The 2,500 American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan began to withdraw from May 1. Biden called for an end to this “unending war” in Afghanistan. He said that a rapid withdrawal of troops is necessary. Now that there are terrorist threats in many places, there is no reason to spend billions of dollars every year to station US troops in a country.
According to the estimates of the “War Cost Project”, the US’s huge expenditures in the 20-year war in Afghanistan include US$933 billion for overseas emergency operations by the Ministry of Defense; an additional US$443 billion in the basic war budget of the Ministry of Defense; and for taking care of Afghanistan. $296 billion from war veterans, and an additional $59 billion from the State Department. In addition, 530 billion U.S. dollars was used to pay interest on war debts over the past 20 years.
According to data from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the US government has spent more than 143 billion U.S. dollars on reconstruction work in Afghanistan, of which 88 billion U.S. dollars has been used to train and equip the Afghan security forces. .
As of Thursday (August 13), the Taliban have controlled 12 of the country’s 34 provincial capitals, including Herat, the third largest city, and Kandahar, the second largest city.
The United States and other countries have sent troops to help evacuate their respective embassies. The Pentagon stated that it has sent 3,000 American troops to Kabul to help evacuate American embassy personnel and other civilians.
According to a CNN report, Sharana, the capital of Paktika province in southern Afghanistan, was completely taken over by the Taliban at around 1:00 PM local time (4:30 AM EST). Sharan is the 18th capital city to fall into the hands of the Taliban in the past eight days.
On the issue of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Biden and his predecessor, President Donald Trump, have rarely reached agreement. Trump initially set May 2021 as the deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan; Biden extended this deadline to August 31, and the withdrawal began in May.
After the large forces withdrew, about 650 people remained in Afghanistan to protect diplomats and assist in the security of Kabul Airport. Earlier this week, when asked what he thought of the rapid advancement of the Taliban during the U.S. withdrawal, Biden said that he did not regret his decision to withdraw.
“Afghan leaders must unite.” Biden told reporters: “They must fight for themselves, for their country.”
According to a report from Reuters on Saturday, the Taliban have occupied an important town south of the Afghan capital, which is one of the gateways to Kabul.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that he is holding emergency meetings with local leaders and international partners to discuss how to deal with the current situation.
“I will work hard to prevent the current war from further killing innocent people, prevent them from losing 20 years of gains, and prevent public property from being destroyed.” Ghani said in a brief TV speech.
The real question is
How much of OUR money went in politicians pockets
And how much was wasted by the MIC?