Foreign policy decisions are being made by a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, four Marines urinating and a trash burning detail that couldn’t read Arabic.

No matter what the dreams are of our leaders, the idea that foreigners can force stability on another country without creating animosity is irrational, especially when there hasn’t been stability in the foreign land before. We’re not dealing with Germany, a country where the rule of law was always absolute and the people were well educated and believe in government and order. We’re dealing with Afghanistan, a country that makes the Wild West look like high tea in an English parlor.

Soldiers aren’t policemen, nor are they “nation builders” and it’s time to realize that the longer we force our servicemen and women to try to use their hammers as plowshares we’re going to continue to fail.

The killing of 16 Afghan civilians by one soldier is almost immaterial compared to the tens of thousands we’ve already killed, but to Americans who have been footing the bill for this war without end for the last decade, it should be the last straw. Obama got Osama last year, al-Qaeda has moved on to other places like Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen and the government we installed in Afghanistan is a farce full of greed and corruption. We “won” the war years ago- all we’ve done over the last half dozen is add to our cost both in dollars and in American lives.

Unless we have people to kill and cities to capture, our troops shouldn’t be on the ground in foreign lands without a printed invitation and the host country paying their security bill.

Back in the USA, instead of dealing with these issues, we’ve got the President watching basketball in Dayton, politicians talking about contraception and abortion and an auction of political offices of epic expense.

In case you don’t know what FUBAR stands for, it’s an old unofficial military acronym: F’d up beyond all recognition. If I told you that we’re going to invade a lawless country to kill terrorists, but then decide to stay and try to create a democracy in a country that’s never known one, and then hang out while our soldiers get killed and maimed for no good reason, while costing us a fortune, only to start letting 32-year-old sergeants make unofficial  policy statements heard around the globe- you’d say I was crazy, but that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Leaving now or leaving in 2014 will have zero deviation in the fact that Afghanistan was FUBAR before we invaded, while we occupied and will continue to be FUBAR after we leave. The situation in Afghanistan makes zero difference to anyone in America other than those of us who have friends and family putting life and limb at risk, or are profiting from the continued greasing of the wheels of the military industrial complex that needs war to stay alive and financially healthy.

If we continue to allow our foreign policy to be made by individuals operating way above their pay grade, we’ll continue to bear the costs which are already well beyond our budget.

If anyone can tell me one good reason we should still be there, I’m all ears.