All the recrimination-filled reporting and commentary about how fast Afghanistan fell to the Taliban after President Joe Biden made the courageous decision to finish withdrawing our troops misses a much more important story.
This story concerns why Americans can’t have nice things anymore while our main economic competitor China does and is investing in a lucrative and influential future.
It’s the story of jettisoning the sensible Powell Doctrine of asking if war is quickly winnable before military action in favor of chronic combat. Endless war creates enormous fortunes for investors in the military-industrial complex, enabled by jingoistic political cowardice in Washington.
For two decades our elected leaders foolishly spent our money trying to impose democracy at the point of a rifle in a country with no democratic culture or tradition.
To date, U.S. taxpayers have spent about $2.3 trillion on an undeclared war that cost 2,448 American troops their lives avenging about the same number of lives lost on 9/11/2001. More than 100,000 Afghans died in the 20-year war.
This butcher bill comes to […]
In the early 1960’s there were complaints about all the money we spent to put a man on the moon. The chorus was complaining that money should have been used for blah blah blah …. The fools couldn’t figure out that the money was being spent right here on good paying jobs, research, development, etc, not being dropped off on the moon! And that research yielded much of today’s advanced technology. The world is a very dangerous place. China is not a benevolent country. Extremism is not going to go away. “Walk softly but carry a big stick” is as true today as it ever was! And as far as America’s problems go, mental illness plays the largest role in my humble opinion.