So what to make of this?
The watchdog charged with tracking government spending in Afghanistan has released its first estimate of the total amount of money wasted there — a staggering $15.5 billion over 11 years — but says even that figure is probably "only a portion."
Yet half of the money counted was for the effort to halt drug production and trade. Have we done better here on fighting our "war on drugs?" Would we have done better to not make that effort?
If the result is victory in Afghanistan, I don't view "wasted" money as truly wasted any more than I view as a waste a bomb that kills 10 jihadis if 10 more join to replace them.
In a related issue, I sometimes read that we've spend 17 years training Afghanistan's military and still they don't do well. That's kind of silly, really. The average private who enlisted in the last year or two obviously hasn't been trained for 17 years. Training is something that has to be done constantly or it is lost. I think Afghan forces have clearly made progress in training, especially when you consider the massive growth in Afghan security forces.
Once we needed 100,000 American troops and 50,000 allied troops in direct combat to fight the Taliban. Now troop strength is far lower and most assist the Afghanistan war effort.
And don't try to tell me that the Taliban are better trained (but insurgency has a lower degree of difficulty than being a soldier).
Yet it is true that corruption reduces the effectiveness of the Afghan security forces. We should try to reduce the waste and evaluate programs for effectiveness.
Of course, the question is whether we are winning the war. I read conflicting assessments that seem credible; and given that the news from Afghanistan is intermittent unlike the constant flow from Iraq even when the interpretation was bad, I have trouble getting a feel for the trends.
Certainly, we should work hard to make the money go to projects that work rather than lining corrupt politicians' or generals' pockets. The report has value to do that. Work the problem. But don't panic. And don't walk away. That I fear, could be the real motive of those who cite this problem.
We are at the point of holding the gains we made at the price of over two thousand KIA. Why would we fail to spend money to prevent Afghanistan from again being a sanctuary for jihadis who want to strike us at home?
Until moderates defeat the jihadis in the Islamic civil war over who gets to define Islam, we have to hold the line not only to protect us at home but to strengthen Moslems who fight the jihadi version of Islam.
