--- title: Killing of 3 Americans Raises New Questions About Afghanistan and Iraq description: The deaths of three U.S. doctors at the hands of an Afghan policeman raises questions about a continued American presence there canonical: https://time.com/75386/americans-killed-afghanistan-iraq/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-24T13:07:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:23.718Z article:section: Politics og:title: Killing of 3 Americans Raises New Questions About Afghanistan and Iraq og:description: The deaths of three U.S. doctors at the hands of an Afghan policeman raises questions about a continued American presence there og:url: https://time.com/75386/americans-killed-afghanistan-iraq/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8129f2a294741a5/69868c3ce8524b92656028d4/486386003.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3418 og:image:height: 1923 og:image:alt: AFGHANISTAN-UNREST-HOSPITAL-ATTACK og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Killing of 3 Americans Raises New Questions About Afghanistan and Iraq twitter:description: The deaths of three U.S. doctors at the hands of an Afghan policeman raises questions about a continued American presence there twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8129f2a294741a5/69868c3ce8524b92656028d4/486386003.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Killing of 3 Americans Raises New Questions About Afghanistan and Iraq > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Gunman Kills 3 American Doctors At Kabul Children’s Hospital [Watch (HLS stream): Gunman Kills 3 American Doctors At Kabul Children’s Hospital](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NhT6Av4B.m3u8) (2:39)  _Published 2014-04-24. Three American medical staff workers are dead and two more people injured after an Afghanistan security officer shot them at a nonprofit hospital in Kabul. This marks just the latest attack against foreigners in the increasingly unstable capital._ by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Apr 24, 2014 1:07 PM UTC  An Afghan policeman outside Kabul's Cure hospital, where another Afghan policeman killed three U.S. doctors Thursday. An Afghan policeman outside Kabul's Cure hospital, where another Afghan policeman killed three U.S. doctors Thursday. SHAH MARAI / AFP / Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Apr 24, 2014 1:07 PM UTC The [killing](http://time.com/75071/afghan-guard-kills-doctors-kabul/) of three U.S. medical personnel Thursday, allegedly by an Afghan policeman guarding their hospital, raises anew questions about the wisdom of a continued U.S. presence there, in uniform, scrubs or any other kind of garb. While U.S. troops may have increased protection after a spate of so-called blue-on-green attacks in recent years, the lifesavers working at Kabul’s Cure International Hospital apparently were slain by a policeman dedicated to their protection. The murders come as two veteran reporters file on what life is like in Iraq, where the last U.S. troops left in 2011; and Afghanistan, where the U.S. troop presence has shrunk to 33,000, on the way to removing all U.S. combat troops by year’s end. “Two years after the last American soldiers departed, it’s hard to find any evidence that they were ever there,” Dexter Filkins [writes](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/04/28/140428fa%5Ffact%5Ffilkins?currentPage=all) of Iraq in the latest _New Yorker_. Bombings are a deadly, and everyday, occurrence. Filkins notes that the U.S. started pushing for the election of Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq’s prime minister in 2006, after a Central Intelligence Agency officer recommended him to U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. “Among many Iraqis, the concern is that their country is falling again into civil war,” he writes, “and that it is Maliki who has driven it to the edge.” A total of 4,486 U.S. troops died in Iraq. Meanwhile, 1,800 miles away in Afghanistan, a unit from the 82nd Airborne Division recently returned and came “looking for a fight.” But it hasn’t happened. “Although they’re still preparing for the worse, the soldiers are discovering that the Afghanistan they left in 2012 isn’t the same country they returned to,” Drew Brooks of the _Fayetteville Observer_ [wrote](http://www.stripes.com/82nd-airborne-brigade-plays-waiting-game-in-afghanistan-1.279224) Tuesday. “The job of fighting off insurgents now falls to Afghan national security forces.” It was a member of those forces who killed the three Americans earlier today. A total of 2,317 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan. Two countries, one lesson: there is more than one way to win, or lose, a war. ## Transcript The idea of human extinction can really grab the public's attention, which may be why the Human To Mars Summit and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, are suddenly making headlines. You get a picture of star that used to be but is no longer. One of these days that's gonna be the story of our star, the Sun. If this species is to survive, indefinitely we need to become a multi- planet species. Wednesday, NASA's chief laid out his plan for putting humans on Mars by 2030. It's a three step plan that according to space. com will take at least three major missions requiring 200 to 400 metric tons of equipment be launched into space, and will cost billions of dollars. Exactly how many billions of dollars, Bolden didn't say. Billions of dollars that NASA right now does not have, NBC knows NASA currently makes up 0. 5 % of the federal spending plan, or just shy of 18 billion dollars annually. Back when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, NASA was receiving 4 % of the federal budget. Bolden told the audience at the Humans to Mars summit, just 1 % of the federal budget would be a gold mine. The Congressional Budget Office has said in the past, however NASA has been looking for gold in the wrong place, claiming if humans were taken out of the human space exploration program, it would save 73 billion dollars in just eight years time. And a Washington Post writer echoes the case for unmanned spacecrafts, the crafts are lighter and easier to land. There are no worries about life support, and there is no need for a return trip. And robots don't get cancer or radiation poisoning. But Bolden says getting humans to Mars is the goal, not an unmanned spacecraft. And according to a poll by Explorer Mars, the public agrees. The poll found that 67 % of Americans agreed, the US should send robots as well as humans to mars. 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