Louis Bonacasa. Michael Cinco. Joseph Lemm. Chester McBride. Peter Taub. Adrianna Vorderbruggen.

These are the names of the five Air Force servicemen and one servicewoman killed near Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up at a U.S. military base.

Their ages ranging from 28-45, they came from across the country and from various backgrounds, but were united in their sense of duty and their desire to serve and protect their country. As their fellow Americans back home were readying for Christmas, these brave troops were putting their lives on the line — not for glory or gain, but because they, like so many before, heeded the call of the country they loved. Like so many before who answered that call, they fell on a foreign field and died thousands of miles away from that country they loved.

This Christmas, sometime between opening presents, eating, imbibing and arguing politics with family members, we would do well to take a moment or two to reflect on the sacrifice of these troops, and the sacrifice of others who can’t be home for Christmas this year — and may never be home for Christmas again.

As brave and honorable as their sacrifice was, some of us can’t help but ask if it was truly a necessary one. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in response to 9/11 — the Taliban had provided safe haven for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. But that was 14 years ago. And 14 years on, the Taliban is still there, and the Afghan people detest us perhaps even more than ever. It’s quite hard to sell oneself as a liberator more than a decade after one first invaded a country.

But President Obama announced earlier this year that he will maintain nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan throughout most of 2016. There will still be more than 5,000 stationed there when he leaves office. The troops are there for the purpose of training Afghan forces and security and counter-insurgency, but the Taliban is nowhere close to being defeated, and the Afghan security forces are still operationally hopeless. Indeed, it’s difficult to identify any benefits of U.S. forces remaining in the one country that history has shown time and time again is effectively unconquerable.

Unfortunately, there is evidence that suggests one thing America has gotten out of Afghanistan is a heroin epidemic the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the 1970s. A 2014 U.N. survey of the opium industry in Afghanistan showed that opium production — measured by hectares of land across the country dedicated to growing the crop — increased by 2800 percent since the U.S. invasion in 2001.

Afghanistan now accounts for over 90 of the world’s opium crop. A quick Google image search of the terms “U.S. soldiers,” “Afghanistan,” and “opium” reveals a plethora of photographic evidence of U.S. troops patrolling Afghan poppy fields. Many will no doubt remember Geraldo Rivera’s 2010 interview of a very unhappy U.S. Marine commander in front of a poppy field his unit was tasked with protecting.

U.S. forces are doing this partly to win the hearts and minds of the Afghans. Opium production was suppressed ruthlessly under the Taliban and is sadly one of the few things the country has to offer the global economy. It would be naive to think some of the Afghan opium crop doesn’t make its way to the streets of America in the form of heroin.

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But none of that matters, really. Our men and women are over there serving America, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. Louis Bonacasa. Michael Cinco. Joseph Lemm. Chester McBride. Peter Taub. Adrianna Vorderbruggen. Thank you for your service. And Godspeed.