Okay. I have been gone a while due to my 'clearance level' B-S. Now that I am working for myself (and of course, the soldiers) I can say what I really think.
To wit-
How does one win a war that they cannot even admit is a war?
This 'operation' is being controlled by bureaucrats from the State department (which I think is the most corrupt and useless government agency since Tammany Hall).
I have been on the inside for a long time, having seen the processes for approval for anything. I keep trying to tell myself that somebody somewhere knows more than what I see, in order to keep my faith, but time and again it never materializes, and turns into the exact final logical conclusion.
If the US military has to get approval from all the other NATO nations for any type of mission, and you get one vote against, then explain how anything gets done.
Last year, I was up in the mountains at a certain small FOB (Forward Operating Base), and any mission had to get approval from another NATO military partner - even if we knew exactly where and what the Taliban was doing.
Well, most times, this other military would say yes to the operation and go through all the planning, then within the last 24 hours before launch, they would stand down; effectively losing the upper hand against the enemy and letting them live to fight another day. Not to mention the cost and aggravation of the men involved.
Sorry, I am going a bit off course on a tangent, but the story remains the same, whether it is State Department or NATO.
Let me be EXTEMELY clear; these enemies are not going to lay down arms, nor are they going to ever be our friends. Unfortunately, the State Department eggheads think if they play Santa Claus with enough of our taxpayer dollars, they will eventually turn against their hardcore believers and start liking us, the infidels.
What a laugh!
The only laughing I see is them with their hands out and all smiles and handshakes for the big shots (or big shits) from the Government. They take as much as the government is willing to give, and laugh all the way to the bank, then they share with the enemy; because if our soldiers keep dying, then they can act as if they are a needed asset, trying to help.
In other words, they play both sides of the fence. Too much for a State Department official to wrap their brainiac thought process around.
Here are some great facts:
1) Since we do not escort the convoys that carry our supplies (this was an attempt to do war on the cheap), we now pay a bribe to the warlords EVERY time the shipments go through. And then they take whatever they want while en-route. Try finding a vehicle that came to the base with the battery or any fluids still in it. Do you think the money does not go back to the enemy?? So in actuality, the war cost us much more, but it is a trick of accounting.
We spend upward of $8 thousand dollars to get fuel through Medullah Kahns' territory each time a convoy goes through. Add that up. It is in the hundreds of millions of dollars already. that is just one warlord. Fuel shipments are routinely 10% short. PX supplies can be found every Saturday at the Haji Bazaar (With the Bar Codes still on the packaging) - amazing. We allow theft under our noses and they sell it back to us in full view of the military.
What do you think would happen if their friends from the movie industry came by and saw that??
Yes, they are most definitely NOT laughing at us all the way to the bank.
2) We pay the Afghan government land lease fees for every base we have here.
Sure, you might think, "Well, it is their land.", but then you find out what they are charging for worthless desert.
A small base commands about $90k USD every month. (and we have over 200 bases around the country). Many bases are 10 times that amount.
Now strap yourselves in for the really funny part (I don't want any of you hurt by laughing so hard you fall out of your chairs)...,
They pay the Ministry of EDUCATION for all that land.
I repeat, The Ministry of Education.
Yes, my friends; they pay a department of a corrupt government that is the most non-existent in all of both the civilized and uncivilized world.
The country with the least amount of education seems to have every last piece of worthless land saved for the children of the future - whatever cool poster wording that falls into our beloved governmental bureaucratic minds.
More and more, I think our government is full of mentally challenged individuals. No..., stop, that is insulting to the truly challenged. These bureaucrats actually think they are smarter than the rest of us common sense types.
I know this from years of having to eat with and listen to them postulate about how they know what is best and how they had a great meeting with a tribal elder who they gave out millions of dollars to. WOW!!
Example: they routinely go into villages and valleys doing "Provincial Reconstruction efforts" - a cute name that is meaningless. Reconstruction means that we are rebuilding something we destroyed - which we are not.
It is a bribe scheme to get villagers on our side (which they will never be - they just want to be left alone and not pledge allegiance to either side).
So we promise them something useful, say, a well. A water well.
Well, as soon as one villager gets one on his property or near it, then the infighting starts and we have to give them another well, and another, and another, until everyone has a well to call their own, even though it all comes from the same water table, which cannot sustain 5, 6, 10 wells in the same mountain village. So all we are doing is appeasing their pride, but minimizing their individual well outputs.
Oh yes, I forgot, the individual wells are costing us about $1.1 to $1.5 million each.
All to produce the same amount of water that one sole well would produce.
Now, this is only wells; the same goes on for everything. We build schools that are never going to be used. We hire Afghan contractors to do construction and they have never done construction. Only to put millions of dollars into select privileged families pockets.
Every last time we give them a contract - I mean every last time, we have to tear it apart and redo the work.
Thank you taxpayers!
3) Did you know the US Military CONDONES fraud? Every saturday, we allow the Afghan local vendor into the base to sell their goods for about 3 hours. Well, if you have ever been to these bazaars, you would see every last movie and tv series bootlegged and sold for pennies.
Even Software. Primavera? $4000? Not here. $10 dollars.
All of the units are given funding to rent vehicles to get around the base. Typical passenger behicles like Toyota SUV's.
Well, most are stolen from America, and we do not even check the VIN's, but rent them from every last bogus company here doing business.
Let me repeat - the US Military rents stolen vehicles from America from the contractors here on base, whether they are US, Turkish, or Afghan.
Now, the vehicles they rent that are not stolen; well those are in a seperate class all by themselves.
Let's say you are a retired US Colonel who happens to know the system and the people awarding the contracts.
Outstanding! You can win a contract you had no business in and overcharge the government all you want, due to your friend writing the contract up specifically to your tastes.
Currently, Dyncorp, a defense contractor, is leasing vehicles (Toyota Hilux Pick-up trucks) for $3,600 a month.
Yes, $3,600 a month. For a vehicle they can buy for about $25,000.
And they will lease them for 2-3 years, thus paying about 3x the value on each vehicle.
I know a contractor who offered the same EXACT vehicle with maintenance contract for about $2,700 a month, and they were refused. It pays to be a retired military.
They are not even supposed to be in positions to get contract due to their past, but who cares?? Nobody checks.
Heaven forbid we send a retired U.S. Colonel and all his cronies to jail.
This is the first in many installments of my viewpoint and darker truths.
Can you handle it?
