FEE:
The War in Afghanistan has dragged on for 19 years and counting. In addition to the thousands of American soldiers who have died, the conflict has come at a staggering cost of more than $1 trillion, which is roughly $3,000 per US taxpayer. While one can reasonably question the validity of all of this expenditure, a new report makes it clear that much of this money has been wasted by any objective definition.
An intra-government watchdog assigned to review Afghanistan reconstruction efforts just concluded that $19 billion in taxpayers dollars went to “waste, fraud, and abuse.” It examined just less than half of the total money Congress has appropriated for nation-building in Afghanistan. Of the spending the inspector general reviewed, 30 percent, aka $19 billion, was lost to waste from 2009 to 2019.
Oh, and the total figure lost to waste is likely more than double as much, were all the spending to be reviewed.
This latest report found 209 instances of waste. For example, it examined a program where the US government was paying to provide books to Afghan schools. A dismal 25 percent of schools said the books were delivered in unusable condition. In another abysmal instance, the State Department funded construction of an entire sports stadium, but the inspector general found that the stadium sits unused because it was built improperly.
The report also identified more than 30 new instances of fraud.
9.5 Billion went to the Deep State.
With that kind of money I’ll bet they have the sexiest goats in the region.
Our military was set up to lose. I hope Bush Jr. and obama get what’s coming to them, either on earth or in hell. I regret that I ever thought Bush Jr. was a a decent man. How many of our sons and daughters did they send in to be killed with their hands tied behind their backs?
It wasn’t “waste”. It was FRAUD!!!
pull quote: “the conflict has come at a staggering cost of more than $1 trillion”
it wasn’t $19 billion wasted … it was $1 TRILLION wasted …. along w/ all the US lives (& the crippling effect on survivors)
God save our brave men & women from grifting politicians … such as ‘always-voting-for-war’ Joe Biden
$19 Billion Wasted in Failed Afghanistan Nation-Building Efforts–
Which is NOTHING compared to the waste created by the beau crates in the District of Corruption on a regular basis.
So little of that could have fed A LOT of hungry Americans, not to mention help fund a ton of worthwhile charities. Sisters Of The Poor anyone?
🖕🤬🖕
Politicians should be keep on point for any war they vote for, till its over or ended.
And we won WWII in a couple of years. WTF ??
On the plus side the Chinese hookers did fairly well in Afghanistan. They were high end at $100 American for the night. That was almost a years wage if you were Afgani.
I had roommates in the safe-house that had hooker girl friends. I just hit the Chinese restaurants, General Tso Chicken is the same world wide.
WHY did we build all those MX missiles, if we’re not going to use the mohammedans to CALIBRATE them?! 🙄
Mooselimbs don’t take kindly to ‘nation-building.’
THIS is exactly what Gen Flynn was onto SIX years ago and was sand bagged because he was about to out those fucks when DJT got elected the first time.
LOOK out…
There’s reason why Afghanistan is called the “Graveyard of Empires.”
@Ornery1 – and DJT knows that history and like us, is SICK of it.
He does not plan on ‘dying there’…NOT that we are an Empire…
Forgot to add in all the money the CIA made from selling the heroin made from the poppy farms they had our troops guarding.
18 years and 364 days ago they should have been used as lab rats in a Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) Quality Assurance test. So what if half the world’s supply of heroin gets wiped out in one hour?
I would have just bombed the shit out of the poppy fields from 50,000 feet with B-52’s and left over dumb bombs just to rotate the inventory for 19 years. (no western boots on the ground)
…but I’m 49% pragmatist and 51% Asshole. Eh!
anywhere there is massive government largess, there will be massive fraud…. often perpetrated by those in government.
Kcir,
FYI. There were a lot of Dead Canadians from the Regina Rifles that never came back from D-day. 6/6/44.
A rathole that has no real government beyond local tribes and warlords. Once we knocked hell out of them the first time for harboring Bin-Ladin we should have left with the warning that if another terrorist who hits us was given support and protection by Afghans we would come back and carpet bomb the whole guilty tribe out of existence.
That’s a hell of a lot cheaper and a lot more effective.
Why do you think the DC area is the richest in the country? Why do you think all the ex-generals and admirals despise Trump?
Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex. We didn’t listen.
A couple of days ago I watched some tv shows about the the legacy of the Godfather movies, some bios of the more famous mob bosses, and the various congressional hearing into organized crime over the 1930s ~ 1960s.
The thought occurred to me that those hearings were turned into training sessions wherein many politicians learned how it was done, and thereafter used the same mob methods to enrich themselves. Authorize spending of a trillion then skim off, and laundering few billion can make several people pretty wealthy. Certainly a lot more wealthy than from a senator’s or congressman’s salary alone, even if shrewdly and legally invested, that many of them became while in office.
20 years ago Bush ran against, “Bill’s foolish “nation building””! 19 years ago Bush was the “nation building” Champ (not CHUMP!)! Did Bush, except for ’06 “I hope Im the last GOP president!”, ever tell the truth?
It is clear in 2020 he still wants to be the last GOP President!
What do you mean “waste?”
I don’t see no stinking waste!
Every single dollar went where it was supposed to go.
Foreign aid begats wars, wars begat more foreign aid, foreign aid goes mostly in kickbacks to the cabal who then provide largess to their uni-party political puppets.
And on and on the merry go round rolls and nothing ever improves. Once you understand its a giant money laundering operation created by the CIA in subservient service to their global masters you begin to understand endless war.
Do you think the global cabal that brought us WW1 & 2 give a flip about Trashcanistan?
Its just a filthy Muslim portal to the Benjamins. Its just a washing machine in the armpit of the world painted red by the blood of patriots who thought they were bringing the fight to the enemy.
We have been piling up Muslim corpses as high as the mountains over there for 20 years and its not made an iotas difference because war is just a distraction to the masses while the global robber barrons plunder.
It was common to put pallets of US currency on rotary wing assets and fly them God knows where in Igiveafuckistan and no one in uniform knew where it went.
Thank the Lord God Almighty that PDJT is pulling us out of all these global treaties and wars to deprive the deepstate of its financing but make no mistake China is in the on deck circle just waiting to obey their global masters.
Cisco Kid, that is one awesome post. Wow.
I thought Trump was going to quit the middle east Black Hole