-
It's that time of year again - our ISP is asking for money. If you have some spare change, please click the Donate link... Thanks!
- About Us
- Search
- Need Help?
- Donate
- Login/Register
Latest Entries
Actions Menu
Blog Roll
- 4F Facebook Page
- Turn Up The Night with Kenny Pick
- Stephanie Miller Show
- The Tim Corrimal Show
- The Rachel Maddow Show
- Angry Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
- Thom Hartmann Program
- Turnips! Fans of Turn Up the Night Facebook Page
- Snopes.com
- Factcheck.org
- Official White House Page, if you must.
- The Brad Blog / Green News Report
- The Poorly Written Political Blog (Joe Santorsa)
The final accounting
Author: TriSec
Date: 08/17/2021 11:25:56
This actually happened yesterday.
There are multiple videos at the link; click at your own discretion.
We can sit here and debate all the foibles and failures of the last twenty years; historians, pundits, and candidates are likely to do so for decades to come.
My conclusion on this was summed up in a series of tweets over the last few days. In general, it appears that despite at least ten years of nation-building (counting from when we "won" the war by killing Osama bin Laden), Afghans as a whole don't want what we built.
At least the South Vietnamese put up a credible fight as their nation collapsed.
Afghanistan slipped under the waves with nary a ripple.
What is that last cost to America? The BBC has put together a significant analysis, complete with charts and graphs. In the end, their conclusion is actually inconclusive - parts of what we spent have not been accounted for.
In the end, the greatest cost to the United States and our Allies is always the cost in blood. While not nearly as costly as other wars we've fought, the families of the dead will always remain devastated by these losses.
Afghanistan
Country Total
Albania 1
Australia 41
Belgium 1
Canada 158
Croatian 1
Czech Republic 14
Denmark 43
Estonia 9
Finland 2
France 86
Georgia 29
Germany 54
Hungary 7
Italy 48
Jordan 2
Latvia 3
Lithuania 1
NATO 18
Netherlands 25
New Zealand 11
Norway 10
Poland 40
Portugal 2
Romania 25
Slovakia 3
South Korea 1
Spain 34
Sweden 5
Turkey 14
United Kingdom 455
United States 2452
Unknown 1
Total 3596
Three young men have reportedly fallen mid-air from a plane leaving Kabul after allegedly losing grip of the exterior of the aircraft, alarming footage appears to show.
In a video uploaded by the Afghan Asvaka News agency and seemingly taken from the ground, two unidentifiable objects can be seen falling from the body of a plane as it flies overhead.
"The video shows a flight from Kabul airport where two people are thrown from a plane into the people's homes," the agency said alongside the 11-second clip which has since garnered more than one million views.
The Afghan men were hanging to the tires of a C-17 U.S. military aircraft, the publication reported.
There are multiple videos at the link; click at your own discretion.
We can sit here and debate all the foibles and failures of the last twenty years; historians, pundits, and candidates are likely to do so for decades to come.
My conclusion on this was summed up in a series of tweets over the last few days. In general, it appears that despite at least ten years of nation-building (counting from when we "won" the war by killing Osama bin Laden), Afghans as a whole don't want what we built.
At least the South Vietnamese put up a credible fight as their nation collapsed.
Afghanistan slipped under the waves with nary a ripple.
What is that last cost to America? The BBC has put together a significant analysis, complete with charts and graphs. In the end, their conclusion is actually inconclusive - parts of what we spent have not been accounted for.
According to the US Department of Defense, the total military expenditure in Afghanistan (from October 2001 until September 2019) had reached $778bn.
In addition, the US state department - along with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government agencies - spent $44bn on reconstruction projects.
That brings the total cost - based on official data - to $822bn between 2001 and 2019, but it doesn't include any spending in Pakistan, which the US uses as a base for Afghan-related operations.
According to a Brown University study in 2019, which has looked at war spending in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US had spent around $978bn (their estimate also includes money allocated for the 2020 fiscal year).
The study notes that it is difficult to assess the overall cost because accounting methods vary between government departments, and they also change over time, leading to different overall estimates.
In the end, the greatest cost to the United States and our Allies is always the cost in blood. While not nearly as costly as other wars we've fought, the families of the dead will always remain devastated by these losses.
Afghanistan
Country Total
Albania 1
Australia 41
Belgium 1
Canada 158
Croatian 1
Czech Republic 14
Denmark 43
Estonia 9
Finland 2
France 86
Georgia 29
Germany 54
Hungary 7
Italy 48
Jordan 2
Latvia 3
Lithuania 1
NATO 18
Netherlands 25
New Zealand 11
Norway 10
Poland 40
Portugal 2
Romania 25
Slovakia 3
South Korea 1
Spain 34
Sweden 5
Turkey 14
United Kingdom 455
United States 2452
Unknown 1
Total 3596
