Afghanistan, drug abuse and disability bill

Feed the hungry, don’t begin wars

It’s clear to me that America should rethink how it deploys the military.

After two disastrous wars (Vietnam and Afghanistan), we should learn that we cannot remake countries in our image.

Is it possible that some people prefer authoritarian rule over an American-style democracy?

Rather than deploy our military to invade countries whose leadership we don’t like (or to prop up a dictatorship, as in Vietnam), maybe we should use the military for purely humanitarian purposes.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we spent trillions of dollars to feed famine-stricken nations or to provide aid when natural disasters hit, like in Haiti?

— Carl Viñas, Huntington

I don’t think that we in the United States should be beating ourselves up for what is happening in Afghanistan.

Has President Joe Biden made mistakes? Yes. But so did former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

We have spent more than $2 trillion there, sending troops and supplies to train and bolster their soldiers. It seems they only fight when they have a backup of foreign soldiers. Their president didn’t seem to have a backbone as he fled the country. We have spent 20 years trying to bolster them as an independent country, and they failed. It was time to get out.

— Roger Kaufmann, Northport

So it ends with a whimper, not with a bang. Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. We and our allies spent 20 years, a generation, spilling our blood, sweat and tears to try bring a feudal/tribal/ agricultural/theocratic/culture (take your pick of adjectives) into the 21st century. All for naught.

When I was deployed there in 2008, the government was corrupt, inefficient and indifferent to their people’s needs. Nothing has changed. Now, Afghanistan will revert to what it was before 9/11. Human, minority and women’s rights will cease to exist. Those who can will flee the country. Those who cannot will have to stay and suffer.

There was no good time for us to leave. The next time we go into a poor country to save it from itself, we should focus on building a government that their people want.

— Robert E. Spohr, Garden City South

Thanks to Lane Filler for covering the commemoration of 37 U.S. soldiers who died in Pegnitz, Germany 50 years ago ["Filling the holes of grief with love," Opinion, Aug. 18]. I’m one of the nine family members who went to Germany for the memorial service. We were all astounded at the level of respect and empathy shown by the German citizens for our soldiers. We watched 37 U.S. soldiers stand side by side with 37 German soldiers, at attention, throughout the ceremony.

I hope America will honor our Afghanistan veterans, living, wounded and deceased, with the same level of appreciation for their service.

— Laurene Gagliano, Levittown

Substance abuse’s tentacles reach far

How many more lives have to be lost in this battle of drug addiction? On the same page where we read "DA: Arrests in East End fatal overdoses [News, Aug. 20]," another headline read "Schumer: Fed funds to help reduce LI addiction."

I’ve heard all this before and have had far too many friends who have buried their children and other loved ones. Insurance companies place those suffering with substance use disorder in outpatient programs, but many fail.

Tougher penalties must be enforced against those selling and making illegal drugs. We also need fewer penalties and more treatment for those suffering from this disease.

Most important, let’s start treating with respect those suffering with substance abuse.

Let’s stop making judgments.

— Mavourneen Nicotra, Rocky Point

Disability bill needs unbiased members

It’s great that the Nassau County Legislature is preparing a bill to create a task force to study and review county support to serve residents with disabilities ["Nassau bill would form disability task force," News, Aug. 18]. I was dismayed that the proposed members would be five Republicans, three Democrats and seven people with disabilities. The rationale, evidently to give more power to the legislature’s majority party, politicizes the concept of an unbiased task force.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran needs to review this selection process before finalizing the policy. What will happen if and when the legislature’s political party balance shifts? Will one or more members be replaced with members of the new majority party?

This biased approach needs to be reconsidered.

— Stan Feinberg, Wantagh