And what, pray tell, might the debt ceiling hawks have to say about this?
A year-long military-led investigation has concluded that U.S. taxpayer money has been indirectly funneled to the Taliban under a $2.16 billion transportation contract that the United States has funded in part to promote Afghan businesses… all eight of the trucking firms involved in the work remain on U.S. payroll. In March, the Pentagon extended the contract for six months. WaPo
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
- A Pentagon purchasing program run by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is costing taxpayers an extra 20 percent… 2005
- An audit by the special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction revealed that $9 billion in UN oil-for-food reconstruction monies — funds administered by the US government for the Iraqi people via the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) — was unacccounted for. 2005
- How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq, and watched it vanish. 2007
- A Pentagon audit reveals that we have spent $8.2 billion in Iraq on “commercial and miscellaneous payments,” in other words, a giant petty cash fund. 2008
- Iraq hunting $17 billion missing after U.S. invasion. 2011
Dear President Obama: you were elected after promising to end these wars. We can’t afford them, in more ways than one.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com