Guest Post by Ron Paul
The end of the 20-year US war on Afghanistan was predictable: no one has conquered Afghanistan, and Washington was as foolish as Moscow in the 1970s for trying. Now, US troops are rushing out of the country as fast as they can, having just evacuated the symbol of the US occupation of Afghanistan, Bagram Air Base.
While perhaps not as dramatic as the “Fall of Saigon” in 1975, where US military helicopters scrambled to evacuate personnel from the roof of the US Embassy, the lesson remains the same and remains unlearned: attempting to occupy, control, and remake a foreign country into Washington’s image of the United States will never work. This is true no matter how much money is spent and how many lives are snuffed out.
In Afghanistan, no sooner are US troops vacating an area than Taliban fighters swoop in and take over. The Afghan army seems to be more or less melting away. This weekend the Taliban took control of a key district in the Kandahar Province, as Afghan soldiers disappeared after some fighting.
The US is estimated to have spent nearly 100 billion dollars training the Afghan army and police force. The real number is likely several times higher. For all that money and 20 years of training, the Afghan army cannot do its job. That’s either quite a statement about the quality of the training, the quality of the Afghan army, or some combination of the two.
Whatever the case, I am sure I am not the only American wondering whether we can get a refund. The product is clearly faulty.
Speaking of money wasted, in April, Brown University’s Cost of War Project calculated the total cost of the Afghanistan war at more than two trillion dollars. That means millions of Americans have been made poorer for a predictably failed project. It also means that thousands of the well-connected contractors and companies that lurk around the US Capitol Beltway pushing war have become much, much richer.
That’s US foreign policy in a nutshell: taking money from middle-class Americans and transferring it to the elites of the US military and foreign policy establishment. It’s welfare for the rich.
Meanwhile, the Costs of War Project also estimated that the war took more than a quarter of a million lives.
The Biden Administration may believe it is saving face by installing a military command of nearly 1,000 troops inside the US Embassy in Kabul, but this is foolish and dangerous. Such a move establishes the US Embassy as a legitimate military target rather than a diplomatic outpost. Has anyone at the Pentagon or the State Department thought this through?
Plans to occupy the airport in Kabul are also unlikely to work. Does anyone think that, having come this far, an emboldened and victorious Taliban are going to sit by as US or allied military occupy the Kabul airport?
Trillions of dollars wasted and millions either killed or displaced from their homes. For nothing. The lessons of Afghanistan are simple: bring all US troops home, defend the United States as necessary, and leave the rest of the world to its own business. We’ve tried it the other way and it clearly doesn’t work.
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And now there will be thousands of Afghan interpreters, their families and other associated U.S. collaborators who are going to be resettled in the U.S. along with their Muslim dirt culture.
Chain migration can turn a single interpreter into 25 new green cards.
And 25 green-on-blue attacks.
What America needs is chain DEPORTATION.
Democrat city library schedule addition:
Bacha Bazi club meeting right after Drag Qween Story Time.
The only ‘terp we had in Iraq that wasn’t murdered was a double agent.
Ron forgot to include the hefty cut of the profits that went into congressional pockets. Nothing gets spent in the District of Corruption without a congresscritter or three getting a nice kickback.
The lucre is usually called an honorarium just to smush the collective face of tax-paying ‘Murkyns into the big pile of shit the politicians and other Devil worshippers have made as their altar to Pazuzu.
I thought it was called a “campaign contribution” just so Jr. can keep his 6 figure job as assistant VP of Media Communication.
Another dependable revenue stream.
I liked the freedom of movement people had around the world when the US was the dominate force protecting the sea routes. We had respect. Just contemplate the quality of people we had leading us then compared to the trash we have leading this country now. Or should I say the last twenty years.
I remember when Shrub, Jr. advised the country that going into Afghanistan was going to be like a crusade. Wonderful word choice when attacking a bunch of muslims-nothing like bringing up the brutality of ancient history to motivate them against us even more.
“Protecting the sea routes” reminds me of a different era, like when the US went after the Barbary pirates off the coast of northern Africa in the early 1800’s-not too shabby for such a young country back then to stand up for its interests.
Can our presidential “leadership” go any lower than it is right now?
It can, but it would sure be ugly, and I plan on it!
Peace with honor!
2 lies in one.
Plumb fergot the “/s”.
Taliban and ilk probably going to kill everyone and anyone with any ties whatsoever to the American cause. Bloodbath coming, maybe even in genocidal proportions.
Afghans should have told Bin Laden to go fuck himself those many moons ago.
Can Auntie count on the federal government to institute National Burqa Day to celebrate the final troop withdrawal from the Graveyard of Empires?
War is a Racket- S. Butler
And they have delusions of being able to win and control in our homeland….
You only need “boots on the ground” to conquer and control a territory.
If all you seek to do is kill then aircraft, drones and other remote weaponry
are MORE than enough. Which is what we should have done all along in
the sandbox. Bomb them….every day….forever. Risk as few American
lives as possible while killing the sand ni**ers indiscriminately. Because
the ugly reality is that ALL muslims EVERYWHERE are our sworn enemies.
What gives us the right to murder these people and not even have the decency to have a motivation related to them?
We were only there for the opium….
I nominate Hillary to be ambassador to Afghanistan, with a corner office at the embassy in Kabul. The Stevens family would likely support that.
Only if they pull all of the Marines out first.
It is welfare for the rich.