There have been tangents coming off recent threads about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I wanted to comment on them. Rather than continue to lead the threads astray, I decided to start a new topic.

The problem I have had with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the beginning has been that they have been advertised as "wars on terror."

I'm no military mastermind by any stretch, but I really have a hard time believing there is any hope of defeating a tactic, as opposed to a real, tangible enemy. There is no point at which we will ever be able to say, "Well, that's it. We finally killed the last terrorist. We can go home now."

With no clear, defined objectives, these wars can only lead to the continued senseless loss of too many young Americans, not to mention countless tax dollars at a time when we can least afford it.

No doubt, we all saw the story about the recent security leak that allowed accounts of apparent "war crimes" (whatever the hell that means) being committed by American troops to be exposed to public view. As horrible as it is to think that our troops might have murdered numerous innocent civilians, I'm not sure they could be faulted for doing so. When you declare war against terrorists (as opposed to the armies of an enemy nation, for example), how can you possibly be sure about whom you should or should not consider your enemy? Sounds a lot like the dilemma our troops faced all too often in Vietnam, and I probably don't need to remind anyone of how Vietnam turned out for us.

I'm one of those who believes that in this case, the best way to support our troops is to bring them back home safe. I'm fairly certain at this point that more Americans have died in this war effort than might have been killed in the next 50 years' worth of terrorist attacks. By reacting the way that we have to the cowardly attacks of 9/11 (committing hundreds of billions to a war effort and huge, additional sums to homeland security measures) , we are falling right into the trap the terrorists set for us.

No doubt, there are some viewpoints out there that conflict with mine, and I'd be interested in hearing them. Please have at it.