We have now been losing the war in Afghanistan for 3,287 days. I say losing because we have no hope of succeeding at any of the goals with which we have been presented since we invaded that country nine years ago today.

We seem to be the only ones in the world who do not see this. Much like the knight in the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” who insists on fighting despite having all of his limbs cut off, we continue to fight in the face of growing indications that none of our goals are obtainable.

Every day we learn that the situation worsens: new charges of corruption in the Afghan government, cuts in our supply lines by the Pakistanis, Afghan soldiers deserting the fight for their own country. We have been fighting in Afghanistan longer than we have fought any war in our history, and the military commanders promise us that if their latest strategy is to succeed we will have to remain there for many years to come.

More than 2,000 coalition service members have been killed in this war and more than 8,500 have been wounded to date and yet none of the reasons we were given for the sacrifice of our warriors have come to pass.

We still live with the threat of terrorism. We are no closer to establishing a democracy in Afghanistan. Even stability seems as elusive as ever despite committing nearly 100,000 troops to the fight.

The lives we have lost in Afghanistan make accepting our defeat there a bitter pill to swallow, but that is a poor reason to continue sacrificing more lives for a hopeless and misguided strategy to protect this country from terrorists.

Charles R. Long is a faculty member in the department of geography.