I am writing in reference to "U.S. lacks enough troops for ‘low-risk’ Afghan option" (article, Oct. 19).

What is wrong with the Department of Defense? Why on Earth would they tell the enemy that we do not have enough troops to successfully conduct a mission against them? We told them we will not win! If I were the enemy in Afghanistan, I would read the article and be jumping for joy.

You cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, think that the Taliban would not read Stars and Stripes. What we are doing with operational security and keeping stuff hush-hush at the operational level do not make any difference when the info is published for all to read.

There is so much wrong with printing this article I can’t begin to explain it all. What are the Afghan people going to think? "The U.S. is not going to help us." What are the soldiers going to think?

DOD needs to go back to the old-school ways of keeping troop levels and movements secret.

What happened to common sense?

Maj. Stan MaynardCamp Speicher, Iraq

Migrated