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U.S. paying salaries of tens of thousands of non-existent Afghan soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants

Jan 13, 2017 8:07 am By Robert Spencer

“John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), said the salaries of ‘ghost soldiers’ is just one of many ways Americans’ money is wasted in Afghanistan – all for rather modest gains.”

What gains? As soon as the U.S. troops are finally gone from Afghanistan, the Taliban will take over again. The whole Afghan misadventure has been a fool’s errand, a massive, ghastly waste of American lives, money, and materiel.

“Afghanistan’s ‘ghost soldiers’ take scary toll on US taxpayers, says watchdog,” by Perry Chiaramonte, Fox News, January 12, 2017:

The U.S. government is paying the salaries of “tens of thousands” of non-existent Afghan soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants, a top Pentagon official said Wednesday in reporting on the scale and variety of misspent U.S. money.

John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), said the salaries of “ghost soldiers” is just one of many ways Americans’ money is wasted in Afghanistan – all for rather modest gains.

His comments summarize a SIGAR report that aims to help inform the new Congress and administration of the most pressing reconstruction challenges in 2017 and beyond. Sopko’s message was one American leaders have heard before.

“Including U.S. war funding unrelated to reconstruction, U.S. appropriations for Afghanistan now totals more than three quarters of a trillion dollars — not including the $43.7 billion requested for fiscal year 2017,” he said in a speech before the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

“To date, more than $115 billion of U.S. taxpayer money has been spent, sometimes wisely – too often not. Another $7.5 billion has been appropriated but not yet spent, and international donors have pledged to provide financial support to Afghanistan and its security forces through 2020.”

Despite the huge amounts spent in Afghanistan, conditions are deteriorating.

“As of Aug. 28, 2016, only 63.4 percent of the country’s districts were under Afghan government’s control or influence, a reduction from the 72 percent as of Nov. 27, 2015, Sopko said.

Afghan forces “are generally capable and effective at protecting major population centers, preventing the Taliban from maintaining prolonged control of specific areas and at responding to Taliban attacks.”

But the Afghan military, “a reportedly 320,000-strong force is basically playing ‘whack-a-mole’ following the Taliban around Afghanistan.”…

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Filed Under: Afghanistan, Featured, Useful idiots Tagged With: John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)


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Comments

  1. girlgirl says

    Jan 13, 2017 at 8:24 am

    the war in afghanistan should keep going on not only foor america’s interests but for afghan people as well .
    It has only been a waste of money and lives because of pacifistic selfish libtards.

    • girlgirl says

      Jan 13, 2017 at 8:26 am

      I find kinda ironic that many people who want to go at war with isis would let the talitubbies control such a strategic piece of earth .

    • old white guy says

      Jan 13, 2017 at 8:55 am

      time to let them start killing each other once again.

    • David Scoltock says

      Jan 13, 2017 at 4:52 pm

      War in Afghanistan is pointless. Britain tried it three times, Russia tried it and now America has had a go.

      All failed.

      It’s a stupid place to fight a war for no benefit.

  2. Godwin says

    Jan 13, 2017 at 8:34 am

    Not for modest gains but for a huge NEGATIVE LOSS. American foreign policies are the most stupid n all its past presidents were “nuts” cum mass killers since WW2 Every Action calls for a reaction. Therefore, .Divine retributions are on the way.

  3. 7%Solution says

    Jan 13, 2017 at 11:27 am

    “U.S. paying salaries of tens of thousands of non-existent Afghan soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants.”

    This may seem insignificant, but I think it’s important to always highlight that it’s not simply the “U.S.” paying salaries of non-existent Afghan soldiers–or any other government-directed waste of money–but that it’s “U.S. taxpayerswho are the one’s paying for these things. Only stating that it’s the “government” or “U.S.” funding something tends to distance that fact in the minds of people whether they’re aware of it or not, and it needs to be hammered into everyone’s consciousness that it’s theirmoney that’s being wasted, not the government’s.

  4. Angemon says

    Jan 13, 2017 at 1:28 pm

    The U.S. government is paying the salaries of “tens of thousands” of non-existent Afghan soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants, a top Pentagon official said Wednesday in reporting on the scale and variety of misspent U.S. money.

    This is surprising to me – the Obama administration can and is willing to know where the money they give Afghanistan is being spent?

  5. davej says

    Jan 13, 2017 at 3:10 pm

    Afghanistan is 99.8% Muslim (Diversity!) so this amounts to jizya, as well as fraud.

    How can US taxpayers fund 1000 military bases around the globe, an updated nuclear missile program, a war against ISIS, 10 aircraft carriers and a cyberwar all at the same time?

    Oh yeah, a crummy health care system, student debt, crumbling infrastructure and a 19 trillion dollar national debt.

    Fun fact: National defense 0.9 trillion per year, Government pensions 1.3 trillion.

  6. Christianblood says

    Jan 13, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    US is spending trillions of dollars on catastrophic, regime-change and pro-jihadist wars while US cities like Flint lack clean drinking water!

  7. Smarticus says

    Jan 13, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    After 9-11 . . . instead of the fruitless Sisyphean task of nation building in Afghanistan followed by a repeat in Iraq . . . , the US should have landed in force on both the northern and southern plains, set up FoBs within rings of steel, and—after the initial air war, launched ruthless search and destroy operations against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban from the FoBs until the enemy was exterminated. The FoBs would have to be maintained as watch-posts to ensure the Land of Mordor did not rise again. Our European allies would have refused to follow this course of action and roundly condemned it, but (hindsight being 20/20. . . who really cares? What else would have worked for an entire region that’s stuck in an 8th-Century mentality?

    As it stands now, the Taliban will be returning after Afghanistan we pull out . . . and probably the Afghan branch of ISIS will be setup as well. The action discussed above would have cost the US far less in blood and treasure, and Afghanistan would have been no worse off from what it will be like very soon in this reality.

    • Florian75 says

      Jan 14, 2017 at 7:19 am

      The spirit of your tactical approach for how the initial military conflict should have been conducted sounds akin to “going Roman” on the enemy. After 15 years of enormous expense and dubious results, I suggest we should have followed up in the spirit of “going Roman” on a scale not seen in modern times. Abandon a strategy of “Regime Change” for Afghanistan and embrace a course that seeks “Civilization Change” for the 8th century anachronism of a failed state.

      The way to accomplish that would be by total domination, invasion, conquering, and supplanting EVERYTHING Islamic & Afghan with EVERYTHING Western Judeo-Christian, Modern, Hindu, Buddhist, Representative Rule-of-Law Secular Government. Rather than spend money on Afghans, we subsidize American citizens ,and vetted others, in a massive Homesteading scheme. There could be millions of new American/Western/modern-minded immigrants building new lives and a new society/civilization in Afghanistan. All things related to islam would be outlawed/prohibited/abandoned. Afghani’s have two choices: embrace the wave of change being forced on them or die as they fight to oppose it. As wave after wave of new immigrants come to receive their property, subsidy, and opportunity to build a new nation, hundreds of military strongholds would be established to ensure security. Societal infrastructure would grow to include Police, Courts, Schools, Medical facilities, and other assets that the new immigrants are familiar with from their previous homes. The natural resources would be efficiently optimized in a free market system, and agriculture would expand greatly.

      In a nutshell, this plan is an invasion patterned after the Manifest Destiny settling of the American West. Afghani’s would assimilate into the changes brought to their land or be decimated and subdued much like the Native Americans were. Too bad, they will be forcibly brought into the 21st Century. It worked in America, it worked with Japan, and it worked with Germany. The U.N. and progs/libs would be aghast and outraged, perhaps label it genocidal. I label it real warfare and competition, and victory by “going Roman”. The end result would be the creation of a modern state with citizens who embrace enlightened notions of a humane society rather than the barbarism of the 8th Century.

  8. brane pilot says

    Jan 14, 2017 at 1:14 am

    If you cannot defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, you cannot defeat anyone, anywhere; even if they are armed with rocks and sticks.

    The US military has become a joke. Victory is a crime against the civil and human rights of the enemy.

    • Christianblood says

      Jan 14, 2017 at 8:52 am

      brane pilot posted

      (..The US military has become a joke. Victory is a crime against the civil and human rights of the enemy..)

      Hahaha! Very true indeed!

  9. mortimer says

    Jan 14, 2017 at 1:27 am

    Western troops cannot leave Afghastlistan for a long time. The country must have an infrastructure and strong educational system with universal, compulsory education for girls and young women. Only then will the country achieve stability and chance to move into the 21st century. Thousands of years of backward will eventually yield to modernity. This is not an easy task. The return of the Taliban is not an option anymore than the return of Hitlerism to Germany is an option.

    • Florian75 says

      Jan 14, 2017 at 6:09 am

      Your plan for nation building in Afghanistan overlooks the lack of political will in the American people for such a sustained effort.

    • Christianblood says

      Jan 14, 2017 at 8:56 am

      mortimer posted

      (..The country must have an infrastructure and strong educational system with universal, compulsory education for girls and young women..)

      Infrastructure and education CANNOT effectively work in a country like Afghanistan where islam has a very strong grip of the hearts and the minds of the people.

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