Jailbreak!

Someone tell me, why are we in Afghanistan?

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban staged an audacious prison break here early Monday, freeing at least 476 political prisoners through a long tunnel, according to the warden, Gen. Ghulam Dastagir Mayar.

He said that security authorities had discovered in the morning that the prisoners from the political wing of the building were gone, and that the authorities had just found the tunnel. “We do not know if the tunnel was dug from outside or inside the prison,” he said.

Individual Cost of the War in Afghanistan

With a government shutdown looming and obstinate, grandstanding Republicans in Congress screaming about the budget deficit while at the same time digging in their heels and refusing to offer serious policy solutions -- and no, privatizing Medicare is not a serious policy solution -- we thought today might be a good day to consider how much the war is costing...each of us...on an individual basis:

Did you know that the Afghanistan War alone costs us roughly $2 billion per week? When you include the Iraq War and other military spending, it turns out that more than 27 percent of your income taxes will be spent on war.

Find the calculator here.

So It Goes

Somebody remind me again why we are spending $2-billion a week in Afghanistan? Not for this, I hope.

Vietnam Redux

Remember that old cliche from the Vietnam war era that said:

"It was necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."

Apparently that's still the way our military works, if this story is any indication...

Petraeus Team: Taliban Made Us Wipe Village Out

And somewhere Joseph Heller just shakes his head.

A Fool and His Money, Soon Parted

Total cost of the war in Afghanistan now tops $380-billion. We are spending $6.7-billion a month in that godforsaken country.

Afghanistan's Annual Gross National Product? $14.5-billion.

Richard Holbrooke's "Rosebud"

US diplomat Richard Holbrooke passed away yesterday at age 69.

His final words...?

"You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan."

Time for Our Boys to Come Home

How does reading this...

ZHARE, Afghanistan — Six American soldiers were killed and more than a dozen American and Afghan troops were wounded on Sunday morning when a van packed with explosives was detonated at a new jointly operated outpost in southern Afghanistan.

...make you feel about reading this...

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai had heard enough.
For more than an hour, Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry and other top Western officials in Kabul urged Karzai to delay implementing a ban on private security firms. Reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars would have to be shuttered, they maintained, if foreign guards were evicted.

Sitting at the head of a glass-topped, U-shaped table in his conference room, Karzai refused to budge, according to two people with direct knowledge of the late October meeting. He insisted that Afghan police and soldiers could protect the reconstruction workers, and he dismissed pleas for a delay.

As he spoke, he grew agitated, then enraged. He told them that he now has three "main enemies" - the Taliban, the United States and the international community.

"If I had to choose sides today, I'd choose the Taliban," he fumed.

Get Your War On

The post 9/11 clip-art comic strip "Get Your War On" is back. Here "the break room group" discusses a recent poll the found 92% of all men in southern Afghanistan have never heard of the 9/11 attacks...and what the President ought to do about it.

And here "the white guy on the phone" explains why Russia had so much trouble fighting its own war in Afghanistan. (Hint: It's nothing like what's troubling America.)

Now with the Whistle-blowing?

Sure would've been nice to have the "Wikileaks" dealio back in 2002-2003, when the Bush administration was lying us into these wars we've got going on now.

Stonings, Floggings...What's the Point?

We've been "at war" in Afghanistan for how long now?

Cruel punishments become more commonplace as hard-line local leaders become emboldened by the Taliban's growing influence and a weak central government.

Funding Endless Wars: So It Goes

$59-billion more dollars down the tubes on a 308-114 vote.

A bit disappointed my congresswoman, Lois Capps, voted Yes.

Why Are We There?

Nine years and $300-billion later, a bleak assessment from Afghanistan. Could this report be the Pentagon Papers of our time?

The Long War

At more than eight years, the war in Afghanistan is the longest in American history. All of World War Two lasted six years and one day, though the US was only involved for three years and nine months.
Why are we there?

UPDATE: Ah, now we know...

TAPPER: How many Al Qaeda, do you think, are in Afghanistan?

PANETTA: I think the estimate on the number of Al Qaeda is actually relatively small. I think at most, we’re looking at 50 to 100, maybe less. It’s in that vicinity. There’s no question that the main location of Al Qaeda is in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

I'm thinking a 100,000-to-100 troop-to-terrorist ratio isn't really a very efficient use of our resources. 'Specially since were getting our asses kicked on a daily basis.

Dubious Milestone

This week we passed the $1-trillion mark in spending on the stupid wars that George W. Bush got us into...the same ones Barack Obama has yet to get us out of.

One trillion fucking dollars. The nation could sure use that money right about now, don'cha think?

Dubya declared Mission Accomplished more than 7 years ago.

"Let's Not Bicker and Argue About Who Killed Who...."

Peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan are ongoing...

One man accused U.S. and Afghan forces of responding to fire from AK-47 assault rifles, a weapon commonly used by the insurgents, with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells.

"Your government drops bombs on us," another said.

Brig. Gen. Mohayden Ghori, who commands the Afghan forces involved in the operation and joined Zahir at the meeting, told the men: "I understand some of your houses have burned. But let's solve our problems with negotiations, not with weapons."

The Beat Goes On

And so it goes.

What's the point?

Not Super Happy About More War

...but here's Obama's speech on Afghanisatan:

More Troops

Stop the war, I want to get off.

So It Goes

Granted they are his wars and all, but doesn't it seem like we all cared a bit more about Iraq and Afghanistan when George W. Bush was president? It's worth remembering that both are ongoing disasters...

The Beat[down] Goes On

The United States military, making friends and winning hearts and minds, one misguided bombing at a time.

American-led coalition forces killed 76 Afghan civilians in western Afghanistan on Friday, the interior ministry said.

"Seventy-six civilians, most of them women and children, were martyred today in a coalition forces operation in Herat province," the statement said.

Coalition forces bombarded the Azizabad area of Shindand district in Herat province on Friday afternoon, the ministry said. Nineteen victims were women, seven were men, and the rest were children under 15, it said.

However, the coalition denied killing civilians. It said 30 militants had been killed in an air strike in Shindand district in the early hours of Friday and no further air strikes had been launched. Air strikes took place between 1am-2am after Afghan and coalition soldiers were ambushed by insurgents while on a patrol targeting a Taliban commander in Herat, the US military said in a statement.

Remembering that the Afghan government is our ally, who are you going to believe?