Why are we there?

Riley watches the news with me each day. This evening, out of the blue, she blurted out, what is this Afghanistan place everyone keeps talking about? Is this place where those huge skinny afghan dogs come from or where they have a lot of those blankets I love to snuggle on, she asked? Upon hearing this, Bosco rolled his eyes. I told her that Afghanistan is a country where Americans soldiers are fighting. Fighting why, she asked? I explained that President Obama decided that we need to get rid of terrorists who might come here and kill Americans. She wanted to know if American soldiers get killed over there when they fight. I told her that 1139 soldiers from the US alone have been killed there. She gave me a perplexed look. What? I asked. You're saying that Americans go there to get killed so that they don't get killed here, she asked. I was about to answer her but I stopped and thought, out of the mouths of dogs.