Saturday, June 11, 2011

A dollar here, a dollar there

Warren Olney's June 9 "To The Point" podcast took a unflinching look at the $10 billion US tax dollars we're pouring into Afghanistan every month.

His most stunning guest was Tom Peter, the Afghanistan correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. I don't know what his politics are or how long he's been in the Middle East, but Peter had a street level view that bowled me over. His credibility was staggering, and what he said was infuriating.

He'll tell you about the brand new empty schools and clinics you've financed. He'll tell you about the depth of corruption and the illiterate soldiers you've armed and "trained." He'll tell you how 97 percent of Afghanistan's GDP comes from the international community (translation: your tax dollars) and if we pull it, the entire country will more or less turn into a poppy field.

Righties wax furious over $2 million for the new USDA Food Plate program.

Really?

I mean really? Is that what you're worried about?

I hear you bellyaching about Obama's stimulus package and Medicare. At least the bulk of those dollars stay on U. S. soil.

While you're busily taking pennies away from Planned Parenthood, your $10 billion per month is making a tiny percentage of Afghans filthy rich while the vast majority of the population watches on with disdain--at least when they're not cowering beneath terrifying drones.

Make no mistake: the impoverished Afghans know exactly who's fueling those deadly aircraft. And you wonder why they hate us.

So, what are you getting for your $10 billion per month?

Go find an Escalade with an old McCain/Palin bumper sticker. Ask the coiffed suburbanite driver what she thinks.

"Why," will be her doe-eyed blinking response, "it's keeping us safe."

Now then, got Libya?

*  *  *

55 comments:

Anonymous said...

+1. "Nuf said.

Now I must be getting back to getting my citizenship papers in order just in case I get pulled over on the way to visit family and friends in Alabama.

Governor+signs+tough+immigration+bill

Bill said...

Agreed! Now. What is the Dem President and Dem Senate doing about this?

Anon: You mean like all of those legal residents of AZ that got pulled over? Not.

Harry Finch said...

Gosh, Bill, are you finally noticing it's a lot easier getting into a war than getting out?

Anonymous said...

@10:46:
...Nobody's been pulled over in Arizona, pending a stay of the legislation until the courts can rule it discriminatory, overly broad, and hence unconstitutional.
...The military are scheduled, per plans announced prior to the execution of bin Laden, to begin a drawdown, beginning this month or next.
...As far as the Karzai regime, he is a legacy from the last guy. Tough problem to solve now, no one envies the decision makers on this.
Mike R

Anonymous said...

Failed to provide attribution for +1 post, sorry.

RJ

Bill said...

Harry: I'm noticing that we don't have a plan, a goal, a Commander in Chief that has a clue. Not a good combination and bad for morale.

RJ: You should have left that attribution missing.

Harry Finch said...

Well, Bill, I guess that makes the current Commander-in-Chief as competent as his predecessor.

Anonymous said...

Bill@ 2:30-
...Boy, for once I really agree with you-all these operations were executed with a plan and a purpose under the previous administration. Everything was just hunky-dory, they went into Afghanistan and got bin Laden in December '01 when he was trapped at Tora Bora. Then they wisely shifted gears and transferred their resources to Iraq, where the weapons of mass destruction were quickly rounded up for all the world to see. Due to the experience and skill of the previous administration's leadership, there was no sectarian violence in Iraq leading to a virtual civil war with our personnel in the middle. There was no graft and corruption in the administration of the occupation, and millions of dollars weren't simply passed out to whomever backed up with a truck. Hard to believe that the current administration could inherit such an ideal set of circumstances and not have everything wrapped up by now into a neat tidy package, complete with a flight suit and a banner...
...Yeesh...how did we ever survive before or after the previous administration...just 'American Exceptionalism', I guess...
Mike R

Anonymous said...

Harry @ 3:07...
...time travel has been accomplished...@2:30's deLorean has crash landed in 2005...too bad we can't re-wind the deficit until then too, so that those of us under 54 don't have to include 'organ farming' along with 'winning the lottery' and 'getting struck by lightning next to a celebrity' as retirement plans...
Mike R...

Anonymous said...

'silencio, Guillermo?'
Unsurprising...
...google "ad hominem"

Mike R

Harry Finch said...

Mike - Don't you realize that if not for that short-sighted 22nd Amendment, George Bush would still be president, and today both Iraq would be models of transplanted Western democracy? Can't you see that even deeper tax cuts would produce such national wealth that only lazy people would fail to be millionaires? And that even for the lazy folks there'd be plenty of Walmart Greeter jobs once they turned 65, that they could keep until they dropped dead? I am shocked - shocked! - at your failure to recognize that we'd be only inches away from Ayn Rand's utopia.

Harry Finch said...

Meant to say both Iraq and Afghanistan

Erin O'Brien said...

Y'all don't need a mediator and I won't play that role, but I did have to drop in with the obligitory Ayn Rand was a shitbag hypocrite link.

Anonymous said...

Harry @ 7:25...I believe the "Rayburn Amendment" was the not the 22nd
but the 23rd...so-referred to due to the post-war, post FDR politics of the times...I may be wrong..
Mike R

Harry Finch said...

The nicest thing you can say about Ayn Rand is that she was a lunatic.

Bill said...

Mike R.: No me quedo en silencio.

I stand by my comment: No Plan. No Goal. No Commander in Chief. Ask the Corpse Man.

Did George have the perfect plan? No. An honorable goal? Yes. Was he a respected and competent Commander in Chief? Yes. Google it.

Anonymous said...

Did George have the perfect plan? No. An honorable goal? NO. Was he a respected and competent Commander in Chief? NO

Reality. It does a body good.

RJ

P.S. I missed the appearance of Ayn Rand in this here discussion but if there's ever any doubt about her value to conservatism go read Whitaker Chambers review not long after "Atlas Shrugged" was published. Or, in the alternative, just ask Alan Greenspan who entertained her at the White House but then as he left town with his tail between his legs stated "I was mistaken."

RJ

RJ

Bill said...

Alan Greenspan has made his share of mistakes. Not sure he's the best one to judge them.

Anonymous said...

Bill@9:20-
...you're willing to judge the C-in-C who got bin Laden as lacking due to a single typo?/mistatement?
...What else do you have besides "corpseman"?
...Keep in mind that the previous C-in-C gave up on catching bin Laden?
...That he spent his military career keeping the skies over Austin safe for philandering alcholic coke-heads?
...That his sole duty appearance while detached to the Alabama National Guard in 1972 was to get some dental work done-on the taxpayer's teat?
...that he went off flight rotation when the Air Force started drug testing?
...What else do you have? What is your association with serving military that leads you to claim that the present C-in-C is bad for morale?
...You got nothing factual..save the apocryphal...
Mike R

Anonymous said...

Ayn Rand-illegal alien-google it, I'm not making it up.

Troubling aspect about the Republican fringe's fascination with her work is that she was a NOVELIST..not a philosopher, not an economist...A NOVELIST...so, her economic philosophy really bears the same weight as, say, Jackie Susann...if Dr. Seuss had written "One Fish, Two Fish, My Fish, You Owe Me Three Fish, Payable in Gold"...it would hold the same adherance in supply-side, the-poor-are-poor-because-they-choose-poor economics...it makes just as much sense and is more easily understood...
Mike R

Anonymous said...

Hey Hostess,

I'm thinking this Mike R is moving into the running for most refreshing new community member or somethin.

As they say in AA Mike, "Keep coming back."

RJ

WV: unkfacc. Abbreviation for "unknown fact." Sarah Palin was again observed offering unkfacc's to her adoring followers.

Joe said...

How about we take that $10 billion a month and secure our borders, then Arizona, Alabama, Rhode Island, Indiana, Utah, etc. will not have to pass bills to do what the Federal Government (of many administrations) won't?

The 'Stan was and is a problem. The British could not tame it 150 years ago, the Soviets failed thirty years ago. We went in with no clear misssion and that policy holds true. Bush took us there with the Dem Congress approval. We are all to blame.

Think on this, the current administration spent the equivalent of 6.5 YEARS of Afghanistan War funds to keep unemplyment below 8 percent.

Yes, the two million thrown away on the nutrition plate was a pitance. But it was stil la waste of money. Money we had to BORROW.

Erin O'Brien said...

Hoose, your all-cap emphasis of BORROW above proves my point beautifully.

Go ask a Georgia farmer about the immigration law.

6.5 years? I truly don't get your meaning there. What connection are you making?

Thanks for dropping in.

Anonymous said...

How 'bout we take that 10 billion a month to pay attorneys fees to prosecute the cheap ass gravy sucking pigs who entice the migrant laborers to risk life and liberty to cross the border for cheap ass jobs that they're not willing to pay native labor minimum wage for. The rest can go to labor camps to house the swine. Teach 'em to grow strawberries. I like smoothies.

"Immigration Reform" = code for greed and bigotry.

RJ

Bill said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill said...

We have a President more interested in strengthening Ismlamic States than exporting democracy. Cut him off! Thank God, Egypt doesn't even want our money. May Allah bless them.

Anonymous said...

Ismlamic =corpseman.

You're fucked from here on out Bill.

RJ

Bill said...

He knows how to pronounce Islamic. Doesn't know how to pronouce Corpsman.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah. As soon as the new boys get there hands on Mubareks secret bank accounts they won't need U.S. money. They've already got it. Torture pays well.

RJ

P.S. I'm going back to reading "Make Me Pretty." Mike R. will be here soon enough to point out Bill has not one scintilla of evidence to support his claims about BHO or anything else. So much flatulence.

RJ

Anonymous said...

But you don't know how to type or spell Bill ergo you're obviously a communist muslim faggot. No true patriot lacks keyboarding skills especially if they attend a charter school. Gawd Bless America.

RJ

Erin O'Brien said...

Bill, I am being completely sincere when I say that this blog needs all the smart righties it can get. Why not stop with the barbs that are just meant to provoke and act like a smart rightie with smart solid arguments?

Erin O'Brien said...

RJ, obviously you are being facetious, but let's keep it polite, please.

Bill said...

Barbs? Like being called racist? Or, a "communist muslim faggot"? Erin. I don't have time to google other people's thoughts and pretend they're mine. Not that anyone here would do that. Please post the IQ score necessary to comment here. Fewer words sometimes make the point. It's your blog so I guess you know what it "needs", but some provocation seems to keep things lively. Thanks.

Bill said...

Not that there's anything wrong with being a communist muslim faggot!

Anonymous said...

I have not had benefit of the directional fur rubbing tutorial. Please post on You Tube and I shall conduct myself thusly.

RJ

Erin O'Brien said...

"some provocation seems to keep things lively"

And it also provokes, so don't be surprised when that happens.

Mike said...

Well said Erin....

Bill said...

I'm never surprised at anonymous vitriol from the left. I'm rarely offended. I do not complain to the hostess of this fantastic blog.

Anonymous said...

Joe @ 7:54am...there is already legislation on the books to prevent the employment of illegal immigrants. Every employer who knowingly fills out a fraudulent form I-9 is commiting a crime, and there is money in it or they would stop doing it.
...Bill @ 9:20-you ARE aware that the President kept Defense Secretary Gates on from the previous administration, right? You knew that? No, really, you knew that...and what was the honorable goal vis-a-vis Iraq?
...Bill @ 10:02-to what are you referring when you make the claim that the President is "interested in strengthening Islamic states"? Would that include, for instance, India? There are more Muslims in India than there are in Pakistan. How about Indonesia? Largest Muslim population in the world, and a staunch ally in the "War On Terror". And how does one "export democracy"? Would that include US participation in the military coup in Chile in 1973? About which then-secretary of state Henry Kissinger remarked that 'we shouldn't let a nation go communist due to the irresponsability of its own people'?
Mike R

Bill said...

Muslim population does not equal Islamic State. But then you probably know that.

The President calls the shots, not the Sec of Defense. But then you probably know that.

Anonymous said...

Bill @ 4:07
,,,That's all? The interwebs equivalent of "I know you are but what am I"?
Mike R

Bill said...

Mike R: Are you actually saying that India is an Islamic State? You figure out what time you said that.

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

I'm going to add one thing to this discussion, and, as I've previously said elsewhere, I'm not going to comment on anything political here. Anyone wishing to discuss that kind of stuff can reach me off line.

It was a point of contention above between two individuals as to whether Obama is respected as Commander-in-Chief by the military. I can say without reservation that he is, as was every other Commander-in-Chief before him. The office is respected, even if individual service members do not like the guy.

Respect for the office of the President is a given. Respect for the man, however, is earned or lost, regardless of how high up an individual is in our government, dependent on their actions/inactions.

Al
TRAG

Bill said...

Pretty tough walking that "I won't comment on political stuff" line. Isn't it Al?

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

@ Bill: No, not really. Gives me a lot of time for other things. Like watching LeQuit lose. Guess that whole "taking my talents to South Beach" thing isn't working out.

Bill said...

Didn't you love his post game interview? "The poor slobs who worship me will return to their miserable lives, tomorrow, and I'll continue to be a very rich, super star basketball player and continue to enjoy my money and do whatever I want. I have no problems". How much do those tickets cost, again?

Anonymous said...

Woke up this morning and thought "Ya know, Al's right."

With apologies to Lowell George I'm headed to the sidelines too.

Apolitical Blues
Lowell George
(Little Feat-"Sailing Shoes" 1972)

"Well my telephone was ringing
And they told me it was Chairman Mao
Well my telephone was ringing
And they told me it was Chairman Mao
You can tell him anything
'Cause I just don't wanna talk to him now

I've got the apolitical blues
And that's the meanest blues of all
Apolitical blues
And that's the meanest blues of all
I don't care if it's John Wayne
I just don't wanna talk to him now"

Peace.

RJ

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

Sign that the apocalypse is near: RJ stating that I'm right! ;-) Before you know it, cats and dogs will start living together ....

Al
TRAG

Erin O'Brien said...

In Vermont?

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

They've been doing that for years up there from what I understand .... amongst other things.

Al
TRAG

Bill said...

Great! Now, if MSNBC will just go to all Lock Up, all the time.

Harry Finch said...

Nothing but dog and cat love and love love love here in Vermont.

Anonymous said...

Erin-
...re the original point of the thread, reports today say that up to $6.6 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds cannot be accounted for.
Mike R

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

@ Harry: and maple syrup.

Al
TRAG

Bill said...

And, in other news: Madison - Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated Gov. Scott Walker's plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers.

Now let's see how those recall attempts go.