In December we asked our Congressional delegation to ponder whether the war in Afghanistan is worth the price we’re paying.

That was just after the death of 24-year-old Pvt. Buddy W. McLain of Peru, the latest of more than 50 Mainers to die during the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After 10 years of war, Mainers are accustomed to the long deployments of Guard and Reserve units and the tragic but periodic combat deaths.

But McLain’s slaying was different. He and five other soldiers were killed when an Afghan police trainee fired upon them from behind at very close range.

McLain’s widow, Chelsea, told the Sun Journal that Buddy had questioned the wisdom of training the Afghan recruits. He was suspicious of their loyalty and had ominous feelings about arming them.

His death was particularly disturbing in light of U.S. State Department cables showing rampant corruption in the Afghan leadership, including bribery, skimming from U.S. contracts and drug dealing, even by the Afghan president’s brother.

Then there’s the continuing cost of the war there, about $6 billion per month in Afghanistan alone. The war there and in Iraq have added more than $1 trillion to our $14 trillion national debt.

Within the past week, there has also been dramatic new evidence of the disloyalty of the Afghan military, police and bureaucracy.

On Monday, nearly 500 Afghan prison inmates, many of them Islamic militants, escaped through a 400-yard tunnel.

Inmates reportedly had keys to cells and were able to release fellow prisoners who, one by one, crawled to freedom.

How can a jail lose a third of its inmates during a period of five hours? Most likely with the cooperation of jail guards and prison officials.

Although 70 of those men have subsequently been arrested, that leaves another 400 likely returning to the front lines for the summer “fighting season.” That means some 400 more men with guns and bombs trying to kill U.S. soldiers.

Early Wednesday, NATO forces received another bitter blow when a veteran Afghan Air Force pilot opened fire inside a NATO base, killing eight U.S. soldiers and an American civilian contractor.

The group had gathered with the pilot for a morning meeting. The man’s family said he had become distraught over financial difficulties, then had an argument with the American forces.

That explanation is eerily similar to the one provided after McLain and the five other soldiers were killed. That Afghan border guard reportedly had an argument with his father on the morning of the shooting which boiled over into a dispute with the Americans.

The problem of building an effective military and civilian government in Afghanistan is compounded by tribal loyalties, decades of near-constant war and widespread corruption.

Unlike Iraq, which at least had the structure of a civil society before the U.S. invasion, there is no parallel foundation in Afghanistan upon which to build either a military force or a government.

If we have been unable to lay that foundation in 10 years, another 10 is unlikely to make a difference.

The time has come for Congress, and the U.S. military, to determine how we extricate ourselves from this mission.

rrhoades@sunjournal.com

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.

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