Why Obama dropping his promise to end America's longest war is going to give contractors billions of dollars.
In August, the nation’s top military officer came to President Barack Obama and bluntly asked him to break a promise to bring the last American troops home from Afghanistan by the time the president left office.
Obama had been repeating the vow for years, but Gen. Martin Dempsey, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States needed to keep at least 5,000 troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016 to ensure that the Islamic State didn’t take root there and to prevent al Qaeda from moving back into the country. In July, the Pentagon discovered that the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks had been running a pair of large training camps in southern Afghanistan, including one that covered nearly 30 square miles.
The president, anxious to prevent Afghanistan from turning into another Iraq, told Dempsey that he was willing to consider the troop request. First, though, he wanted the general to tell him the “no kidding” cost of keeping U.S. forces there — including what the Pentagon would pay the thousands of contractors needed to house, feed, and support U.S. military personnel. Wisened after years of overseeing two wars, Obama didn’t want to let the additional cost of contractors escape him, particularly since the military rarely includes it in its proposals. The exchange was first reported by the Washington Post. The White House declined to comment on the president’s decision-making.
WNU Editor: ovder the years the story of contractors working in Afghanistan has not changed as this 2009 WSJ post reveals .... Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops (WSJ). Sighhh .... it is always about the money.
"The president, anxious to prevent"
ReplyDeleteHe has been in charge how long and he will let each and every foreign event run him instead of him anticipating it and taking charge or preparing?
- He has failed Nigeria with Boko Haram
- He failed central west Africa in regards to the Islamicists. If it had not been for the French, Obama would be in trouble.
- The lawyer, Obama, cannot come up with a reason to go after Kony directly although tinsel town is all upset with child soldiers, blood diamonds, the ivory trade etc. Surely they have his back as he makes a moral and legal justification for knocking out Kony in quick order. Kony is low hanging fruit and he cannot get that done. If you cannot get the low hanging fruit in short order problems quickly pile up and snowball.
- Obama has failed everywhere on the world stage.
WNU Editor,
ReplyDeleteRemember saying a few days ago, how once upon a time, the U.S. military was configured to fight two different peer militaries at the same time in two different theatres?
That was before PMC's sucked all the money out of the room.
Amen.
DeleteHaliburton/KBR PAE etc have been having a ballgame.