If the latest U.S. soldier just killed in Afghanistan, as yet unidentified, was married, I can’t help but wonder what U.S. officials are going to say to his (or her) spouse and possibly children when they offer her the flag that draped his casket at his funeral. “He died protecting our freedom.” Or “He died for enduring freedom in Afghanistan.” Or “He died doing his duty.” Or “He died as a patriot.”

Whatever they say, of course, will be a lie, just as the entire military escapade in Afghanistan has been based on lies from the beginning and still is. Those lies have been established beyond any doubt with the Washington Post’s recent release of secret military documents that the Pentagon fought fiercely to keep secret from the American people.

I suppose they could say to his widow and children, “He died to protect lies.” But that would seem pretty crass.

It seems to me that the most truthful statement would be, “He died for nothing.”

Sure, that would be harsh, but at least it would be true. Isn’t truth better than lies, even when it’s harsh?

Of course, the death of that soldier raises a couple of good questions: What are those 12,000-13,000 other U.S. troops doing in Afghanistan? Any one of them could be the next to die for nothing.

The Pentagon and the CIA have been occupying the country for some 19 years. Isn’t that long enough for U.S. soldiers to be killing and dying for nothing?

In the last year, 19 other U.S. soldiers have died in combat operations in Afghanistan. That’s more combat deaths in a year since 2014, when, according to the New York Times, “the Pentagon euphemistically announced ‘the end of combat operations’ in the country.”

Oh well, I suppose U.S. troops and their families should count their blessings. At least the more than 2,400 U.S. soldiers who have died for nothing in Afghanistan doesn’t even come close to the more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers who died for nothing in Vietnam.