A letter to the editor of the New York Times - After 17 years of war America needs to get out of Afghanistan.

To the Editor:

Re “Taliban Assassinate Afghan Police Chief Ahead of Elections” (news article, Oct. 19):

Our relationship with Afghanistan has all the earmarks of a bad marriage. After every effort toward making it work, something happens to drive home the futility of it all.

What happened this time? The Taliban audaciously launched an insider attack in the compound of the governor of Kandahar. Among the dead were a senior Afghan police chief and the provincial head of intelligence. Three Americans were wounded.

Our government is invested in pressing ahead with this dangerous and nonsensical adventure because the alternative is to admit that our strategy has been misguided.

It’s time to face reality, and that means not a trial separation, but a real divorce. No more squandered American lives. No more $45 billion a year down the drain. Saving Afghanistan, something beyond our ability in any case, will not make America safer because terrorists can, and do, train anywhere. Even defeating the Taliban (that’s not happening, either) would bring only ephemeral benefit and set up the arrival of the next generation of Taliban, or other groups with other names.

In this feverish news cycle, let’s just leave before anyone notices. The money can be better spent at home. And, for heaven’s sake, no more body bags. At least not from there.

Joseph Blady
Franklin Lakes, N.J.
The writer was a policy and intelligence officer for the Defense Department from 2004 to 2010.