From yesterday’s Purple Haze feel-good-this-day-in history-post, I have one for you today that will piss you off.
On August 27, 2008 coalition troops began Operation Eagle Summit in Afghanistan to transport a turbine for the Kajaki Dam.
The dam had been built in 1953 to house three turbines but only 2 were ever installed and of the two, only one was ever working. In 2004 the U.S. repaired the broken turbine and then initiated actions to install the third. However, they could not do so because the Afghan Taliban fought off any attempt to transport equipment through the area to the dam site.
Think about that for a minute. These bozo’s were fighting to delay/halt the installation of something that would be providing them with water and electricity and thereby increase their quality of life. Told you it would piss you off.
As for the costs of this operation, check out this excerpt from a 2016 GAO report to Congress on the matter:
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| https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2016-07-30qr.pdf |
Since 2001, the Afghanistan war has been our longest and costliest war. Isn’t it time we simply said goodbye?For a history lesson, our boys Nixon and Kissinger came up with their “Declare victory and get out” strategy that paved the way for the end of our participation in the Viet Nam war in 1973. Thank you President Nixon, even if two years after we left there, North Viet Nam eventually conquered South Viet Nam anyway.
Fast forward 40 some years. As shown in the example of the Kajaki Dam above, we are just wasting time and money for nothing in return. Sixteen years of being slow learners and having spent over a trillion dollars should tell us something. How long before we realize we are just not going to be able to solve the mess that’s in Afghanistan and that there are no good options save one?
Hey Donnie, I know you got a great plan in the works (click here) but if you really wanna make some worthwhile history for a change, just get us the hell outta Afghanistan. You are very good at painting a positive picture from a pile of crap. So how’s about you use those talents to try and convince everyone that we really did win the Afghan war, that it was a huge success and that you are now bringing the troops home to celebrate our massive victory. I would agree with you 100% on that lie.