I understand why some people object to the U.S. leaving Afghanistan and ending its military involvement there. When my older brother Mike was killed in Vietnam on September 22, 1968, I felt the same way. I desperately wanted his death to have meaning, and the war machine had convinced us that the only way for it to have meaning was to destroy the Communists and force the American way of life into every single Vietnamese household.

That year, 1968, was the worst for the U.S. forces. According to the website, https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-casualties/, 16,899 American service members were killed in the war in 1968, fully 29 percent of the 58,220 casualties there since June 1956. The Tet Offensive, launched by North Vietnam during the Lunar New Year in January 1968, represented the largest military operation by either side up to that point, and the American war machine kicked into high gear in response. The military draft started inducting thousands more young men. By the spring of 1968, both of my older brothers, Frank and Mike, found themselves in basic training at Fort Ord, California. After completing basic and then more specialized training elsewhere, Mike shipped off to Vietnam and Frank was sent to what was then West Germany.

The war machine worked hard to convince us that victory was within grasp. Although I did not follow news closely then as a high school student, I was always surprised by the reports of battles in Vietnam claiming that hundreds of North Vietnamese were killed and three Americans had suffered bruises and sprained ankles. I am exaggerating, of course, but much of the reporting…