To the editor:

Columnist Trudy Rubin, in her endless promotion for continued funding of the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, offered an interesting summary of current military thought. After eight years of U.S. presence in Afghanistan, only recently did the top brass admit that an Afghan military would be needed to supplant our presence. Her Feb. 28 column estimated it would take at least five more years for the Afghan army to jell. As many as 20 percent of Afghan soldiers are illiterate.

The U.S. currently spends $3.6 billion a month in Afghanistan, according to the Congressional Research Service. According to the New York Times in October of 2007, it was estimated there were no more than 10,000 Taliban with 3,000 being full-time insurgents. As President Obama was announcing an additional 30,000 troops were heading for Afghanistan at a new cost of $30 billion a year to fight the al-Qaida “cancer,” a senior intelligence officer told ABC News.com on Dec. 2, 2009, there were no more than 100 al-Qaida in Afghanistan now.

Another story in the Feb. 28 Journal-World caught my attention. Cordley Elementary participated in a Pennies for Peace project to support building of schools in Afghanistan. How ironic that as we discuss plans to close schools, our children collect pennies so that others might have schools. Books not Bombs. Perhaps there is hope yet.