Reader questions government's foreign policy

The war is over?? I cannot understand the thinking (or lack thereof) of our current federal government with respect to what defines when "a war is over." If one side in a war decides to claim "the war is over" and ceases military action, the other side will view that as surrender! A war is not over until the last combatant on the enemy side decides to surrender or is buried. It is just that simple.

There was a time in history when wars were fought with armies that wore uniforms. A combatant that was in uniform was treated as a soldier and held as a "prisoner of war" if captured. A person engaged in combat that was not in uniform was considered as a "spy" and simply permanently eliminated.

Today, the threat from "terrorism" is due to the lack of a single government, or series of governments, that have control over uniformed soldiers who are engaged in essentially military operations against the United States and other countries. Instead, we are faced with combatants who cannot be readily identified from those who should be considered as "non-combatants." We are faced with a potential enemy that is trained from birth to hate and kill based upon perceived ethnic or religious differences!

If governments in other parts of the world do not actively take whatever actions are required to control those who teach, plan, and execute attacks against the United States, then they are part of the problem and not the solution. It is idiocy to think that the United States can simply declare "the war is over" and withdraw from other countries of the world without the "enemy" then moving combat operations to within the United States!

Our borders, under the current administration, are as effective in stopping potential and actual invasion by those who would create harm within the United States as a sieve is at holding water without leaking!

Any person who is capable of rational thought is beginning to wonder about the agenda (and "foreign policy") of our current government.

Thomas Fancher

Moses Lake