“The United States will have been at war in Afghanistan for over a dozen years. With over 2,230 Americans dead, another 17,000 wounded and close to $700 Billion dollars of U. S. taxpayers money spent.
Joseph Dunford, a U.S. general nominated to oversee the drawdown of American troops next year, acknowledges that the war has not met its primary objective: rooting out al-Qaida and the militants who give sanctuary to terrorists.”
http://www.voanews.com/content/is-zero-really-an-option-for-us-in-afghanistan/1705498.html
Here are some facts from Wikipedia:
• Tens of thousands of s Afghan soldiers and civilians have lost their lives in the war; many more displaced as refugees.
• Drug trade: UN findings say an opium market worth $65 Billion dollars funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people every year.
• Public education, some improvements (see article below)
• War crimes by Taliban, Northern Alliance, and U.S. massacres of civilians, bombings of civilian targets, terrorism, use of torture and the murder of prisoners of war. Additional common crimes include theft, arson, and the destruction of property.
• Human rights abuses have been committed by all sides, according to UN Human Rights Watch.
• Costs: The projected total cost relating to Afghanistan from inception to the fiscal year 2011 is expected to be $468 Billion dollars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan_war
“The Afghan Police Project has been a multi-billion-dollar exercise in disaster. Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported US taxpayers have spent $9 Billion dollars on a program that barely functions. Police are illiterate, are paid around $16 per month and demand bribes from citizens, often use drugs, and typically accept bribes, while their American instructors are paid six-figure salaries. According to SIGAR audits last year, billions of dollars have gone to hospitals and schools that were paid for, but never built, chiefly because the area was considered too vulnerable to Taliban guerrilla attacks. In a hearing last year, Congress disclosed that $22.4 Billion dollars in US taxpayer's money had disappeared from Afghan projects and was still unaccounted for.”
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15264-afghanistan-a-dark-and-fragile-future
So much for thanks:
“As the U.S. accelerates its exit from a decade-long $100 billion reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, American generosity is getting an unwelcome penalty in the form of taxes and fees imposed by President Hamid Karzai’s government on U.S. contractors supporting the rebuilding effort.
Everything from exiting military equipment and food for troops to new federal contract dollars are facing levies, customs fees and fines — a wave of taxation estimated to slice $1 billion or more off the top of aid that was supposed to go to the Afghan people. Instead, it’s going into the coffers of the Karzai government”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news..._source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS#ixzz2Za6kJI2L
“One of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main religious advisers will not overturn a decree issued by clerics in the north reimposing Taliban-style curbs on women, in another sign of returning conservatism as NATO forces leave the country. Just days after the United States launched a $200 million programme to boost the role of women in Afghanistan, a senior member of the country's top religious leaders' panel said he would not intervene over a draconian edict issued by clerics in the Deh Salah region of Baghlan province.”
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/talibanstyle-edict-for-women-spreads-alarm-in-afghan-district/1144414/
While they have destroyed most of the Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, the US and its allies still have not won their war against the Taliban insurgency. We have failed to reach our stated objectives. When the Americans and its allies finally leave I expect that Afghanistan will convulse with tribal infighting, retribution killings, and chaos. The Taliban will, of course, return to power. Afghanistan will become one more failed state in many of the same ways Iraq has.
In my opinion all U.S. personnel should leave Afghanistan now. Any war material not yet removed should be destroyed in place. Already the costs in deaths and injuries on all sides are massive. Any further delay will only increase both and only delay the inevitable.