21, August 2017 Afghanistan
Was anyone surprised that American military commanders would argue in favor of more troop deployments? Where is the money coming from to support an already bloated military - infrastructure, education, healthcare? There have been budgets cuts in every major US agency except the war machine that has made us much less safer. Prior to our invasion of Iraq, there were no terrorist attacks in Europe and far fewer on our homeland. Have we learned nothing from our foreign adventures? The US is the largest defense contractor in the world. We have flooded the Middle East and other parts of the world with massive shipments of arms to enrich our defense contractors, unconcerned with the appalling loss of life of civilians. Threatening Pakistan will have no visible impact – they are extremely adept at manipulating US politicians.
Trump’s announcement is solely aimed at pleasing his base who have demonstrated remarkable resilience accepting their commander in chief’s failed promises.
Much like the prior wars in Vietnam and Iraq, this will be another monumental failure. According to the Military Times we have squandered over 5 trillion dollars in the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what do we have to show from this massive investment in human capital and treasure – broken bodies, suicides averaging 18 per day and seething anger from the Muslim world.
Afghanistan has a long history of massive corruption. Our continued presence will only enrich the government. The time to exit the Afghan quagmire is NOW.
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