You will find more statistics at Statista
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16 years since the Bush administration launched its military intervention in Afghanistan, President Trump has announced his intention to increase the U.S. military presence in the country. There are approximately 8,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan and reinforcements could start arriving within days. Trump’s new strategy is set to extend the longest war in U.S. history and add even further to its already staggering cost.
Website “The Balance” has been keeping track of Afghanistan’s economic impact and the conflict has now cost the U.S. at least $1.07 trillion since 2001. That can be divided into three segments. $773 billion can be attributed to Overseas Contingency Operations funds specifically dedicated to the war. $243 billion comes from increases in the base budget of the Department of Defense while the increase in the Veterans Administration budget cost $54.2 billion
Financing Afghanistan reached its zenith in 2010 amid Obama’s surge when costs topped $112 billion. That gradually dropped as U.S. troops shifted their focus away from offensive operations to concentrate more on training Afghan forces. Earlier this week, General John Nicholson, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, said that the president’s strategy is a sign of long-term commitment to Afghanistan and called on the Taliban to agree to peace talks. Even though Trump has said that his decision to boost troop levels isn’t “a blank check”, it is still difficult to see how his Afghanistan strategy is any different from his predecessors.
Obviously some very talented, hard working, smart people with good cultural values are making a handsome profit out of this. Good for them.
Also obviously… they aren’t saying out loud what they are actually over there for.
Then I’ll say it – OPIUM/HEROIN. The real reason the media is not allowed to see the coffins that return from the war is because they are actually full of heroin for US distribution. The other shipments leaving the US military bases in Afghanistan are filled with the same product. Of course “freedom,” “fighting terrorism,”” freeing the Afghan people,” “getting Osama bin Laden (who died in 2001),” or any other pablum the sheeply happily consumed was the real reason. That’s not why we fight (if it ever was).
The heroin makes a profit, and kills people.
The elites/our betters just love that 2fer.
There is wealth (reportedly) under the rocks…
and likely quietly being mined.
Further, being in the areas of contention and conflict, give the military more opportunity to
spend moar $$$$$.
Isn’t it obvious why the deep state real owners of America keep committing our young people and their honor and patriotic heart felt duty to these frivolous fools errands around the world or am I dead wrong ?
Drugs , we spent $6.5 billon with a B TO ERADICATE POPPIE FIELDS IN AFGANISTAN in 2016 . HERION production is up 20% and we have an epidemic of HERION over doses and increased addiction rates .
We have allowed bankers , lenders , the investor class , congress and senate , the judical branch and executive branch of government to collude to undermine americas industrial mite and weaken the majority of average Americans financially and morally as they all profit from our debt . As our young people become indentured servants to service the debt for their higher education as they fall for training and educating themselves for jobs that don’t exist . And guess who the previously mentioned groups got to act as the collection agency for this mess , THE I R S ! Oh ya this will end well !
No doubt this is just what is openly documented. No doubt the total is at least twice that if not 3 times it. I mean, how much is a Bill of Rights worth, or the writ of Habeus Corpus, or the Constitution, or the rule of law, or freedom, or liberty, or the future of America?
Simple answer legalize drugs, all drugs, treat them like cigarettes and booze, legally sell them and tax the hell out of them. Probably will never happen because too many will lose money from crooked cops in the “war on drugs” on up as mentioned above. Prohibition never works, people want it more, and there are too many who are eager to supply it to them.
Why does freedom require the government to “tax the hell out of them?” All drugs were legal once in this country. Why should it be otherwise. Unless you have the right and freedom to do with your body as you wish (so long as you hurt no one or their property), you are nothing more than a SLAVE to the government and ultimately their property. By demanding excessive taxation of drugs as the price for restored freedom, you are saying that the slave should be required to pay his master forever for the privilege of being free. You are on the right track with your support of freedom, but realize that government is the opposite of freedom, and taxation is simply the means to fund bigger and bigger government at the expense of freedom.
Poppies sure are expensive. Why am I not surprised that even after all these years (soon to be decades), no one even bothers to talk about the real reason we are there. It is just one of the many things that simply doesnt get discussed.
War is really good for the economy. Working in the finance industry or the MIC is great. Just make sure that you don’t where the shooting is.
4,800 tons of opium annual production Afghanistan
4,800 X 907 = 4,353,600 Kg of opium
4,353,600 X 100 = 435,360,000 grams of heroin
435,360,000 x $ 172 = $ 74,011,200,000
Math error? One kilogram is 1000 grams, not 100 grams. And I’m not sure you get 1 gram of heroin for 1 gram of opium, but heroin is also significantly “cut” with other compounds to yield what is sold on the street. I think the final number is likely a LOT higher. But then you need to factor in all the payoffs, the cost of security, the cost of transport, etc.. …..OH WAIT. I forgot. The American taxpayer is picking up the tab for all of those costs because all of that is being handled by the US MILITARY. How lucky for the CIA that they can “socialize” the costs of production and distribution while “privatizing” the profits internally. Must be nice to be hooked up with an empire like the Amerikan one.