Also related, Vice has been covering this for awhile now and had a great piece on HBO (er, well-produced piece). Another example of the horrible spending: contractors spent $300 million to build a power plant to power Kabul, but this plant is not being used because the cost to run the plant is too expensive...so they import electricity from Kazakhstan and China (4:00 mark)[0]. We also purchased $700 million of new Russian airplanes and helicopters for the Afghan Air Force that they can't fly (7:20 mark)[0].
This has been standard practice for projects in Afghanistan since the start of the war. It unfolds something like this:
U.S. gov'nt wants a new well built in some remote village and ask for bids. Western companies bid and win the contract...let's say for $10,000 (not an unrealistic number). The western company sub's out the project to a local company...usually a joint western/local setup for let's say $1000. The sub sub's it out to some local team for let's say $100. The local team hires some guy to go to the next village over and take a picture of an existing well for $10 as proof that the well was built and submits that picture all the way up the line of contractors. The western gov'nt accepts this as proof b/c no one wants to go out into the "hostile" villages to see if the well was actually built.
This has been going on for nearly 15 years now on projects small and grand. It's common knowledge among anyone from there, with relatives there, who has worked there, etc. The information is not new or hard to uncover. It is simply not news worthy in western media.
That is _why_ we are "fighting" there, really. It is mostly about handouts to military contractors. Not just tanks, but also logistics (charging the Army $80 for a load of laundry), side projects like gas stations, power stations etc.
The bombing, killing and propaganda surrounding it is just there as an excuse to transfer many hundreds of billions of dollars from tax payers to a select group of companies.
Letsee,
If Methadone/suboxone treatment costs $4k/year, that would have paid for 1.75 million patient-years of therapy.
And employed a lot of US health care workers.
And prevented who knows how much crime, child neglect, missed work...
DoD... isn't that the department for which then Secretary (Donald Rumsfeld) admitted "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions"? Interestingly, he announced that, along with the "War on Waste", on Sept. 10, 2001. [1]
[+] [-] spuiszis|10 years ago|reply
[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CvWJVtEkUE [1]https://news.vice.com/article/the-us-just-cant-stop-blowing-... [2]https://news.vice.com/article/us-aid-to-afghanistan-has-larg...
[+] [-] zdean|10 years ago|reply
U.S. gov'nt wants a new well built in some remote village and ask for bids. Western companies bid and win the contract...let's say for $10,000 (not an unrealistic number). The western company sub's out the project to a local company...usually a joint western/local setup for let's say $1000. The sub sub's it out to some local team for let's say $100. The local team hires some guy to go to the next village over and take a picture of an existing well for $10 as proof that the well was built and submits that picture all the way up the line of contractors. The western gov'nt accepts this as proof b/c no one wants to go out into the "hostile" villages to see if the well was actually built.
This has been going on for nearly 15 years now on projects small and grand. It's common knowledge among anyone from there, with relatives there, who has worked there, etc. The information is not new or hard to uncover. It is simply not news worthy in western media.
[+] [-] rdtsc|10 years ago|reply
The bombing, killing and propaganda surrounding it is just there as an excuse to transfer many hundreds of billions of dollars from tax payers to a select group of companies.
[+] [-] leesalminen|10 years ago|reply
I hadn't heard of this, but it is unfortunately not surprising. Less surprising than the world's most expensive gas station.
So much apathy...
[0] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/10/21/357839094/...
[+] [-] Scoundreller|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomschlick|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] binarray2000|10 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-war-on-waste/
[+] [-] akilism|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
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