Cal Thomas, the conservative columnist, isn’t ready yet to call our war in Afghanistan a scandal despite raising some excellent questions in his column of May 30. But I am.

Even casting aside morality and asking, “Is this war even good by selfish standards?”, Afghanistan flunks the test, as shown by China’s access to the country’s mineral wealth, with permission of the local government. And of course, by turning the Afghan people and others against us with countless civilian casualties, the war increases security threats.  Why are we still there? Just what hidden agendas are factors? Truly the war is a national scandal, on par with the outrageous gaps in income and wealth distribution among Americans. Given the loss of lives, both ours and others’, it may even be scandal #1.