Posted on 10/29/2021 12:54:19 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
The top federal agency in charge of oversight of American involvement in Afghanistan published a report on Friday stating the U.S. government spent nearly $89 billion on “training and equipping” the Afghan military in the past two decades.
The Afghan military, formally the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, “no longer exist,” the report – the latest installment of its mandatory quarterly report to Congress – noted.
The country’s armed forces collapsed this summer after President Joe Biden announced he would extend the Afghan War, the longest in American history, beyond the May 1 deadline that the previous administration had agreed to in a deal with the Taliban terrorist organization. In response to Biden’s violation of that agreement, the Taliban began a national takeover, conquering every region of the country before taking over the capital, Kabul, on August 15. The Taliban’s rise to power was largely bloodless as a consequence of ANDSF soldiers reportedly fleeing the battlefield en masse or joining the Taliban rather than fighting on behalf of the collapsed Afghan government.
At the time of the Afghan government’s collapse, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) estimated that the U.S. government had allocated $146 billion to “rebuild” Afghanistan after the initial invasion in 2001.
“More important … some 2,400 American service members, and at least 1,233 contractors, including 45 Americans, lost their lives in that country,” the report noted. “Meanwhile more than 21,000 service members and 1,427 contractors, including 38 Americans, were wounded.”
In Friday’s nearly 200-page report, Inspector General John Sopko called the military mission “the single costliest reconstruction effort.” Given that the objective of the investment in the ANDSF was to ensure its success, the fact that it no longer exists suggests that the U.S. received nothing in return for its investment..
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
That could have funded 8 additional carriers or a good number of escorts or a whole bunch of planes.
Could that have paid for a complete border wall? ;)
That $89 billion bought plenty of pork. Lined the pockets of many defense contractors. Not to mention all the kickbacks to Congressmen and Senators and generals and admirals.
Trump spoke out more than any Republican. What did it get him with the Democrats? I’m now willing to question everything from Viet Nam to today’s crap. There’s a lot more than our wars. JFK files. Iran. Our attention span for the longest time has been eyes closed. Just look at what our school boards have been up to. Starts with Va. on Tuesday.
And no one was held to account. I am not paying taxes this year.
So am I. We basically go into these conflicts with no idea of what the end game is, and stay there until Americans gets sick of it and demand an end. The only ones who get anything out of them are the so called military industrial complex.
If you wanted to make a profit by instigating long drawn out wars, would you do things any differently?
*And no one was held to account.*
What we do is take out the education department. What does it have to do with $89 billion wasted in defense? Education Departmentbudget is $200+ billion. Saw it on statistic.com. Couldn’t believe it. Don’t need the department. I’m old enough to remember Jesse Jackson saying Mikel Gorbachev is not scared of a 2k toilet seat. Yuk yuk. A scary defense is very important to our enemies so I would say that Mr. Gorbachev was INDEED scared of a $2k toilet seat.
*If you wanted to make a profit by instigating long drawn out wars, would you do things any differently? *
You are on the ball. Unfortunately conservatives/republicans are behind the ball and asleep at the switch on many of the important issues of the day. They were late on civil rights when the GOP senate showed more support for the bill. My hero Barry Goldwater cited freedom of association in his opposition to the Civil Rights act. Al Gore(Sr.) was against it for racial reasons so how did we get the racist tag? Pat Buchanan wrote that Churchill browbeat us into WW2-not in our interests. Are we responsible for the lack of freedom in this world? I’d go as far as the Western Hemisphere but we sold out Cuba. Venezuela? Tell me what should we do? Sameas the Dominican Republic in ‘65?
They didn’t “collapse”. They threw down their weapons, surrendered, and then joined the Taliban to save their own miserable useless hides.
L
Send bills out to the last 20 years of pentagon presidential advisors that lied us into this entire façade. Presidents can only act upon the information and advice they are provided. (Yes, I’m even exonerating Obama)
Every conservative should read Major General Smedley Butler's War Is a Racket.
We'll have to part ways on this. Ignoring the fact that Japan attacked us and the Axis declared war on us, if Hitler and Japan had won, there would have been nothing to stop them from coming after us.
On a side note, Hitler had shared Germany's jet and rocket technology with Japan. With that from both sides and Germany arming their weapons with nuclear warheads, what do you think our chances would have been?
You may be correct but Hitler didn’t have intercontinental bombers. Nuclear didn’t exist. Japan’s problem is the island mentality and duty-bound character where you don’t question authority. They don’t ask how high when told to jump. They’ll follow evil leaders. Hitler was the father to a nation of adolescents combined with the aryan superiority instilled.
Next up is the muslims and the han Chinese.
Yet.
Their missile technology wasn't that far from getting there.
Nuclear didn't exist.
Yet.
Sabotage delayed their experiments, but without having to fend off our attacks they could have done it.
1. Those were pre-emptive declarations of war. Neither Japan nor Germany wanted war with the U.S., but FDR's policies made it plain that war was inevitable. Had FDR pursued genuine neutrality, war would have been averted.
2. The Atlantic and Pacific would have kept Germany and Japan at bay.
3. Hitler was defeated on the Eastern front. By the end of 1940, he couldn't even invade England. Had the U.S. not entered the war, Hitler would likely still have lost, or been tied. And had he won WW 2 (unlikely), Germany would have been too exhausted to then attack the U.S.
4. And if Germany had conquered Europe (unlikely), how long do you think it would have been able to hold it? Soviet control of Eastern Europe collapsed, and the Soviets had more men, and an internationalist ideology that was easier to export. Germany's control of Europe would have collapsed well before 1989.
Actually, they refused to fight for a puppet government that the U.S. had installed over them.
If the Chinese conquered the U.S., installed a puppet regime, then left, would you defend that puppet regime?
Afghan soldiers may not have supported the Taliban, but there was no reason for them to support the U.S. puppet regime. So when the U.S. left, they too went home.
That’s what I think, too.
Nazism would have been (aside from being utterly criminal) too unappealing, as an ideology, in the long run.
And not inclusive enough: inclusion, by being internationalist and “anti-racist”, has always been Bolshevism’s greatest strength - at least in theory.
After a time, the peoples of Europe would have been disillusioned with fascism, which had originally been suposed to be the lesser of two evils, to keep communism off the door.
Yes, collaboration in Nazi-occupied Europe had been massive at first, but later the resistance to the Nazis grew and grew.
Hitler was criminally insane. The same could be said of Japan's leaders, who wouldn't surrender even after the first A Bomb was dropped. I wouldn't expect rational thought from either.
2. The Atlantic and Pacific would have kept Germany and Japan at bay.
If not for the constant daylight bombings that destroyed Germany's industry, they may have developed the A Bomb first. Their V2 rockets weren't far removed from the ICMBs that would threaten the world a few years later.
As for Japan, those oceans didn't stop them from attacking Pearl Harbor, and Hitler sent them Germany's jet and rocket technology.
3. Hitler was defeated on the Eastern front.
His own blunders had a lot to do with that, although Stalin's blunders were part of the reason he got as far as he did.
By the end of 1940, he couldn't even invade England.
Not at that time with the Royal Navy still ruling the seas and the RAF still intact, but the jet fighters and bombers a few years later might have made a difference.
Had the U.S. not entered the war, Hitler would likely still have lost, or been tied. And had he won WW 2 (unlikely), Germany would have been too exhausted to then attack the U.S.
We don't know all of the alternate timelines. What we do know is that Hitler was in the process of exterminating Jews and others, a process that would have continued if his regime hadn't been destroyed.
4. And if Germany had conquered Europe (unlikely), how long do you think it would have been able to hold it? Soviet control of Eastern Europe collapsed, and the Soviets had more men, and an internationalist ideology that was easier to export. Germany's control of Europe would have collapsed well before 1989.
Well that depends on how fast their nuclear and missile technology would have advanced. Without the daylight raids pounding their industry, those advancements could have come a lot sooner.
It gets worse:
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