Wrong impression of the Afghan people

I am a native Afghan who became an American citizen. I have been in this country for over 23 years.

One thing that disturbs me is the wrong impression some people have regarding al-Qaida and the Taliban. Specifically that the Taliban and al-Qaida are Afghan citizens and that the United States is fighting against the Afghan people, which is not true.

The U.S. is fighting alongside the Afghan soldiers in ridding the country of those foreign terrorists who have invaded Afghanistan. These people have destroyed Afghanistan and the good name of Islam.

If you go back to Sept. 11 — nineteen of the vicious hijackers that destroyed the lives of many innocent people along with over 1,000 detainees currently being held in the U.S. are not from Afghanistan.

The Afghan people have a higher regard for human life and follow a proper interpretation of the Quran. The Afghan people who fled to the U.S. after the Soviet invasion and were allowed to stay appreciate all the U.S. has done for them — that includes me.

I have been given the opportunity to educate myself and become an airline captain and I will always be forever grateful to the U.S.

The Taliban and Bin Laden made up their own interpretation of the Quran to benefit themselves along with stripping the Afghan people of any basic human rights.

I hope and pray for the Afghan people that they can rebuild Afghanistan with the help of the U.S. and the United Nations.

I believe the U.S. should remain there as long as possible to eliminate the presence of all Taliban and al-Qaida to ensure the stability of the entire region and the whole world.

We must never give those monsters a chance to regroup and carry out future attacks against the U.S. or elsewhere in the world.

God Bless America!

This story was originally published October 7, 2017 at 6:32 PM with the headline "Wrong impression of the Afghan people."