Worthless minds and bodies

As we endlessly regurgitate and analyze
America’s misadventures in Afghanistan,
how do we tell the soldiers who survived
and the families of those who didn’t
that their lives were worth nothing?

How do we explain to our sons and daughters that
the excruciating pain of lost limbs and tortured minds
was suffered for no reason other than to feed the
bloodlust of myopic politicians and fill the coffers
of mercenary weapons manufacturers?