Title: Ron Paul: Feds spend $400/gallon on gas in Afghanistan Source:
[None] URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62wSsXE7NXA Published:Jul 11, 2010 Author:Ron Paul Post Date:2010-07-11 21:15:42 by RidleyReport Keywords:None Views:322 Comments:37
This is an unofficial illustrated version of Ron Paul's upcoming July 12 broadcast on Afghanistan. And you thought a few $69 toilet seats were a big deal!
Six young Army men died in Afghan this past week. No one cared.
I care. All troops home now. Draft Chickenhawks. Make them pay a war tax to supply and rent whatever they think they need in order to do all by themselves what they want done.
Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to say what a lot of Americans already know – that our involvement in Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After nearly 10 years and approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all, if victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable.
With our economy at home in serious trouble, this wasteful occupation is something we clearly cannot afford. Each soldier costs us $1 million per year, and yet most in Washington are only considering how many more soldiers to send. Fuel costs an astonishing $400 per gallon for our military in Afghanistan! Yet somehow, many politicians feel it is acceptable to squeeze this money out of our taxpayers, who are truly struggling economically, to fund this non-war. Our economy here is not showing any real signs of improvement. Official unemployment is pushing 10% and getting worse. (Real unemployment is over 20%, according to the free-market economists.) The growing debt and inflation used to fund this occupation only dooms us to more economic hardship for a long time to come. And - for what?
Where the money for Afghanistan comes from is one problem – where it goes is another. Recently, it has come to light that much of the aid money we send to Afghanistan is lost due to corruption. Billions of tax dollars from hardworking Americans are ending up lining the pockets of corrupt Afghan officials, and likely even filtering into the Taliban we are ostensibly fighting. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that curiously enough, billions more than the Afghan government collects in revenue is leaving the country in the form of cash on huge pallets and in suitcases and mostly ending up in Dubai, as well-connected Afghan officials buy up luxury homes and enrich their personal off-shore bank accounts. Investigations into corruption and graft have been blocked by the Karzai government, probably because Karzai’s own brother would have to be implicated. It is encouraging that the foreign aid appropriations subcommittee has attempted to block billions in aid as a response to these allegations, but this is likely temporary and may not even succeed.
The point is that sending aid money to Afghanistan is not making poor people over there better off. It is making poor people here worse off. Corruption is endemic to Afghanistan, with graft comprising about one fourth of their economy! Even though it is considered the second most corrupt nation in the world according to Transparency International, we still send the Afghan government billions of dollars in aid and are shocked to find it is not making its way out of the sticky fingers of the officials entrusted with it.
Robbing citizens here to fund corruption over there is not helping average citizens anywhere. We are sacrificing real economic opportunities at home for the opportunity to line corrupt pockets in Afghanistan. Not only that, but American soldiers are being killed and maimed. It is tragic and frustrating how much we have lost and wasted already. It is time to leave Afghanistan to the Afghans to sort out. I am glad more Americans are finally willing to face this reality.
Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to say what a lot of Americans already know – that our involvement in Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After nearly 10 years and approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all, if victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable.
We won't pull out of Afghanistan until the Trans- Afghanistan Pipeline is completed, operational, and secure.
9/11 was just a ruse where one of the primary goals was the acquisition of Afghanistan for that pipeline. The formation of the growing police state and perpetual "war on terror" were other "benefits" of those attacks.
Those who pull the strings will not simply give up because the American People are sick of the war, they'll find some other reason why we "need" to stay there until they're good and ready to pull out, if that day ever comes.
Those who pull the strings will not simply give up because the American People are sick of the war, they'll find some other reason why we "need" to stay there until they're good and ready to pull out, if that day ever comes.
bingo. war is the health of the state. the only thing that could end it is for all troops to say no. they couldn't prosecute their wars without bodies to do it. a mutiny or huge revolt against the PTB is what is needed.
The individual, regardless of how he got there, is expendable, totally valueless.
This past June set a record for military suicides. Even their deaths is of no interest or concern to the general populace. They volunteered, no fault but their own. That is not a callus view, rather a view arrived at without full knowledge and experience of what makes this country run. For instance, no volunteers, immediate draft of those that so detest...the volunteers.
#31. To: Cynicom, RidleyReport, Lod, IRTorqued, FormerLurker, Turtle, James Deffenbach, Rotara, christine, SonOfLiberty, Disgusted, All (#29)
They volunteered, no fault but their own. That is not a callus view, rather a view arrived at without full knowledge and experience of what makes this country run. For instance, no volunteers, immediate draft of those that so detest...the volunteers.
Yes, and no volunteers means invadable by all who covet our resources. America must have a Military always. They take orders from civilians who have done nothing but keep the wars going. It's not supposed to be the Military's job to pick and choose whether they want to take political matters into their own hands. All the people complaining about the Military not going AWOL and Deserting would likely be denouncing them for a coup if they stopped taking their orders from D.C. It might make people feel better to imagine that's what they should do but imagine if they did that everytime they got in a bad mood and decided to takeover the government. Who knows which way the political winds would be blowing on any given day? Would just depend on who had the biggest arsenal there at their disposal. It is not a President's job to hold peace hostage or to end war. It is Congress's job to end the war and it is the people's job to pressure them to do that. No sense in tossing that responsibility onto the Military like a hot potato so civilians can try to exonerate themselves of it and feel gooder by blaming them.
Here is a post that shows our war policy is being dictated by the G8 and such:
McChrystal's grim self-assessment emerged just after the G8 summit in Toronto set Afghan President Hamid Karzai's a five-year deadline to improve the security and governance in Afghanistan, calling for "concrete progress."
Here is a comment that I submitted in response which PRESSTV refuses to print:
What?? 5 more years? -- says the G8? Americans are being told we musn't plan on a deadline to leave next year after nearly a decade of war there because that would embolden insurgents but the G8 can encourage Karzai's corrupt government to drag its feet for half a decade more before it cleans up its act because the G8 is determining war policy for us now and how much longer we'll be there providing security for him and his cabal? If I misunderstood the G8's directive, somebody please say so.
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And, lo and behold, close to 5 more years (2014) is exactly what Britain and NATO have been announcing since the G8 summit "proclamation" above.