All war, any war, is terrible and painful to endure, with horrible loss of lives and precious resources. But unfortunately, for a variety of reasons and on too many occasions, we have had to go to war.
Sometimes we have gone to war of necessity. We did so for independence, in our American Revolution.
And remember Pearl Harbor. Our United States was attacked by Japan on Dec. 7, 1941, thrusting us into World War II. So we were unified and motivated to defend our nation, our people, our way of life. We did so with terrible loss of lives and resources. But we won -- and rejoiced in peace.
There have been other wars, some of necessity, some of option -- all were terrible.
But now we are sadly, frustratingly engaged in a very unpopular war in which we, fortunately, will not be "defeated," but in which we apparently cannot achieve a satisfactory outcome.
Where? In Afghanistan, of all places. We have been engaged there for many painful years with many losses of American lives. And while we may be dominant and generally in control of circumstances there, there still is no prospect of a rewarding victory, or even a satisfactory solution.
A current survey of Americans in a New York Times/CBS News poll has found that 69 percent of those polled -- a tremendous majority -- believe that we, our United States, should not continue to be at war in Afghanistan.
Many Americans do not feel our national interest is at stake there. But how and when should we withdraw after a decade of conflict? What will be the eventual result when we somehow end this war?
There is no popular or satisfactory solution. So our involvement in Afghanistan tragically goes on.