Afghanistan a How-To Lesson in Perfect Stupidity: 54,000 Paid Ghosts,

Townhall.com ^ | August 3, 2014 | Mike Shedlock

[Kaslin]

Thank president Bush, vice president Dick Cheney, and president Obama for working together to create a how-to map of perfect foreign policy stupidity.

The Telegraph has details in Afghanistan has cost more to rebuild than Europe after Second World War

• American taxpayers have provided £61.5 billion since 2002 and Britain about £890 million, for hundreds of development projects.
• The military operation has cost America a further £296 billion and Britain £22 billion.
• Nearly 13 years after the Taliban were overthrown, the US and other donors continue to fund 60 per cent of the Afghan national budget and are pledged to underwrite a further “decade of transformation” in the country.
• “Large areas of the country will soon be off limits to US personnel due to base closures and troop withdrawals,” the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction says. About 80 per cent of the country is already beyond the reach of US government monitors, according to an estimate last October.
• Senior members of the Afghan government have accrued vast wealth since 2001 including members of President Karzai’s family.
• A US army analysis made public in April said: “Corruption directly threatens the viability and legitimacy of the Afghan state.”
• Western forces are “trapped in a warlord protection racket”
• Despite $7.6 billion spent on counter-narcotics operations, opium production has increased for the past three years and is now at record levels.
• America and the EU spent more than $3 billion on building up the Afghan police force, yet 54,000 of those policemen are “ghosts” — non-existent but being paid each month.
• Mr Sopko found that 16 Italian-built C27 transport planes worth $486 million had been left to rot next to the runway at Kabul airport.
• The US had provided 747,000 firearms to Afghan security forces worth $626 million. They found that 43 per cent have disappeared from official stock lists that track their whereabouts in Afghanistan.

What some see as "perfect stupidity" others (especially the industrial-military complex) see as a "job well done", complete with arms to the Taliban to ensure that the war on terrorism goes on and on.

[Kaslin]

The rest of the title is: Vanishing Firearms, Warlord Protection Rackets

[trisham]

"We moved our base camp last night and we’re now positioned literally
within feet of the river. Have been sitting here watching the border
patrol patrolling in their riverboats all night and all morning..."

~Jim Robinson

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[gaijin]

In Vietnam ONLY bases if South Korea were never attacked by snappers.

South Korea was also the only force to NEVER employ the locals.

[gaijin]

Sappers, not fish.

[FreedomPoster]

It is becoming more and more obvious we should have left more than a decade ago. Decamped after the punitive expedition phase, told them “don’t do that again, or we’ll screw you up worse next time”, and never started so-called “nation building.”

[EricT.]

I totally agree.

At this point, we should send all ground forces home, napalm the poppy fields, and only leave Special Forces there as a live-fire exercise and training ground with a side benefit of killing jihadis by the gross.

[Carry_Okie]

Despite $7.6 billion spent on counter-narcotics operations, opium production has increased for the past three years and is now at record levels.

But think of how many extra dollars the Fed was able to print as the reserve currency for the Muslim drug pipeline from Afghanistan to Kosovo. Had we not won those wars, the Germans could have been printing Euros instead. What a bargain! Sorta...

WASS

[Desron13]

The modern American government in all of it’s glory. This is exactly what our founders warned us against. It’s our own fault folks. We all saw it coming and kept blowing bubbles in our own druel.