The war in Afghanistan already had reached the milestone of taking 2,000 loved ones away from their families forever before news came of yet another Maine soldier’s death.

Our state has the highest per capita rate of deaths in the longest U.S. war, and we taxpayers have contributed $3.5 billion to the war in Afghanistan.

Why link these two facts?

Because the poverty draft, where young people enlist for the common reasons that they wanted to pay for college or no other jobs are to be found, is in full swing in a depressed economy such as Maine’s.

Our jobs were shipped offshore over the last few decades, and many young people leave — in uniform or not — in order to make a living.

It is time to bring our war dollars home to fund education, health care, job training, alternative energy, local food production — in other words, life.

Afghanistan has become a sinkhole of funds and human suffering for the U.S. The nation is called the graveyard of empires because its people never allow themselves to be subdued by foreign powers.

Let’s get out now, before one more kid from Maine has to die there.

Lisa Savage, Solon

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