What's the point?

We invaded Iraq for no good reason. We kinda, sorta invaded Afghanistan, though we continue to ask permission for our troops to go here or there. We’ve stayed out of Pakistan, Iran and Syria and all the other places where those who want to do us harm reside, train and laugh at us infidels.

So, what is it, exactly, we’re accomplishing in our “global war on terrorism?”

Well, we’ve done two things, at least.

We — us, all of us, since we put in office the men and women who do these things in our name — have sent 5,156 men and women to their death. Tens of thousands have come home wounded, physically and/or psychologically. Untold thousands have seen their post-tour lives disrupted by divorce or maladjustment or other fallout from their wartime experiences.

And we have spent billions of dollars the Chinese and others have gladly lent us.

Billions.

Where have those dollars gone? We’ve handed over stacks of money to the Halliburtons of the world so that they could scrimp and pinch while supposedly providing various services to the troops. We’ve invested no telling how much in schools and water plants and whatever else from here to Mosul and Kabul. We’ve stockpiled equipment and supplies to the point that recent reporting indicated that a gallon of fuel that finally makes its way to Afghanistan costs $400.

Yep, your money and ours, hard at work doing something. But what?

“We’ve got to fight the terrorists there so we don’t have to fight them here.”

That’s the big lie, and too many have swallowed it, hook, line and sinker.

We went to Iraq. No terrorists there (just folks ticked off we invaded their country, and who could blame them). We went to Afghanistan, and the terrorists who were there took a few steps westward into Pakistan.

We went to Paki ... no, wait, we didn’t.

We haven’t.

We won’t.

So, what’s the point?

If we’re not gonna follow the terrorists where they are, then why chase them at all?

Bring every U.S. troop home. Station them 200 meters apart around the entire country, shooting anyone who tries to get in. Put the Navy out to sea, stopping every vessel wanting to come into port and searching from top to bottom. Put the Air Force to work patrolling and monitoring.

That would go a long way toward protecting the homeland — and keeping the military industrial complex satisfied, seeing as how those are the folks really calling the shots in Congress.

Until we admit that our war on terrorism is really a skirmish against the people in countries that don’t have any real standing military to fight, we’re gonna continue this charade that’s doing nothing to make our nation more secure.

We’re just killing and maiming Americans a few at a time, burning money we don’t have and making a laughingstock of our “superpower” status around the world.

Do we want to be on this same path a decade from now?