In reference to the article, "Obama readies Afghan exit" (May 28), and speaking as a retired educator and a retired U.S. Navy officer who served on active duty in World War II over five years in the Pacific and later recalled in 1950 for three more years during the Korean War, I completely disagree with President Barack Obama's decision to withdraw our military forces from Afghanistan and the surrounding areas by the end of 2016.
Personally, I believe it to be only a political maneuver in order to enhance the election of more Democratic officials in 21016.
We Americans must never forget that the planning and executing of 9/11 originated in Afghanistan and therefore, the U.S. must never withdraw our military forces from this area in order to assure that the Middle Eastern radicals, including al-Qaida and the Taliban, would not have the opportunity to carry out a more powerful strike against the U.S. than they did on 9/11.
We must never give our enemies in this area the opportunity to hammer away at their objective which they publicly announced years and years ago — to annihilate every freedom-loving individual from the face of the earth.
The U.S. cannot afford to make any more mistakes such as President Obama did at the end of 2011 when he withdrew all of our military forces from Iraq and sent them home which was obviously a political ploy to assure his successful reelection in 2012.
Therefore, it is my very strong recommendation that the U.S. and NATO forces should, if anything, increase the stationing of additional military forces, equipment and government officials in the region and maintain their presence there as long as needed in order to assure the world that our intention is to protect the salvation of our interests and responsibilities in the Middle East in order to preserve our democratic way of life and encourage Afghanistan to eventually adopt a democratic form of government.
Quinton D. Thompson, Towson
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