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U.S. Spent Nearly $100 Billion On Foreigners To Fight Terrorists

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Authored by Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, originally posted at Vocativ.com,

To combat Islamic militants the White House says threaten national interests, the U.S. has spent nearly $100 billion to arm and train foreign militaries across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, an analysis by Vocativ shows. And nearly all of them are reeling from setbacks that threaten to undermine what’s become a core component of American foreign policy in these regions.

U.S. programs funding foreign fighters began flourishing in the years after 9/11 and were later bolstered by President Obama, who prefers doing this instead of deploying American troops into troubled areas. Now central to how the White House combats insurgencies in these regions, this strategy appears to be on the verge of unraveling. The Taliban toppled American-trained forces in Afghanistan last week to capture Kunduz, the country’s fifth-largest city. The fight to control it continues. U.S.-funded fighters in Iraq and Syria appear unable or unwilling to take on ISIS. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists are virtually unchallenged in places like Yemen, Somalia and northwest Africa. 

“Our track record at building security forces over the past 15 years is miserable,” said Karl W. Eikenberry, a former military commander and United States ambassador in Afghanistan, recently told the New York Times

Here’s a snapshot of that record...

 

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Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:04 | 6644947 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Very old news...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:07 | 6644969 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Yep, but it's a good reminder of our long history of expensive fuck-ups.....

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:21 | 6645048 boattrash
boattrash's picture

Exactly!

Next, they'll report that $90 billion have "fallen into the wrong hands".

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:53 | 6645250 ThirdWorldDude
ThirdWorldDude's picture

Would you be surprised if you found out that this is only the tab in their "official" book?`

I recall a DefSec who at a press conference in Sept. of 2001 swore he couldn't account for 2 trillion and a chump change that have just gone poof from the budget ...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:22 | 6645055 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

The CIA just ain't all it's cracked up to be by ZH.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:08 | 6644948 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

Please, the US spent many billions founding and funding ISIS in Syria and not just a paltry $500 million

ISIS: The jihadist movement stamped “Made in America”

For three years, the US, along with the Gulf states and Turkey, poured billions into “opposition” groups, supposedly to unnamed “moderates,” but in reality to Al Qaeda-linked Sunni groups such as al-Nusra and ISIS to spearhead a sectarian war. The US, Turkey and Jordan have operated a base in Jordan where US instructors trained dozens of ISIS members. In an article last year, the New York Times confirmed that the CIA assisted Arab governments and Turkey by airlifting weaponry to these groups in Jordan and Turkey. The Guardian reported last March that British and French instructors were also involved.

Other ISIS members were trained near Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey, where US forces are based. After completing their training, they went to Syria and later Iraq

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07/30/isis-j30.html

USA, Turkey and Israel Act As Air Force for ISIS

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/08/usa-turkey-and-israel-act-as-air-...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:04 | 6644950 tommylicious
tommylicious's picture

Shit for brainses motherfukkers.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:05 | 6644957 Jstanley011
Jstanley011's picture

U.S. foreign policy has become seriously demented since Bush I. Sociopathic, no doubt. Psychotic, really.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:06 | 6644960 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

How much of that is bribes, kickbacks, graft, and other forms of corruption?

$30 billion? $50 billion? $80 billion?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:38 | 6645159 Jstanley011
Jstanley011's picture

Same percentage of graft as the $2 billion ObamaDon'tCare website I imagine.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:08 | 6644976 general ambivalent
general ambivalent's picture

Sounds about what it would cost to set up various Islamist/CIA municipalities and an exodus from these territories.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:10 | 6644989 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

The Pentagon spends trillions of unallocated dollars a year and don't keep the records of it too so there's that.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:10 | 6644991 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

I want my money back. If $60 billion a year for Homeland Security can't keep America safe I want that money back too.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:10 | 6644993 Silverhog
Silverhog's picture

Shovel ready grave sites. 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:11 | 6644997 WTFRLY
WTFRLY's picture

White House still ignores murder of American reporter Serena Shim who filmed western aid to ISIS February 27, 2015

1 year anniversary of her death. October 19. 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:13 | 6645002 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

NP.

Put it on the tab.

Warning: I have no links to support this opinion.

None.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:11 | 6645004 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

What a freaky picture....turn this off, it's maddening....

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:12 | 6645013 wisebastard
wisebastard's picture

NO THEY DIDNT.............THEY SPENT $30 MILL AND GAVE THE REST TO THEIR BUDDIES ON WALL ST FOR SUCKING THEIR DICKS BECAUSE THEIR WIFES CANT DO IT GOOD ENOUGH FOR EM ............................DUH

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:26 | 6645021 Mike Masr
Mike Masr's picture

Our infrastructure is collapsing, veterans go without decent healthcare or housing, American kids living in poverty go without food, an army of homeless, mentally ill people walk the US streets like zombies and social security is going bankrupt while our stupid fucking bonehead leaders spend this kind of money on maggots. The money spent was about as usefull as flushing the cash down the goddam toilet.

And Putin in one week and for a minute fraction of the cost has done more to fight terrorism than any of our leaders spending a trillion dollars. This is fucking bullshit!!!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:15 | 6645024 SmittyinLA
SmittyinLA's picture

They don't issue 1099s for this shit do they?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:19 | 6645046 madashellron
madashellron's picture

Wrong title, it should read:

U.S. Spents  Billions On Foreign Terrorist, to fight President Assad and the Syrian Government. 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:22 | 6645052 coast
coast's picture

I quit talking abuot Jesus and the Bible in my posts over a month ago...maybe I should start again?   And believe me, I am not talking about religion and 501c3 sell out churches or fucking tv evangelists... And for the few who say that a 501c3 church is ok, I wont even debate you because you are too stupid to have a debate with.   Society and churches are from hell...any church with a 501c3 is from hell.... zerohedge is better than 95% of churches..alfred newman you are on a roll.....I miss kchirs where is he?  and I love honestann and want to marry her....ok then....

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:22 | 6645053 TAALR Swift
TAALR Swift's picture

TAALR Swift* (Pronounced 'Taylor Swift') is a foreigner.

His architect and programmers are receptive to receiving funds for further development. If interested to give Deep Blue a good run for its fiat, just respond.

* Did you get the double entendre? Who says that an AI can't have a sense of humor?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:27 | 6645086 silverer
silverer's picture

Nothing like getting a bang for the buck, eh?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:31 | 6645118 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

ZioUSSA Spends Billion to Create Terrorists than Trillions to Fight Them

Fixed it.

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:31 | 6645120 outlaw.guru
outlaw.guru's picture

They should have just given it to Putin to take care of the problem.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:31 | 6645121 farmboy
farmboy's picture

 I will train 5 shepard dogs armed with explosives for a measly 5 mln $. After receiving the money I release the dogs and will send the money to an animal asylum.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:43 | 6645195 Grandad Grumps
Grandad Grumps's picture

For 1/2 that I could accomplish just as much (nothing) without the body count.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:47 | 6645215 TxExPat
TxExPat's picture

Didn't we support/train/equip that Vietnamese dude Ho Chi Minh to fight our evil enemies the Japanese during the 1940's...  That didn't turn out so well either, (they turned their guns on the West once the Jananese were gone...).  You might think that there's a pattern here, and that We/US might have learned something by now...

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:58 | 6645273 Laddie
Laddie's picture

Another $3 Trillion, as of 2003, here.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 14:27 | 6645431 Seal
Seal's picture
The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 14:26 | 6645424 Seal
Seal's picture

we have armed everyone and bombed pretty much everyone. Everything the US touches in foreign policy turns to merde. our strategically inept military and CICs has failed to prevail in all 4 major conflicts since WW 2

Tue, 10/13/2015 - 12:17 | 6663096 Ace006
Ace006's picture

Vietnam was a military victory but a Democrat-engineered defeat. 

This is clear in Snepp's book Decent Interval.

NV was terrified that Nixon would resume bombing.  The price of our little Watergate extravaganza, however, was a hamstrung Nixon. Johnson was an impediment to the military conduct of the war.

Total victory in Korea would have been expensive and long in coming.  Probably turning up the heat would have sent clear message to the commies.  Iraq and Afghanistan depend on when you take a snapshot.  Iraq was in the bag and Obama's to give away, which he did.  An assessment of "failure" there or Afghanistan has to include an assessment of the cost of success.  Given that neither war should have continued beyond an initial punitive operation, the efforts at "nation building" were lunatic political efforts not achievable by military methods.

Since Obama has no clue about, or is allergic to, the U.S. national interest anything occurring under his "watch" can turn out as more than a dirt sandwich.

It's more complicated than you make out.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 14:28 | 6645438 SharkBit
SharkBit's picture

Ah, what's a few more billion.  Ben will just helicopter it in.  Printing presses keep a rolling. Obamacare for the world.

As the greatest debter nation, by far, when will the rest of the world stop trading with a dead beat creditor nation?  UssA's days are numbered.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/21...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 15:04 | 6645595 Dr. Bonzo
Dr. Bonzo's picture

This is what they call it when the MIC funds terrorism directly? This takes the meaning of euphemism to whole new levels.

Entire swaths of the MIC and Pentagon directly involved in treason, by their own definition.

Hang them all.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 16:13 | 6646023 Duc888
Duc888's picture

 

 

 

"ISIS training militants from Russia in Afghanistan, 'US and UK citizens among instructors'"

 

‘Which side are you fighting for?’ Russia blasts US for refusing to share intel on ISIS Washington’s failure to share data with Russian intelligence about terrorist positions in Syria makes one question the goals that Americans have in their anti-ISIS campaign in Syria and Iraq, a senior Russian diplomat has said.   

The refusal to share intelligence on terrorists “just confirms once more what we knew from the very start, that the US goals in Syria have little to do with creating the conditions for a political process and national reconciliation,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday.

“I would risk saying that by doing this the US and the countries that joined the US-led coalition are putting themselves in a politically dubious position. The question is: which side are you fighting for in this war?”

 

 


 

https://www.rt.com/news/317989-afghanistan-isis-train-russians/

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 18:10 | 6646600 coast
coast's picture

donald rumsfield 2001 before 911 attacks.....the pentagon cant account for 2 trillion dollars.

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