB missile fired by Kim Jong-Un could make it to New York City in 37 minutes (assuming it doesn’t have to go through TSA). That scared the East Coast liberal elites. A missile that can make it to New York City? New Yorkers know better than most: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. 

But here is the good news: North Korea sucks at this. If you pay attention to news reports of Kim Jong-Un’s ICB missile program, the safest spot you can be is where North Korea is aiming its rockets.

All this began on the Fourth of July, when Kim oversaw the shooting of a rocket into the sea. Someone should tell him that he needs to be careful; that's a great way to lose a finger.

Under my doctrine, I would let him continue to experiment with explosives. With dolts like those who pin medals on each others’ chests for feats less than a Cub Scout merit badge, we should let them continue to monkey with nuclear rockets, setting them off in a country the size of New Jersey. This crisis just might take care of itself.

Communist regimes can’t figure out nuke-tipped jet propulsion rockets. They can’t even figure out how to get toilet paper to their citizens. And the only cities they talk about attacking are L.A. and New York. Chicago is never mentioned. I don’t think they would shoot a missile at Chicago for fear of all the return fire they’d incur.

So we find ourselves with two leaders, both men with questionable haircuts, in a war of words with international implications over issues which could probably be solved by them sharing a 2-for-1 haircut coupon at Great Clips.

Democrats believe only diplomacy remains our primary line of defense against North Korea. Their second line of defense is locking their doors and acting like they are not at home when the bad guys come by. Sadly, liberals' go-to defense, calling opponents "racist," will not work here.

Trump decided to dial up the rhetoric. He said he’s “locked and loaded,” which is twice as much as other presidents did. President Johnson was just loaded when he talked to North Korea.

I don’t believe Lil' Kim will attack us. He has a sweet gig going. He’s rich, snorts coke, has lots of adoring young women at his beck and call, and is a porn enthusiast.  He loves cognac, NBA basketball and Viagra. The truth is he won’t attack Los Angeles out of professional courtesy. He probably still thinks Dennis Rodman was Barack Obama. No doubt, Rodman left a diplomatic legacy on his trips to North Korea. That, and hepatitis.

At the end of the day, Kim Jung-Un reasons that his only chance to beat Trump is probably shooting missiles, not a war of words. He'd best use missiles because he knows Trump would annihilate him in a Twitter fight.

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Two leaders in a war of words

Does anybody in America truly want to repeat another horrific Charlottesville? 

I hope the answer is no but it seems there are different groups lusting for more of Charlottesville. Three people were killed and many others injured in a display of civil warfare reminiscent of what I used to watch on the evening news back in the '60s.

Are there hate groups in America? The answer is yes. Is there racism in America? The answer is yes. Is the solution to hate and racism violence? No. Hurting one another, cursing each other, violating each other and trying to kill each other comes from the basest and most depraved human beings.

 Where is the common sense of what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia? There was no commonsense.

How do we avoid another Charlottesville?

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of violence. Every group that protests in any community in the United States should first gain a permit from the local county or city government for a day and length of time with an exact location to hold the march or protest. The protest must be civil. There is no need for guns at a march or at rally to speak. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to start shooting off guns.

Next, the group should be required to put up a deposit of cash. It takes money to clean up a town after hundreds or thousands of people have dropped their cigarette butts and pop cans everywhere. Part of the cash deposit should be refundable if the group marches orderly and leaves the community orderly.

Tell all the local people that the protestors are coming and to leave town or find something else to do. In other words ignore them. The best way to kill anything is indifference. Indifference has been killing churches and marriages for many years now.

Forbid another group to protest at the same time. Civil freedom of speech should mean I get a turn and then you get a turn. However national cable television news and presidential debates have proven that there is little civility and manners in our nation anymore. People start talking and then opponents begin yelling trying to drown them out. Any group that has a permit to march and speak about their cause should have a chance to say what they want to say. When they are finished the opposing group should pay their fee to march and have their say about the issue.

Yelling at each other and throwing things and driving cars into crowds gains nothing but death, more hatred and more violence.

A date and time set by the city and county gives local and state police the opportunity to organize in such a way to save lives. An event such as Charlottesville requires hundreds of state police people and maybe even the National Guard. Yes, this is tragic.

When a group marched in Pikeville, Kentucky last April 29 no one was killed. Lots of words were hurled by the opposing groups but the community and the police kept the order. The groups came, the police made convincing barricades and lives were sparred. The Pikeville commissioners notably disallowed either of the groups to wear hoods or masks in their protesting. This is another good move that all city and county governments need to enforce in the future.

When groups interrupt and act violently toward those speaking they should be hauled off to jail until somebody pays their fine to get them out.

I was in the St. Louis airport the other day and there is a Freedom of Speech stand in the airport. People can stand at that location and give a speech. Nobody was giving one while I was there.

Every community should protect freedom of speech. No one speaking and conducting him or herself in a civil manner should have to fear being assaulted or run over by a car.

Those speaking should never be threatening to anyone physically nor should listeners be allowed to threaten the speaker. Where or how does violence resolve any issue? Unless of course people want another Civil War where hundreds of thousands of people were killed in order to get the point across.

Is this what we want in America? Surely we do not want to go backward to such a brutal and archaic time in our history?  

Violence will only provoke more violence and more hatred. We are a multicultural society. All colors and backgrounds live in America. The solution to our success is to quit biting and fighting each other and work together. Or, have we become just too barbaric?

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: How to avoid another Charlottesville