We are now committed to 100,000 troops at a estimated cost of $1 Million per year per soldier. $100 Billion per year for at least the next 2 years. Lets just call it $200 Billion: or a cost of $666 + interest to be paid by each of the 300 Million US Citizens. Afghanistan Stats: Est. Population 30 Million of which 20 million live on less than $2 per day. 40% unemployment... The entire Afghanistan government budget is $500 Million and they only have $500M in foreign exchange reserves. GDP is $11 Billion. Drug trade is their claim to fame and undocumented bling. In effect we are going to spend $200 Billion on a $1 Billion corrupt government. $6666 per Afghani citizen... 10x their annual pay. What is our motivation? Nuclear threat? Terrorism? This is all BS to protect the investments and profits of certain corporations. There is no benefit for US or Afghani citizens... The Afghani economy began to improve around 2002 due to the infusion of multi-billion US investments. In 2006, two U.S. companies, Black & Veatch and the Louis Berger Group, have won a US 1.4 billion dollar contract to rebuild roads, power lines and water supply systems of Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Geological Survey and the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Industry, Afghanistan possesses 36 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 3.6 billion barrels of petroleum and 1,325 million barrels of natural gas liquids. The country has huge amounts of gold, copper, coal, iron ore and other minerals. The government of Afghanistan is in the process of extracting and exporting its copper reserves, which will be earning $1.2 billion US dollars in royalties and taxes every year for the next 30 years. It will also provide permanent labor to 3,000 of its citizens. Smells like some corporation is reneging on these royalty deals and our military is being used to break and reform these contracts.