Should the war in Afghanistan be stopped immediately?

USA is fighting a losing battle in Afghanistan. USA should learn from Russia and withdraw all their soldiers from Afghanistan and bring them back home. If Russia could not win in Afghanistan so will USA not win in Afghanistan.

The cost of a gallon of gas/fuel delivered to USA units in Afghanistan has risen to $800. Eighty percent of the supplies of the US-led forces in Afghanistan come up this long, difficult route. Along the way, the USA pays large bribes to Pakistani officials, local warlords, and to Taliban.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis208.html

USA debts has reached $60 Trillion to $200 Trillion. USA is bankrupt.

http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=10626

Killing each Taliban soldier costs $50 Million

Killing 20 Taliban costs $1 Billion / Killing all the Taliban would cost $1.7 Trillion.

The Pentagon will not tell the public what it costs to locate, target and kill a single Taliban soldier because the price-tag is so scandalously high that it makes the Taliban appear to be Super-Soldiers. As set out in this article, the estimated cost to kill each Taliban is as high as $100 million, with a conservative estimate being $50 million. A public discussion should be taking place in the United States regarding whether the Taliban have become too expensive an enemy to defeat.

Each month the Pentagon generates a ream of dubious statistics designed to create the illusion of progress in Afghanistan. In response this author decided to compile his own statistics. As the goal of any war is to kill the enemy, the idea was to calculate what it actually costs to kill just one of the enemy. The obstacles encountered in generating such a statistic are formidable. The problem is that the Pentagon continues to illegally classify all negative war news and embarrassing information. Regardless, some information has been collected from independent sources. Here is what we know in summary and round numbers:

1. Taliban Field Strength: 35,000 troops

2. Taliban Killed Per Year by Coalition forces: 2,000 (best available information)

3. Pentagon Direct Costs for Afghan War for 2010: $100 billion

4. Pentagon Indirect Costs for Afghan War for 2010: $100 billion

Using the fact that 2,000 Taliban are being killed each year and that the Pentagon spends $200 billion per year on the war in Afghanistan, one simply has to divide one number into the other. That calculation reveals that $100 million is being spent to kill each Taliban soldier. In order to be conservative, the author decided to double the number of Taliban being killed each year by U.S. and NATO forces (although the likelihood of such being true is unlikely). This reduces the cost to kill each Taliban to $50 million, which is the title of this article. The final number is outrageously high regardless of how one calculates it.

To put this information another way, using the conservative estimate of $50 million to kill each Taliban:

It costs the American taxpayers $1 billion to kill 20 Taliban

As the U.S. military estimates there to be 35,000 hard-core Taliban and assuming that no reinforcements and replacements will arrive from Pakistan and Iran:

Just killing the existing Taliban would cost $1.75 Trillion

The reason for these exorbitant costs is that United States has the world’s most mechanized, computerized, weaponized and synchronized military, not to mention the most pampered (at least at Forward Operating Bases). An estimated 150,000 civilian contractors support, protect, feed and cater to the American personnel in Afghanistan, which is an astonishing number. The Americans enjoy such perks and distinctions in part because no other country is willing to pay (waste) so much money on their military.

The ponderous American war machine is a logistics nightmare and a maintenance train wreck. It is also part-myth. This author served at a senior level within the U.S. Air Force. Air Force “smart” bombs are no way near as consistently accurate as the Pentagon boasts; Army mortars remain inaccurate; even standard American field rifles are frequently outmatched by Taliban weapons, which have a longer range. The American public would pale if it actually learned the full story about the poor quality of the weapons and equipment that are being purchased with its tax dollars. The Taliban’s best ally within the United States may be the Pentagon, whose contempt for fiscal responsibility and accountability may force a premature U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as the Americans cannot continue to fund these Pentagon excesses.

If President Obama refuses to drastically reform the Pentagon’s inefficient way of making war, he may conclude that the Taliban is simply too expensive an enemy to fight. He would then have little choice but to abandon the Afghan people to the Taliban’s “Super-Soldiers.” That would be an intolerable disgrace.
The problem is not simply within the Pentagon.

The hapless U.S. State Department is equally to blame. It:

1. Continues to sit on the sidelines of this war;

2. Refused for nine years to deploy an adequate number of civilian experts;

3. Continues to hire abusive and disreputable security contractors;

4. Failed to fight for the needs of Afghan civilians; and

5. Has made little effort to win their hearts and minds.

A crucial statistic that demonstrates this is to compare military and security expenditures by the United States in Afghanistan with expenditures for civilian aid, such as reconstruction. That statistic is as follows:

Money spent on Military/Security: $365 billion Money spent on Afghan civilians: $8.5 billion

This latter number spells out “FAILURE.” U.S. diplomats and USAID officials have failed to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and as a result they have accomplished the impossible. Their lack of resolve and interest has made an increasing number of disillusioned Afghans view Taliban rule as potentially an improvement.

bring all our boys home waste of time money and lives.

[link to kabulpress.org]

 

What? And give up all that money and power we have via control of the poppy trade? Are you nuts?

 

Do you also advocate just forgetting about Osama Bin Laden?

 

Yes, Osama bin laden has won this time. Forget Osama. Just as Russia forgot Afghanistan when they could not win after 9 years.

Osama bin laden will die his natural death. I think Osama will not survive for long. His health is not good. We will hear Osama's death news any day now. God must have decided Osama's time of death.

 

Like it or not we are there engaged in an undeclared war.

Stop half assing it.

Take over the country, claim all rights to their mineral wealth and oil reserves until our war investment is paid off with a handome profit.

Really tired of using our military superiority to blow shit up and then burden our tax payers to rebuild their country. Remain engaged and tax them until we profit.

Put a puppet govt in place and make sure all deals are one sided in our favor.

 

Yikes.

1. You have no idea how Osama Bin Laden's health is.

2. Even if Osama Bin Laden was in poor health, you have no idea when he will die, much less be able to narrow it down to "any day now".

3. There is no god that decides when people will die.

4. Allowing Osama Bin Laden to die of natural causes is equivalent to allowing him to get away with the murder of thousands of innocent civilians. It is disturbing that you are OK with this.

 

What happened to him anyway? No one has seen him since 911. No recordings since Bush. I thought Bush said he would track him down. Broken promises. He must be a phantom then.

 

Afghan people are primitive/tribal people. Their economy is all about sheeps and goats. How will you tax primitive/tribal people?

How will you earn profit from stone age Afghan people?

 

If God does not determine life and death then who determines life and death.

If Osama bin laden is alive for 10 years there must be good reason for it from God.

 

a special "thanks" to George AND all those "geniuses" that are responsible for his ascension into power that made all this possible..congratulations