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This is a short excerpt from our longer documentary called “Rethink Afghanistan” that was released over ten years ago. It’s still relevant today because we are STILL in Afghanistan and there’s no end in sight to this wasteful war.
The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in our nation’s history. There’s no goal, no exit strategy and neither the Obama Administration or the Trump Administration has ended this wasteful and pointless war. Afghanistan has cost us countless lives and has wasted millions in taxpayer dollars. We must continue to demand an end to the war in Afghanistan.
Watch the full documentary, “Rethink Afghanistan” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Dgn…
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
I think what Americans need to know is
00:07
the total direct and indirect cost of
00:10
the of the concert so much waste so much
00:14
inefficiencies so much absurdity in what
00:17
we’re doing at the moment you ought to
00:18
recognize that these two wars qualify at
00:24
least as a contributing cause of the
00:28
economic calamity that we are trying to
00:31
deal with it your soulja lose their life
00:46
in Afghanistan
00:47
you give your blood in Afghanistan you
00:50
give your tax payer money in Afghanistan
00:53
for what it now costs about seven
00:59
hundred and seventy five thousand
01:00
dollars a year to put a soldier or
01:03
marine into the war in either Iraq or
01:06
Afghanistan that’s about three times as
01:09
expensive as any war the US has ever had
01:12
in today’s dollars the amount that we
01:15
spent per troop in World War two was
01:19
fifty thousand dollars and we’re
01:21
spending ten times that per troop in
01:23
Iraq we can expect that the per troop
01:27
cost in Afghanistan is higher than that
01:29
I would expect it will be between twenty
01:32
to fifty percent higher cost in upfront
01:34
cost per troop Afghanistan is very
01:37
difficult to supply and it becomes much
01:39
more expensive to ferry the stuff either
01:42
through Pakistan or to come in the other
01:45
way from Russia and through the caucus
01:49
states the whole situation in terms of
01:51
supply routes into Afghanistan is very
01:53
very different than it is in Iraq now in
01:56
Afghanistan you have a country which is
01:57
mostly rural which is mostly mountainous
01:59
which is not desert Afghanistan is
02:03
completely landlocked and so what we’ve
02:05
had to do is up until now we’ve been
02:08
sending the majority of the supplies for
02:10
example oil through
02:13
Pakistan we’re opening up this alternate
02:15
supply route that gets into Afghanistan
02:18
from the north that requires the
02:21
cooperation of Tajikistan and several of
02:26
the other stands on the northern border
02:29
of Afghanistan this is much longer and
02:31
torturous is going to be more expensive
02:33
logistics route so those costs are going
02:38
to go up in a manner not commensurate
02:41
with the numerical increase in troops
02:45
but above and beyond that right now the
02:48
United States through fiscal year 2009
02:51
will have committed and/or spent more
02:55
than 185 billion dollars on the US war
02:58
in Afghanistan I feel like we we haven’t
03:04
done the right thing on on our part you
03:07
know we spend so much money over here
03:08
but we don’t spend it the right way we
03:10
uh you know we have Hesco barriers
03:13
shipped in from the United States we’d
03:15
probably pay more in the shipping to get
03:17
that over here then we could pay local
03:18
people to build a wall around this base
03:20
we found dozens hundreds of examples of
03:26
war profiteering enormous cost overruns
03:30
of money on which the Pentagon using
03:34
Pentagon speaks says it has lost
03:36
visibility on money that simply could
03:39
not be tracked and accounted for these
03:41
enormous funds that did go out to
03:43
Afghanistan but they were given the
03:46
money was given to contractors who
03:47
subsequently subcontracted and
03:50
subcontracted and by the time you get to
03:52
how much money reaches the ground maybe
03:53
40 or 50 percent of that money actually
03:55
reached the ground for the projects
03:57
because all these subcontractors were
03:59
taking ten percent off as profit let me
04:02
give you an example the United States
04:04
recently spent 160 million dollars on
04:07
building roads and digging wells and
04:09
this sort of thing in in one province
04:10
here in Afghanistan but the way that
04:12
works is they’re giving their hundred
04:14
and sixty million dollars to a preferred
04:15
contractor who then goes and
04:16
subcontracts
04:17
out to a local Afghan company and the
04:20
Afghan company will maybe get 10% of
04:22
that
04:22
everything in between is pocketed by
04:25
that middle company so this is a massive
04:28
amount of waste for American taxpayers
04:30
but also there’s no oversight for the
04:31
projects that are actually being
04:32
constructed I’ve talked to construction
04:35
contractors that go and take who tasked
04:37
with the job of building a well for
04:39
example and they’ll go and take a
04:41
picture of some well out there that
04:42
they’ve already that has already been
04:44
built and show it to the Americans say
04:45
this is AB well that we’ve built I’ll
04:46
say ok thank you very much and here’s
04:47
your money there’s no oversight no
04:49
accountability and nothing whatsoever
04:51
those Wells like those hand pump Wells
04:53
you see everywhere how much you said
04:55
it’s like seven hundred two thousand
04:57
dollars to build well those we’ve been
04:59
paying like Tim grand per per well the
05:02
local Afghans from rural communities
05:06
when they come to Kabul and they see
05:08
these international consultants drive in
05:10
Toyota Land Cruisers who live behind Bob
05:13
Ryan blast walls who have you know
05:16
highly paid you know security guards
05:19
that are buying that have swimming pools
05:21
that are importing food from America you
05:24
know realizes and gets angry that the
05:27
money that was supposed to be for them
05:29
is actually going really to sustaining a
05:32
western lifestyle for foreign
05:33
consultants as opposed to providing them
05:36
with sanitation and wheat and you know
05:42
local education because since five five
05:49
seven years every report every
05:53
information that received Washington
05:56
from couple it’s wrong for example you
06:01
receive Washington received a lot of
06:03
information report about reconstruction
06:07
in Afghanistan there is not real
06:09
construction in Afghanistan
06:10
you can not give me an example of local
06:15
structure that the quality is good
06:22
in Afghanistan I’ve heard the statistics
06:26
cited that there are more private
06:28
security personnel Afghans working for
06:31
Western security companies then there
06:34
are enlisted personnel in the Afghan
06:37
National Army and even if that’s just an
06:41
approximation it’s a signal of a
06:43
structural flaw in the u.s. approach to
06:46
building up security in Afghanistan has
06:49
been much to a much emphasis on private
06:52
contractors companies contractors who
06:55
are employing their employees through
06:57
shell companies for example KBR has
07:00
employed many of the employees through
07:02
shell companies in the Cayman Islands
07:03
which means that the company and the
07:07
employees don’t have to pay Medicare and
07:09
Social Security insurance and so what
07:12
you have there is a situation where the
07:14
US government is giving money and form
07:16
of a contract to a company that is on
07:19
the other hand undermining the viability
07:21
of the Social Security Medicare system
07:23
KBR therefore gets an advantage in
07:26
bidding because it can undercut those
07:29
competitors who are paying insurance for
07:32
their employees so it is a double whammy
07:34
first you have to hold contractors
07:36
accountable that can be difficult to do
07:38
if they’re in the private sector and
07:39
their personnel are coming and going and
07:42
secondly there’s a problem of
07:45
essentially the strategy who what are
07:47
you really trying to build here are you
07:49
trying to build profits for corporations
07:50
that are domiciled outside the country
07:53
or are you building permanent national
07:56
institutions inside Afghanistan that can
07:59
gradually take control of the country
08:02
and reduce the need for for Western
08:05
partnership how much are you and every
08:11
American paying for the wars after
08:13
taking into account so-called hidden
08:15
costs like taking care of wounded
08:17
soldiers veterans when they come back
08:19
are entitled to health care for a number
08:23
of years that is free provided by the VA
08:25
there also if they have a disability
08:27
which a very large percentage of them do
08:29
are entitled to disability compensation
08:31
for the rest of their lives these things
08:34
are very significant
08:35
term costs and then there are also what
08:39
we call social costs in other words
08:41
these are costs that they are real and
08:43
somebody pays them but the government
08:45
doesn’t pay them for example if a
08:48
veteran comes home wounded and his
08:51
spouse or parent has to quit their job
08:54
to become a full-time caretaker and in
08:56
20% of cases this is what happens if
09:00
that happens I mean that person is
09:02
giving up an income you know that is a
09:04
loss to the economy and to the person
09:07
that is a social cost the indirect cost
09:10
for example having to deal with people
09:13
that are wounded people who are
09:15
suffering from post-traumatic stress
09:17
syndrome for people who will require
09:20
care from the Veterans Administration if
09:22
you continue on this current pace what
09:26
you’re talking about is a war that will
09:29
cost by the end of this decade close to
09:32
a trillion dollars when you count all of
09:34
the costs the Afghan government budget
09:41
salaries for government officials is
09:43
about 1.2 billion dollars a year when
09:45
you hire you know 150,000 police
09:47
officers which is you know what Obama
09:50
would like to see you have to pay that
09:52
salaries and the bulk of those salaries
09:54
today are paid by the US government so
09:56
you really have a problem in the sense
09:57
that Afghanistan is so desperately poor
09:59
and the fact that all the money for
10:01
local police officers to government
10:04
ministries such as the women’s
10:05
ministries come from outside it is
10:07
simply not sustainable
10:27
what we’ve shown the world is that the a
10:29
sole superpower without any opponent in
10:33
sight can spend I believe now we’re
10:38
approaching eight hundred billion
10:40
dollars long-term costs may be more in
10:44
the vicinity of three trillion dollars
10:46
that we can lose five thousand Americans
10:50
that we see another thirty thousand
10:53
injured and this tremendous expenditure
10:56
cannot stabilize two countries who
11:01
together comprise about 1% of the world
11:04
population you can’t fight a war and
11:09
finance it the way we have without it
11:12
having an impact on the economy common
11:14
expression these days doomsday budget we
11:16
basically took all this money out of the
11:18
US economy put it into spending which
11:22
had very which had no benefit at all for
11:26
the US economy and added all of this
11:28
debt so we weaken their economy well
11:31
millions of homeowners faced foreclosure
11:32
last year and many more still stand to
11:35
lose their homes the housing market
11:37
collapse created one financial crisis
11:39
after another and it often seems as if
11:41
the news could only get worse you can
11:42
make it an analogy I believe to the
11:44
housing bubble and the Wall Street
11:46
bubble and the the bank bubble in the
11:50
sense that there’s no adult supervision
11:55
that’s a lot of the fundamental problem
11:59
that got us into trouble on housing
12:02
banks and Wall Street congressional
12:04
aides say President Barack Obama is now
12:06
seeking eighty three point four billion
12:08
dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and
12:11
Afghanistan into the fall more than one
12:14
hundred and eighty five billion dollars
12:15
seven hundred and seventy five thousand
12:17
dollars a year to put a soldier or
12:20
marine into the war close to a trillion
12:22
dollars when you count all of the costs
12:25
so perhaps we can look at the cost of
12:27
the US war in Afghanistan around the
12:30
country I will start in the South in
12:32
Alabama that state will pay through
12:35
fiscal year 2009 1 billion
12:39
695 million dollars for the US war in
12:43
Afghanistan all of these people in
12:46
Alabama plus 200,000 more could have
12:49
full health care coverage for one year
12:51
for what Alabama will pay for the US war
12:54
in Afghanistan in New York it will pay
12:57
through fiscal year 2009 nearly 17
13:01
billion dollars for the u.s. war in
13:04
Afghanistan that’s equal roughly to
13:06
another figure nearly 2 million head
13:09
start places we can get to Arizona that
13:12
will pay 2.5 billion dollars for the US
13:16
war in Afghanistan 20% of Arizona
13:18
residents are not covered by health care
13:21
and half could be if these federal tax
13:25
dollars were allocated differently I
13:27
think the real key is going to be
13:30
letting the American people know the
13:32
full cost and the duration of the
13:34
conflict because if the American people
13:37
we are not willing to support this war
13:40
it cannot be waged and accomplished
13:44
successfully
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This post was previously published on YouTube and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
