As they cut food stamps and social services here:
"The US Army Corps of Engineers is building three garrisons for the Afghan Army — each costing between $60 million and $80 million"
Meaning it will likely be twice that as money simply disappears to Dubai bank accounts over there.
I hope you learned something there, dear fellow citizens. We had no other choice.
"US inspectors will soon lose access to Afghan projects" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Scott Higham | Washington Post, November 10, 2013
WASHINGTON — As coalition forces withdraw from Afghanistan, US-funded reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars in far-flung regions of the country will soon be impossible for American officials to safely visit and directly inspect.
I thought we won this war?
The planned removal of more than 40,000 troops and the closure of dozens of bases over the next year will shrink the protective umbrella for US officials to keep tabs on construction work, training programs, and other initiatives in the corruption-plagued nation.
Only about 20 percent of the country will be accessible to US civilian oversight personnel in 2014, according to an analysis conducted by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction and obtained by the Washington Post.
Instead of curtailing those projects, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the US Agency for International Development plan to rely on teams of private contractors to monitor the work of other private contractors on the taxpayer-funded projects.
War is STILL GOOD BU$INE$$!!!
In a document soliciting firms to help with inspections, USAID said it also intends to use satellite photos and “crowdsourcing” experiments that will solicit feedback on progress from Afghans who are supposed to benefit from US-financed work.
The inability of US government personnel to inspect development projects is prompting worry among lawmakers and government inspectors that millions more dollars could be squandered in what has become the costliest reconstruction of a single country in American history.
I hope to hell the death and destruction based on lies was worth it, America.
“I would be shocked if this doesn’t have an unhappy ending,” said Senator Claire Mc-
Caskill, Democrat of Montana, who has been critical of reconstruction programs in Afghanistan and Iraq. “They are kissing oversight goodbye.”
No they aren't. They are putting it in the hands of private contractors to watch private contractors. It's the great military and mercenary machine of the 21st century! C'mon, McCaskill, get with the program!
By plotting some of the largest civilian and military projects on a map generated by the inspector general’s office, the Washington Post found that at least 15 major reconstruction initiatives, projected to cost more than $1 billion, are expected to be beyond the reach of US government personnel next year.
Related:
"US and international donors have pledged more than $8 billion yearly in aid to keep Afghanistan’s military and economy running, including funds for development and infrastructure projects."
While you face austerity here at home, America.
Among them are two of the US government’s signature development endeavors: the $75 million installation of a new turbine at a dam in the southwest, and part of the area where a $230 million highway is being built in the east.
Is this the kind of rebuilding they are talking about?
The US Army Corps of Engineers is building three garrisons for the Afghan Army — each costing between $60 million and $80 million — in parts of the country that are outside the sectors identified by the inspector general as accessible.
“Many of these projects will never be seen by an American government employee, and that’s a concern,” said John Sopko, the special inspector general. “We need to ensure that tax dollars for these programs are properly spent.”
On-site monitoring by the State Department, USAID, and the Pentagon, as well as audits by inspectors general, led to dozens of projects being redesigned or scaled back over the past few years.
AID and State = CIA, and so does DIA.
The ability of civilian government officials and military personnel to visit projects depends on the proximity of troops to respond to an attack — and on the ability of medical personnel to transport the wounded to coalition hospitals within an hour.
As US troops pull back to a handful of bases next year, travel will be circumscribed to areas within the radius of a 30-minute helicopter flight from those facilities.
Those areas almost certainly will shrink further by the end of next year.
So the Taliban will be gaining ground without even trying?
President Obama has not decided how many troops, if any, he will keep in Afghanistan in 2015 and beyond — he is waiting for the Afghan government to approve a security agreement with the United States — but even under the Pentagon’s most optimistic scenarios, the remaining US forces would be clustered in just four or five bases.
Kerry got Karzai to agree, no other option, so I'm going to toss all the articles dealing with the false argument. Frankly, I'm rather offended by the deceptions, distortions, and s***-fooleys of my corporate war pre$$ these days.
UPDATE: "the Obama administration has asked for nine bases spread across the country."
The largest part of the reconstruction effort involves training and equipping Afghan security forces, a task that is expected to cost about $4 billion next year — the exact figure is awaiting congressional approval — and almost as much in following years.
Related: An average of least 100 Afghan soldiers and police die each week
Over the past several years, US military officers have been able to assess whether funds provided in Kabul, the capital, for salaries, fuel, and equipment filtered down to troops on the front lines because American battalions often operated in partnership with Afghan ones.
With fewer troops in the field, the Pentagon is planning to increase the number of civilian advisers assigned to the defense and interior ministries.
Obama withdraweth on one hand, escalateth on the other.
UPDATE: Afghan soldier opens fire on US trainers, killing three
--more--"
Almost time to scrap the Globe's Afghanistan articles.
