Ticket home best thanks

As a Navy veteran, I commend the front-page story (June 13) about Jennifer Barcklay recovering from traumatic brain injuries she suffered from a mortar explosion while serving as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan. What the article failed to mention was the deplorable human rights record of her employer, Blackwater Corp., in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the inflated salaries that many of their employees receive from U.S. taxpayers for doing the exact same work as their military counterparts.

The American military mission in Afghanistan today is fatally flawed. The more troops and contractors we deploy, and the more adversaries we kill, the quicker their losses are made good, and the more their ranks grow. It is our very presence there and our support of an Afghan government without legitimacy, rife with fraud and corruption, that is the primary recruiting appeal for the Taliban insurgents who perceive themselves as defenders of their homeland.

We need to support our men and women in uniform, and our civilian contractors, by bringing them all home as soon as possible. The $2 billion a week we are spending there could be better spent on our many needs here at home.

George Taylor

Spokane