USA TODAY OPINION USA TODAY OPINION About Editorials/Debate Opinions expressed in USA TODAY's editorials are decided by its Editorial Board, a demographically and ideologically diverse group that is separate from USA TODAY's news staff. Most editorials are accompanied by an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature that allows readers to reach conclusions based on both sides of an argument rather than just the Editorial Board's point of view. The release Sunday of thousands of classified documents about the war in Afghanistan by WikiLeaks dramatically underscores what many of us have been saying for a long time: The U.S. is making a tragic mistake in Afghanistan. OUR VIEW: War leaks confirm what you already know The more documents that come forward, the more evidence we see of the strength of the insurgent groups, the brutal nature of the ongoing civil war and the corruption of the Afghan government. The war in Afghanistan has morphed from a U.S. mission to destroy al-Qaeda into a much broader fight against the Taliban generally. Each additional dollar we spend, each life we sacrifice, is a tragic waste. This war fails to enhance U.S. security, which should be our central goal for being there. We were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, by al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda had bases in Afghanistan, and it made sense to go in to destroy those bases, and we did. But the CIA tells us that there are now fewer than 100 al-Qaeda personnel left in all of Afghanistan. An intelligent policy might be to attack the bases from which mayhem is being plotted against the United States, wherever they are. An intelligent policy is not to try to remake a country that nobody since Genghis Khan has managed to conquer. Not the Moguls, the British or the Soviets. Why have we undertaken to invent a government that is not supported by the majority of the people, and to impose it on the country? Afghanistan is in the midst of a 35-year civil war. We have no business intervening in that civil war; we have no ability to resolve it, nor any necessity to do so. It would take tens of years, hundreds of billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of American lives to rebuild Afghanistan, if it could be done at all. Aside from making sure that specific bases are not being used against us, we should not be spending a nickel in Afghanistan, and we should not be wasting a life there. At this point, we must recognize that rebuilding Afghanistan is both beyond our capability and beyond our mandate to prevent terrorists from attacking the U.S. To continue such a bad a policy at so high a cost is quite simply unconscionable. Let's bring our troops home. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., is a member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more