[tomder55]

The final tally is not in yet. But here are some numbers of money spent in Afghanistan

$82.9 Billion to train and equip the Afghan Army .
$8.9 billion anti-narcotics
$1.5 billion on that Taj Mahal we call the US Embassy in Kabul
Love this one .... over $800 million (and maybe billions since 2001) to encourage Taliban and other Islamist groups to respect women, including $27 million from USAID to “Promote: Women’s Rights Groups and Coalitions” and $6.7 million to prevent “Gender Based Violence.
$174 million for drones that went missing . The drones were meant to help the Afghan Army .But were never used . Then the Afghans lost track of them .
$145 billion for reconstruction efforts .
$105 million to an NGO to “assistance in building Afghanistan by developing enterprises.”
$94.8 million to create the American University in Kabul .
$89 million for Afghan elections.
You can't make this up ; $9.4 million to establish carpet export center
Kabul Carpet Export Center (KCEC) | U.S. Agency for International Development (usaid.gov)
$3.1 million to build a training center for female Afghan police officers

[jlisenbe]

Thankfully we only have a national debt of 30 tril so it's not like we really needed the money or anything.

[tomder55]

Taliban Seizes Billions in US-Supplied Weaponry (yahoo.com)

[tomder55]

Flashback July 8 2021 :

Q Mr. President, some Vietnamese veterans see echoes of their experience in this withdrawal in Afghanistan. Do you see any parallels between this withdrawal and what happened in Vietnam, with some people feeling —

THE PRESIDENT: None whatsoever. Zero. What you had is — you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy — six, if I’m not mistaken.

The Taliban is not the south — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.

Remarks by President Biden on the Drawdown of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan | The White House

WRONG !
Now we have William Burns, the head of the CIA, stating he is "very proud "of the analysis the CIA gave to our political leaders.

“As the president has said publicly, none of us anticipated that the Afghan government was going to flee as quickly as it did, that the Afghan military was going to collapse as fast as it did,” “Having said that, I think CIA at least was always on the more pessimistic end of the spectrum in terms of highlighting, you know, over the course of the spring and the summer, the obvious ways in which the Taliban were advancing rapidly and how this was hollowing out in many ways, not just the political leadership but also the military.”

CIA director ‘proud’ of Afghanistan analysis despite disastrous Taliban takeover | Washington Examiner

Oh ,I get it the CIA was less wrong than other parts of the government .That is the new standard of excellence and performance evaluation. At a minimum ,mistakes need to be admitted and learned from. It doesn't appear that will happen.

[tomder55]

update The US recently sent a package of sophisticated long range rocket launching systems to Ukraine to the tune of $270 million . This is the M142 HIMARS multiple launch rocket system (MLRS).. Each rocket costs about $100,000 and much more when the costs of the launcher and logistics are added into the total cost of a launch . The weapon system is described as a "full-spectrum, combat-proven, all-weather, 24/7, lethal and responsive, wheeled precision strike weapons system." byThe U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center .It was sent to Ukraine despite the fact that Clueless had said that long range systems would not be included in our support of Ukraine

July 24 Russia hit a storage depot destroying more than 100 of the missiles .

Russia Destroys More Than 100 HIMARS Missiles: Defense Ministry (msn.com)

Russia also has claimed to have destroyed four of launch platforms, including one support vehicle, between July 5 and July 20.....a claim General Mark Miley denies .

Since the delivery of the system Russia has said that the west sending longer range system justifies them expanding their war aims in Ukraine beyond the Donbas .

[tomder55]

The US is replacing the 100 HIMAR Rockets that the Russians destroyed .
as part of a $550 million 'KACHING !!

In addition Adam Kizinger (Rino ILL.) included a provision in the new Defense Authorization Bill that would provide $100 million to train Ukraine pilots to fly US combat jets . Woohoo !! Then we can start sending them the high end $$$$$ equipment.

So far since the latest version of the Ukraine -Russia war began February 24 ,we have given Ukraine $10 billion in weapons . Add $2 billion more in military aid since the conflict began in 2014 after the Maiden Revolution in Ukraine in 2013 that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. He had refused to sign an economic agreement with the EU .

Yanukovych was a corrupt leader at least as corrupt as Zelenskyy or the current occupant of the White House . He had been duly elected in what was regarded as a fair election .He was hated in west Ukraine but East Ukraine supported him.
His opting for a Russian economic offer was the tipping point. Angry demonstrators filled Kiev’s Independence Square, known as the Maidan.

The war party in the US went to work. John McCain travelled to Kiev and in the square stood in solidarity with opposition leader Oleg Tyagnibok.

The emperor put his war hawkstress ,Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs into motion.
She traveled to Ukraine three times in the weeks following the start of the demonstrations ;at one point handing out cookies to the demonstrators . The US was unambiguously supporting the anti-government factions .
Nuland had phone calls with opposition leaders discussing who would serve in a post Yanukovych government . The Russians intercepted that call.

Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call - BBC News

Nuland went so far as to suggest Quid Pro Joe as VP could travel there to give support to the demonstrators .

Talk about foreign interference in a country's political process !

2 years later all the conversation was about alleged Russian meddling in the American political process . All we did was assist in the ousting of a duly elected President of another nation.

Russia invaded in 2014 to seize Crimea that had historically been Russian since 1783 ;where a vital strategically important naval base was located .

[jlisenbe]

I imagine if our current crop of political leaders did the responsible thing and added a tax increase to pay for all of this foreign aid, then we would find out if the American people really support it or not.

[tomder55]

The head of Amnesty International Ukraine has resigned because a report by the organization that Ukraine forces are using civilians as human shields is being ignored .

UN report confirms Ukrainians’ use of civilians as “human shields” - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

Ally to the administration ,The Slimes Thomas Friedman writes;

Back in April it was reported that only 30-40 % of US supplied weapons were making it to the front lines .But CBS reports that number has improved .

The Ukraine war is not over. And privately, U.S. officials are a lot more concerned about Ukraine’s leadership than they are letting on.There is deep mistrust between the White House and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine — considerably more than has been reported. And there is funny business going on in Kyiv.On July 17, Zelensky fired his country’s prosecutor general and the leader of its domestic intelligence agency — the most significant shake-up in his government since the Russian invasion in February. It would be the equivalent of Biden firing Merrick Garland and Bill Burns on the same day. But I have still not seen any reporting that convincingly explains what that was all about. It is as if we don’t want to look too closely under the hood in Kyiv for fear of what corruption or antics we might see, when we have invested so much there. (More on the dangers of that another day.)

Opinion | Why Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan Is Utterly Reckless - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Ukraine's president fires spy chief and top state prosecutor | Reuters

The German Newspaper Die Welt is publishing a bio of Zelensky accusing him of 'corruption on an industrial scale " A film about his off shore accounts was banned in Ukraine at the end of last year.

"OFFSHORE 95" Secrets of the President Zelenskyy's business - YouTube

[tomder55]

sanctions are failing . Russia has never had more energy revenue than it has now . And winter is fast approaching . Russia has had some military set backs .But the net result of their meat grinder approach to warfare is that they make slow progress and Ukraine forces slowly retreat .

Soon Europe will face the choice of freeze or force a political status quo end to the war .

[jlisenbe]

A different slant on $$$$, but just as concerning. This enormous spending of money by the wealthy concerns me. In this case it's conservatives benefitting, but the money has been flowing on the liberal side in even larger amounts. Maybe it shouldn't, but it bothers me some. What do they expect for this money??

A conservative nonprofit poised to spend during the upcoming 2022 midterm elections and beyond received a record donation of $1.6 billion last year, Fox News has confirmed.
The group, The Marble Freedom Trust, is captained by Leonard Leo, a conservative strategist known for his leadership of the Federalist Society and work in causes related to abortion law and Supreme Court nominations.
The donation came from Barre Seid, an electronics manufacturing mogul.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new...llion-donation

[tomder55]

What we have here is ONE conservative organization that contributed almost as much as ONE of the teacher's unions . (AFT -NEA with donations from the dues of 1.7 million teachers in the organization )

The Federalist money comes from voluntary contribution . The AFT NEA compels members to pay dues as part of their employment contract .

[tomder55]

ok more .

The money came from Barre Seid of Trippe Lite ;a very successful electronics device manufacturer. He gave all his shares of the company to Marble Freedom Trust ;the 401c run by Leo of the Heritage Foundation . He later sold the company to an Irish conglomerate for $1.65 billion

The press is calling this "dark money " but it appears to me there is full disclosure here.

[jlisenbe]

I'm not questioning any of that. It just concerns me that these kinds of funds are thrown around. As a general rule, he who gives money expects something in return.

[tomder55]

of course that is so. As long as the donations are transparent then it is called a 1st amendment right . The alternative is worse . Do we really want the government in complete control ? You can have free speech with First Amendment protecting political speech and the use of resources (printing presses, the internet, money) to facilitate that speech or you can have the government dictating the terms .In a truly free society, people should be able to give whatever they want to whomever they choose, including candidates for public office.

[jlisenbe]

I agree that it's the better of two not very great choices. I just wonder if it is insuring that the rich and wealthy are given far more consideration. Maybe not. Just seems a little alarming to me.

[tomder55]

I am continuing to reserach this . I find it telling that the lefties blowing a gasket over this keep calling it dark money. The definition of dark money is funds raised for the purpose of influencing elections by nonprofit organizations that are not required to disclose the identities of their donors.. But the donor identity is clear in this case.

I find it disturbing but amusing that the Dems have defined the term and then decry it while the Dems have been the biggest benefactors of so called dark money .
The Dems out raised and out spent so called 'dark money ' in 2020 . But now because a conservative is involved they dust off their old 'Citizen's United ' belly aches . Bottom line ;either the 1st amendment matters or it doesn't . IMO even the disclosure compomise I support erodes the 1st amendment

Armed with donor lists, powerful politicians could shift the target of their attacks from group to the individual Americans who support them. The result would be a loss of donations to groups that speak out, a chilling of political speech.
Restrictions expands the Federal government's control of the political process and political speech .
Saying more $ is more power is a given like saying dogs bark . Restrictions don't change that reality . Once the Dems stopped howling about it and learned to live with it ,they adjusted accordingly .

Yes the alternative is much worse . There is no way I would accept the proposition that career swamp critters could dictate the term of how someone can use their influence in the political process. Might as well call it the incumbent security act .

[tomder55]

The war is 6 months old . Yesterday was Ukraine's independence day. Clueless celebrated it by pledging another $3 billion present.This is the single largest US aid package for Ukraine.

Thought you might like to know . Now go back to binge watching 'Stranger Things ' .

[tomder55]

Clueless is requesting that Congress authorize $$$$$ 13.7 billion more monopoly money in additional security and economic assistance for Ukraine.

White House asks Congress for $13.7B in Ukraine-related funding | The Hill

[tomder55]

[tomder55]

ka ching $$$$$$$



$12 billion more .




U.S. Congress negotiators set nearly $12 bln in new Ukraine aid -sources | Reuters