Leaving our troops in harms way while tying their hands in ways that make it impossible for them to win is immoral. We should have learned that lesson from Viet Nam.

Our enemy in this fight has no obligation to follow the Geneva Conventions or observe the niceties of civilized war – an oxymoron that only a liberal mind can possibly entertain. They do not wear a uniform. They hide among the women and children. In fact, they use their children as a weapon. Yet, news from Afghanistan reveals our troops are enduring new restrictions on their “rules of engagement” that make them even more vulnerable to these murdering thugs.

A news report last week in the Washington Examiner tells us that if an Afghan civilian fires at our troops then throws their weapon on the ground, our troops cannot fire back. If our troops come under rocket fire they are not allowed to return that fire if the enemy is within 500 meters of a village. And at one base our troops were required to dismantle a tower that allowed them to observe what was going on in a hostile village because it invaded the privacy of the village residents.

Stupid does not begin to describe such absurdity.

There is only one purpose to war. Destroy the enemy – kill them or beat them into submission and crush their will to continue. To pretend that there is a civilized way to do that is absurd. Unless we are willing to fully commit our troops without restriction to accomplish that goal, we have no business sending them into harms way. In fact doing so is a criminally negligent abuse of our military.

War is not about nation building. That is empire building. Liberals claim to abhor empire building. So here we are with the most liberal President in the nation’s history and he can’t decide to fight the war or get out of it. Instead, he ties the hands of our troops and the death toll mounts. At one point he said he would go into Pakistan if necessary to root out the enemy, but that has turned into just another empty campaign promise.

It is time to end this sham and bring our troops home. Let the Afghan people destroy each other. And when that seething caldron of hate boils over again we can bomb them with cruise missiles or drones that don’t require any of our people to risk life and limb to retaliate.

In the words of Specialist Matthew “Silver” Fuhrken, 25, from Watertown, N.Y, “I don’t think the military leaders, president or anybody really cares about what we’re going through. I’m sick of people trying to cover up what’s really going on over here. They won’t let us do our job. I don’t care if they try to kick me out for what I’m saying – war is war and this is no war. I don’t know what this is.”

It’s time to get our troops out.