It was confirmed over the weekend that the number of American servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan had reached 2,000. The incident that tipped the numbers to this new milestone took place in Wardak province, though exactly what happened is still under investigation.
Army Sgt. Genevieve Chase has served in Afghanistan and is the executive director for “American Women Veterans.”
“It’s still very much a volatile country, it’s still a dangerous place for foreigners,” Sgt. Chase says. “We still can’t walk down the streets in that country – it’s very unstable – we’re still going to have attacks, unfortunately.”
But Sgt. Chase says it is important to make a distinction between attacks by terrorist groups, which might still be inevitable at this point in the process, and the “blue on green” attacks that have been happening with alarming frequency of late. Chase is concerned that President Obama’s announcement that we would be leaving Afghanistan is perhaps what incited these attacks.
“Personally it is my opinion, and my sense, my feeling, that either we stay there, and we commit to helping them, and we commit to a point of stability in their country where they truly can take care of their own,” Sgt. Chase says, “or we leave immediately.” Sgt. Chase believes that part of the reason we are where we are today is because we left Afghanistan too abruptly after they defeated the Russians.
Sgt. Chase believes that we made a commitment in Afghanistan, and that we need to finish what we started. “I go back next year, family members, friends are there, are still serving, so I don’t say that lightly,” she adds.
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