There are currently 750,000 pieces of military equipment in Afghanistan worth $36 billion. They can move it or destroy it when all troops are finally out of that country in 2014. Destroy it?! Doesn't the United States have a debt problem? A nation worried about money and in sequestration certainly wouldn't torch $36 billion would they?
The sequester is cutting $85 billion.
The cost of moving the military equipment out of Afghanistan is $5.7 billion. Which begs the question of how much it costed to get the equipment there in the first place! If the sequester continues, can the government spend billions to move military equipment? If not, that's just adding another $36 billion to the ever growing federal deficit as officials destroy the equipment. Literally burning money.
Perhaps George W. Bush can pay the bill out of his pension. He is receiving upwards of $200,000 per year in addition to Secret Service protection, and reimbursements for staff, travel, mail, and office expenses. Over $1 million is being paid annually to Bush. And, after all, he is the one who sent the troops there in the first place. Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy to know that your tax dollars are still going into Bush and Cheney's pockets while they continue to cost you even more money cleaning up their leftovers in Afghanistan?
The Statistics Brain website shows a loss of $9 billion in money "unaccounted for" and another $549.7 billion in stolen equipment during the Iraq war. The cost of the war in Afghanistan is less than the Iraq war, but continues to grow. It looks like the U.S. is lucky to even have $36 billion of equipment left to worry about! Looking at numbers like that makes sequestration cuts look like chump change.
You've heard of the housewives that collect coupons and leave the grocery store with an SUV full of stuff after the store pays them money at the cash register? One of those ladies should be handling the finances in Washington, D.C.! There would not be any missing money or abandoned equipment likely to be torched.
Image Source: Face the Facts USA
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Comments: 35
But Bush quickly took his eye off the ball. He soon forgot about Afghanistan in his ardor for invading Iraq for no good reason. It was by invading Iraq that he wasted the widespread global support America enjoyed for its military response to 9/11 in Afghanistan. Of those who supported the Afghan mission, including Canada, many did not support the Iraq war as the rationale for it was not believable.
Iraq was the more expensive war in lives and dollars.
Meanwhile,in Afghanistan Osama bin Laden skipped out the back door into Pakistan and was basically forgotten by the Bush administration. Getting Saddam was of far more importance to Bush jr. than getting the guy who knocked down the twin towers. This was not to get revenge for an alleged assassination plot against his father, by the way, but rather to prove to Bush sr. that his underwhelming first son could accomplish something he couldn't.
The Afghan mission lost purpose. If you ask any American or Canadian grunt serving on the ground in Afghanistan over the past 6 years or more to define the mission you would likely get very little out of them that made any sense. They may rhyme back some military gobbledegook they'd been fed, but clearly there is no mission in Afghanistan now.
Military waste is the most egregious example of waste in the expenditures of the American government. When the most expensive military in the world, by far, is bogged down for years by two of the weakest countries in the world it is hard to say you are getting good bang for your buck.
Yet this is the part of government spending that so-called conservatives don't want to cut.
BTW...The Americans have to do it because no none else will...like, Canadians, for example...
The Americans have to do it because no none else will...like, Canadians, for example...
No, No, No, Damn you and Damn your sarcastic arrogrance !!! Such asinine statements are demeaning and disrespectful and should never be spoken by an American.
America does it because we have the manpower, the ready to deploy equipment and the (borrowed) financial means to be the spearhead. Canada and our other allies join us in the fight because they {are} our allies, our friends and our comrads in arms. They represent the nations of the free world.
Jo Jo, Don't ever sell our friends short, their young men and women shed their blood and forfeit their lives while fighting side by side with American soliders. They have always been there, answering the call, whenever we needed them, both in past and present wars. I, for one, honor their patriotism, fortitude and loyalty. I respect and honor the lives that they have given and the hardships they have endured, in support of the United States.
Yes, I said that I honor their "Patriotism" for in my sight, our allies show more patriotism for America in times of war, than many of my fellow Americans do, in peace or war.
And don't preach to me about patriotism...I find it overrated...They use it it get our blood up when they want us to charge the cannons for the sake of the Military Industrial Complex...And it gets people killed...Iraq the most recent example...
And, finally...you don't need ot defend Rory...he is very smart and can take care of himself...
I am well aware that Rory is a very intelligent person and does not require any outside support as to his POV on various issues. However, when I feel the need to respond in support of Rory or any other member here on GN, I will do so. Screw with him all you want, but do not assume that you have a free pass.
As to your assessment that IYO patriotism is, "Overrated" I would submit that such is quite inaccurate and in and of its self an unpatriotic assessment. If you actually feel that way, you should be ashamed of yourself as an American.
I say this, since more than 7,800 American military men and women have given their lives as patriots in Iraq and Afghanistan along with more than 40,000 wounded and maimed.
Therefore no American can dismiss Patriotism as being "Overrated"
Wonder if they'd let me take one on a lark for a pack of Smokes?
They will drop of most of the Equipment off in many of the bases just off the gulf of Aden in fact this is what is happening right now and has been for the last 9 months along with the Soldiers and Marines who are coming home
I know that I wouldn't want to carry a weapon for these fools what with the sorry Rules of Engagement. Lads are sent on Patrols to get shot at before they can engage. Tough slog, that.
In this feminised Society we can't seem to fight a War to save our Petticoats. If we don't intend to break things and kill People, and RIGHT NOW...we have no Business.
Those "PC" limp-wristers in Washington, AND the Pentagon, can go to Hell.
Now we are going to pull out of Afghanistan and leave it to the most brutal regime going...the Taliban...
What is the point...
We need a more sophisticated containment strategy...linchpin theory...go with a scalpel, not a broad ax...
Now because of these wishy washy rules the enemy knows all this and they take full advantage of this fact by hiding all their weapons in the dense undergrowth by patrol paths or routs so this means you can be just a hundred paces away from a group of Taliban all smiling at you giving you the Agincourt salute with both hands and you’re not allowed to make first contact. Walk past them and then 1 hour later walk back these same men will have picked up the hidden weapons and will have ambushed you.
It’s got so bad that the lads are just live bait, going out on patrol to get shot at so that we call in support by air. It’s not like a war like the Falklands was with that one we all knew what the objective was any civilians we came across were totally on our side any locals we come across in Afghanistan are caught in the cross hair between the devil and the deep blue yonder they can’t be seen to be helping us as that’s it for them and their family they are gone dead as a dodo and when that happens you’re on a hiding to nothing Mark. No matter what you do no matter how good, you are and we are good American and British and Canadian you cannot hope to win. Let us take the gloves of and you will see a difference a vast difference we have good Geneva Convention laws that's serves us well stick to them and no one can course you trouble in the war or after and sometimes by sticking to this law it can and has saved civilian lives.
It’s an hopeless situation that we are in brought about in my opinion by these rules of engagement your fighting an enemy with not just one arm tied behind your back but both of them and you know what Mark these rules have been brought in by people who have never been in combat but are telling us how to fight.
When that happens you have no option but to cut and run and as any good officer would tell you, when your position becomes hopeless you either do one of two things you bug out and retreat or you make a last stand and then surrender. It makes no difference to a professional soldier if you bug out, as your country will send you to your next war or your next battle if you survive because that's the nature of your job you take the knocks as well as the glory however the glory is quite a distance away at the moment and has been for quite a while.
Humanitarian combat...the ultimate oxymoron...
(BTW...Jo Jo says an "Oxymoron" is someone educated in England...get it...)
Then, when you DO get their number, they find the nearest Skirt to hide behind, or beat us at our own Engagement Rules, and scurry for the nearest Minaret for some tucker and a blow. And we fools, good Boys that they are, mind the Rules set forth by those very idiots that you've talked about Graham who wouldn't know which end of the weapon the Round comes from.