What about America?

I've had some questions about my posts. One of those questions was about the little girl who was burned by scalding water.

Could this not have happened in the United States, even in a rural area in the States where it was hard to get to a doctor?

Absolutely. Children are fragile, and accidents happen.

However, approximately 14 million children in Afghanistan live more than a two hour drive from the nearest doctor, and more than a six hour drive from the nearest hospital. And there is no "Mercy Flight" to helicopter you to safety. No helicopter at all, unless the Americans have a base nearby.

When I was seven, the little girl across the street broke her arm while we were playing on a hill. It was a compound fracture. A "compound fracture" is a nice medical way to say her bone was sticking through the flesh of her arm.

We lived in the middle of nowhere, and a horrible hours drive later, a drive on an asphalt road, at speeds of 60 to 70 miles an hour, we were at a hospital, a hospital with doctors and nurses and an orthopedic section.

Do you know, if you have a compound fracture, and you don't get help, good, professional, hospital-level orthopedic help within six hours, you will probably lose the broken limb? Amputation.

I have been asked, generally by people who don't know me very well, why we should help the people of Afghanistan, when there are so many terrible places in the world? Why aren't we helping in those places as well?

I believe we have a moral obligation to be here. I believe future generations will judge us on the course of this war. I believe that these people need us, and to turn our backs on them would be unconscionable.