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A new government report on Afghanistan reconstruction includes a startling fact: The US has spent more money — a lot more money — trying to rebuild Afghanistan than we did rebuilding Europe after World War II.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) submitted a statement to Congress on Wednesday in a hearing to review the fiscal year 2017 budget request and funding justification for the US Department of State. It included this line:
Since FY 2002, Congress has appropriated approximately $113.1 billion to rebuild Afghanistan. That is at least $10 billion more, adjusted for inflation, than the amount the United States committed in civilian assistance to help rebuild Western Europe after World War II.
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Now let's compare that with what we've gotten for our $113.1 billion investment in rebuilding Afghanistan:
The Taliban is resurgent. According to another SIGAR report from last month, "The Taliban now controls more territory than at any time since 2001." Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, found as of October of 2015 that about one-fifth of Afghanistan was verifiably controlled or contested by the Taliban. In reality, he wrote then, "they probably either control or heavily influence about a half of the country."
ISIS has now established a foothold in Afghanistan. Though it is estimated to have only between 1,000 and 3,000 fighters in the country, it is launching attacks — including, most recently, bombing the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, killing seven people. And it is building what Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called "little nests" in the country's east.
The Afghan security forces are a mess. In August 2015, Afghanistan expert Gary Owen wrote, "Since the Afghans assumed control of the country’s security in 2014, more civilians have been killed, more soldiers have died, more Afghan troops have deserted than ever before, and security forces are still torturing one-third of their detainees."
Afghans are fleeing the country in droves. In just the third quarter of 2015 alone, some 56,700 Afghans filed applications seeking asylum in the EU, according to Eurostat data. Afghan refugees are second only to the number of Syrians seeking asylum in the EU from the brutal civil war in Syria.
War-Profiteering was probably still a thing during WWII, but it didn't consume our foreign policy like it does today.
Disgusting indeed!
That's what happens when our politicians are owned by nationless corporations with no concern for any country on Earth-most especially the United States.
What was the mission in Afghanistan? Why are we still there?
We are there to stop Afghanistan becoming a client state of either Pakistan or India which could trigger a war between two nuclear armed nations one of which leaves their arsenal under the control of the military as opposed to civilian government.
Far worse than the money is the loss of American lives, primarily to keep Muslims from killing other Muslims. Way past time to get our people out of any Muslim hellhole.
We are there to stop Afghanistan becoming a client state of either Pakistan or India which could trigger a war between two nuclear armed nations one of which leaves their arsenal under the control of the military as opposed to civilian government.
Why is it my obligation (through my income taxes) to prevent them from nuking each other?
Why is it my obligation (through my income taxes) to prevent them from nuking each other?
I never said it was. Don't vote for people who start escapades in other countries and you won't.
That being said, a nuclear war there would most certainly spread and probably ruin you day at some point.
There is two important things to be noted, 60% of the money in Afghanistan was spent on training and arming the Afghan forces. The money spent in Europe was entirely on rebuilding.
During the years of the Marshall Plan, the size of the U.S. economy was in the neighborhood of $310 billion (in dollars at that time). So, with total spending of$10.3 billion on European reconstruction, the Marshall Plan represented about 4.3 percent of average GDP.
Maier then contrasted that with the Afghanistan spending between 2002 and 2014. During those years, the economy averaged about $14.3 trillion. The money spent on Afghanistan represented about 0.75 percent of average GDP.
Huge waste and Obama promised to leave and now 8 years later, still wasting money and lives in Afghanistan...idiotic.
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