The treasure we’ve lost, both in lives and money, is obscene. The corruption and graft this has stolen our children’s and our grandchildren’s futures.

US money to support Afghan irrigation ‘helped’ poppy cultivation – watchdog
Published time: 3 Aug, 2018 12:17

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The US spent some $8.62 billion on counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan in 2002-2017, a report from Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the US government authority which oversees Afghanistan reconstruction, states. Despite these enormous 15-year-long efforts, the war-shattered country still continues to be the world’s largest opium producer. Plus opium poppy remains the “largest cash crop” in Afghanistan.

Our analysis reveals that no counternarcotics program led to lasting reductions in poppy cultivation or opium production,” the document states, noting that “eradication efforts” in the country had no lasting impact. In addition, alternative development programs which often were “too short-term”, failed to provide sustainable alternatives to poppy, “and sometimes even contributed to poppy production,” it stresses.

SIGAR’s findings are far from being the first that question US strategy in Afghanistan. Back in 2016 the watchdog revealed that the US Defense Department squandered $6 million airlifting nine rare, blond male goats from Italy into Afghanistan. The goal was to "bolster the cashmere industry” in the war-ravaged country.

In addition, since 2012 Washington 'lost' some $9.7 million in assets in Afghanistan because of the army's negligence, the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense revealed in 2017, adding that enemy troops might even have used the resources against US troops.

Also in 2017, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) claimed that its mission failed to report results from 91 percent of Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) contributions in its 2013-2015 annual reports. USAID provided Afghanistan with $1.5 billion.

https://www.rt.com/usa/435021-us-afghan-money-opium/

The men who drop in goats: US govt spent $6m bringing 9 animals to Afghanistan

The US Department of Defense squandered $6 million airlifting rare Italian goats into Afghanistan, attempting to boost the cashmere industry there.
The Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) spent almost $800 million on various projects in Afghanistan over a five-year period in an attempt to bolster the war-torn economy.

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The failed project cost American taxpayers just over $6 million. Contractors have claimed up to 350 jobs were created in the process, but Sopko said the project’s status is unknown. He also could not say whether the goats had actually been eaten.

Sopko spoke of numerous other failed projects that were undertaken as well, including the construction of an "ill-conceived" $43 million natural gas filling station in the city of Sheberghan, near Afghanistan’s natural gas fields.

The task force also spent $42 million to develop a "Silicon Valley-modeled startup incubator" for businesses and $7.5 million on "carpet support," which aimed to "increase the sales of hand knotted carpets."

TFBSO claims this created nearly 10,000 carpet weaving jobs, but the report’s initial analysis questions "the veracity of this figure."

https://www.rt.com/usa/329854-pentagon-goats-afghanistan-cashmere/

Pentagon spent $150 million on luxury villas for employees in Afghanistan

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“SIGAR’s preliminary review indicates that TFBSO leadership rented specially furnished, privately owned ‘villas’ and hired contractors to provide 24-hour building security, food services, and bodyguards for TFBSO staff and visitors traveling in country,” the letter states.

Sopko wrote that its “unclear what benefits the US received” from the task force spending so much money on luxury accommodations when the government could have saved “tens of millions of dollars” by having employees live on US military bases. According to SIGAR, the $150 million expense incurred from 2010 to 2014 comprised almost 20% of TFBSO’s budget.

The letter also calls on the Pentagon to disclose more information on who had stayed at the villas and who approved the expenditures.

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The accommodations provided housing for “no more than five to 10” employees, the letter said. Housing a staff of 10 at the US Embassy would have only cost $1.8 million, according to the inspector general’s estimates.

SIGAR included a statement from Paul Brinkley, former deputy undersecretary of defense and TFBSO’s first director, in the letter. Brinkley said the decision to rent luxury accommodations rather than hire housing staffers on military bases was intended to show private companies “that they could set up operations in Afghanistan themselves without needing military support.” A footnote in the letter said that Brinkley has not cooperated with requests for information.

https://www.rt.com/usa/324670-pentagon-luxury-villas-aghanistan/

The ‘war’ in Afghanistan has been one big slush fund for special interests, the military, and everyone else who could get their mitts in the cookie jar. The American people have been defrauded for going on 2 decades. Combine all this waste with what we’ve spent in Syria and elsewhere and it’s easy to see why we have no money for healthcare coverage, hungery kids, or the homeless.

In a country run by an ‘honest’ government, the prisons would be full of these parasites but they’re not done yet. They can, and are, digging the hole deeper.

Amid little scrutiny, US military ramps up in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is bolstering its military presence in Afghanistan, more than 16 years after the war started. Is anyone paying attention?

Consider this: At a Senate hearing this past week on top U.S. security threats, the word “Afghanistan” was spoken exactly four times, each during introductory remarks. In the ensuing two hours of questions for intelligence agency witnesses, no senator asked about Afghanistan, suggesting little interest in a war with nearly 15,000 U.S. troops supporting combat against the Taliban.

It’s not as if the war’s end is in sight.

Just last month the bulk of an Army training brigade of about 800 soldiers arrived to improve the advising of Afghan forces. Since January, attack planes and other aircraft have been added to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/03/10/amid-little-scrutin...

Army fast-tracks new equipment for military advisers deploying to Afghanistan

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/02/22/army-fast-tracks...