Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A Pentagon task force awarded a $3 million contract to build the station in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, but ended up spending $12 million in construction costs and $30 million in "overhead" between 2011 and 2014, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found. Meanwhile, a similar gas station built in neighboring Pakistan cost $500,000.
In Latin America--or say in Brazil preparing for Olympics--one of the common ways to get rich, or even richer than you are, is to be a construction/building contractor of some sort and to get government jobs being awarded. In Brazil this relationship and path to wealth was particularly institutionalized under the right-wing military dictatorship it had. And bearing in mind that former military dictatorship borrowed massive money, increasing the Brazilian national debt, by producing a massive building boom in Brazil during the 1970s I think it was. The building boom was staggering.
But it was debt driven.
And so how did--and do contractors in Brazil get rich from government contracts? Well, in Brazil, if it costs $500,000 to build a gas station you charge the government say... $3 million. Now, the only way you will get awarded the contract is through inside connections in the government. You have to promise to grease the palms of some Brazilian politician. Of course, Brazil is corrupt enough that the project will not be completed no where close to on time and final costs will exceed $3 million. So, let's say final costs are charged to the Brazilian Government at $12 million. Bearing in mind it should have--and for all intents and purposes really did--only cost $500,000 to build the gas station.
But here is the catch, the excess money is privately delivered in hard cash (so, it can't be traced via direct deposits into banking accounts) to the bribed politicians or military officials that awarded you the contract. They keep excess profits for themselves but might have delivered to you in cash, over multiple drops, $3 million or so.
Imagine if a politician did this not once but multiple times over the course of his or hers 10 or 20 year career in political office. Imagine their hidden, off the books wealth?
So, what does the Brazilian example have to do with the case of the Afghan gas station? If one is truly stupid they can only know x, y, z thing if Hillary, Obama, or Bush stands before a camera and tells them. Whatever they say that person believes, and retorts to the critics of their god-men and god-women, "What... you think you know better or could do better than those supreme 'experts' that have made careers out of political offices?"
For those that are not stupid they should be able to use critical thinking, and come to some reasonable conclusions without me personally telling them what to believe nor Hillary, Obama, or Bush telling them what to believe.
But let me distract you as a CIA agent or ardent Hillary and McCain disciple by frantically telling you Putin is the richest man in earth. Like the Weapons of Mass Destruction Saddam had this must be of urgent US tax payer concern. Don't worry about an exploding national debt or why a $500,000 gas station in Afghanistan cost you $40 million. Just worry about Putin having robb d to be the richest man in earth, because I the CIA and I say so.
There can't be that much to rebuild, it was hardly downtown Manhattan in the first place.
Just get your Soldiers home and back to their families and let the Afghans get on with herding goats and growing opium poppies in order to supply the world with cheap heroin and which is distributed by the Turkish Mafia, Kurdish Gangs and Russian Mafia.
Agreed. It's a shame people keep voting for candidates who want our continued involvement in the Middle East when it costs so much and makes us less safe.
There can't be that much to rebuild, it was hardly downtown Manhattan in the first place.
Just get your Soldiers home and back to their families and let the Afghans get on with herding goats and growing opium poppies in order to supply the world with cheap heroin and which is distributed by the Turkish Mafia, Kurdish Gangs and Russian Mafia.
The Taliban almost eradicated the poppy fields until we stepped in. Now business is booming. So I guess government can create jobs.
As long as they are dealing the heroin in U.S. dollars we are good with allowing them to continue.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
