14 years on.   Trillions of American taxpayers money has wasted and thousands of American lost and still costing billions of dollars per month and even more American lives.     It is a colossal mistake and who voted for it?   

Once again, who else but our Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/107-2001/h342

It shows a serious lack of judgement on her part.      She hasn’t read history.     Afghanistan has been the graveyard of empires from Alexandre the Great, the British Empire, and the most current one was the Soviet Union before the U.S. unwisely invaded it.      Osama bin Laden knew it and he wanted to lure the U.S. to Afghanistan and trapped it in the quagmire of the country until it goes broke due to the expense.      Michael Scheuer, chief of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit from 1996-1999 argues in his book “Osama bin Laden” that the U.S.  chronically underestimates Osama bin Laden and it has “mindlessly” played into bin Laden’s plans.   I agree with much of his analysis.     Actually it reminds me of reading the great Chinese classic “The Romance of the Three Kingdom” in which similar war games were described.     From his escape in Tora Bora as the American troops were closing on him to his final days living under the protection of the Pakistani secret service in an openly visible place (if you read the Romance of the Three Kingdom, you will recognize it – sometimes the safest place to hide is the most visible place since his enemy will underestimate him and overlook such possibility – and that’s what exactly has happened to Osama bin Laden who was able to escape the American intelligence and military effort to capture him for a long time -- somehow the U.S. government and the American intelligent community thought that he was hiding in a cave somewhere in a remote mountain -- while he is living in relative comfort just a mile from a Pakistani biggest military academy in a safe house provided by the Pakistani intelligence service according to the New Yorker magazine). 

Her vote played into the hand of Osama bin Laden’s plans and as mentioned above, trillions of American taxpayers’ dollars and thousands of American lives have been wasted for nothing while at home our infrastructure such as bridges, roads, schools, airports are collapsing and decaying without the money to fix or upgrade them.   It will cost a whole lot more in the future with no end in sight.   Without getting involved in Afghanistan, we would have the money to finish Bart to Downtown San Jose, build California high speed rail, and fix our crumbling infrastructure.   Because of her vote, we don't have the money to fix potholed roads and falling bridges, so the next time you drive and your car ran into a pothole, remember about her vote.     

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the U.S. Department of Defense has spent $43 million dollars (of the more than $100 billion dollars the U.S. has spent for just for reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002) for a gas station in Afghanistan.    And this is where American taxpayers' money at work?    It's no wonder why we have no money to fix our own potholed roads and crumbling bridges.  Where is the accountability for American taxpayers?       It's Osama Bin Laden's dream comes true -- his goal was to bankrupt America by luring the U.S. into Afghanistan.    The news is on BBC, the British and the Europeans must have a field-day laughing at our folly.

And our Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren voted for this war.     

Afghan fuel station cost $43m, US military report says

I would have voted NO on this Afghan fiasco since I see many problems with the vote and that's what I said last time when I ran for Congress and a constituent asked me this question.   I told him that the U.S. had overreacted in Afghanistan and Iraq and it is a colossal mistake.   First of all, there hasn't been any exit strategy and giving a blank check to the President to wage foreign war is a bad idea as we have seen so far.     The U.S. went into Afghanistan without an exit plan; the main goal was to capture/kill Osama bin Laden who had been killed but we are still there and we are still paying for the enormous cost in term of money and American lives.      In my opinion, there are other ways to hunt Osama bin Laden that is much cheaper and faster.    The U.S. has killed many high-profile terrorists successfully by gathering intelligence and then launching remote drone to kill them.    Why treat Osama bin Laden differently by invading another country?   By treating him differently, the U.S is elevating the status of Osama bin Laden among the potential terrorist groups and that is a bad idea since it makes his jihadist propaganda even more popular.     Another often-quoted reason is that the Taliban harbored Osama bin Laden – a terrorist – so we need to get rid of them.    I am not buying this hubris argument either.     Now we know that Pakistan, a nuclear power and a supposedly American ally, also harbored Osama bin Laden during those years.   Are we going to invade Pakistan too?    When is it going to end?    Pakistan is betraying us and our U.S. Congress still gives Pakistan billions of dollars in aid. 

Her vote on the Afghan war has also precipitated the on-going refugee crisis that is currently happening in Europe.    Afghans are among the 2nd most populous group seeking refugee status in Europe.   More than 30% of the refugees arriving in Europe this year come from Afghanistan.      The Afghan war has destabilized the region and now the instability is spreading to Europe and our European allies are paying the price that was created by our lack-of-foresight and irresponsible American politicians like Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.     I will definitely come back to this issue in another article by delving it deeper than what I can say here and how her vote has caused a lot of collateral damage to other countries and our Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren is partially responsible for the refugee crisis that is happening right now in Europe.    The Europeans should send her the bill for housing the refugees -- the problem that she helped created.

According to the New York Times:

The Next Refugee Crisis: Afghanistan

Today, President Obama announced that he is going to send American troops to Syria despite his promise in 2013 that there won't be any American troop on the ground in the country.     Did he get approval from Congress?     I would vote NO on this fiasco.     I can see another bill of trillions of dollars for American taxpayers and we will get stuck there for decades to come and it will not solve anything.   The people there will hate us even more.    And it is projected that 1 million refugees seek to enter Europe this year.    If the U.S. get involved in Syria, by next year, expect the number of refugees entering Europe would be at least double if not more.

Obama Sends Special Operations Forces to Help Fight ISIS in Syria

Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Defense has just spent $500 million of American taxpayers' money for a program to recruit local fighters against ISIS.     And how many did the U.S. recruit after spending this huge amount of money?    Five men while hundreds of thousands of healthy and strong Syrian men of military age are flooding into Europe as refugees.    Not only that, the supposedly America's allies Saudi Arabia and Jordan are no longer involved in fighting against ISIS.   They just let the U.S. does all of the fighting for them.  If the next door neighbors of Syria like Saudi Arabia and Jordan who have the most to lose from the conflict in Syria and they are not interested in fighting and the Syrian men are more interested in seeking refugee in Europe instead of fighting back, then why should the U.S. get involved?    I don't know about you but I see there is something seriously wrong with this picture.    It's a waste of American taxpayers' money and American lives.

As U.S. Escalates Air War on ISIS, Allies Slip Away

So what do I support regarding the Syrian question?     Recently the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter published his opinion on the New York Times.    His idea may not work, but I think we should give his idea a chance first before doing other things.    

Jimmy Carter: A Five-Nation Plan to End the Syrian Crisis

BKB

Is this tepid editorial really the best the Times can do after the outpouring of anger and disgust from readers about the continuation of war in Afghanistan, not to mention the likelihood of escalation? How do we expect to fix anything in Afghanistan with 10,000 troops, when over ten time that number failed? Have we learned nothing in the last 14 years? Are we to engage in a state of perpetual and singular warfare? I can think of nothing that will destroy our country more quickly. 

As the parent of a soldier, I realize my son's life depends on the other 11 guys in his unit, since his life means nothing to the Masters of War, including the four men pictured here. He is highly trained and honored to serve his country, but that doesn't mean our government has the right to waste his life on a futile and quixotic mission just to keep these corrupt careerist generals in business. It is appalling and shameful that the only reason this insanity persists is because there is no draft and relatively few of us have a dog in the fight, so no one's voice counts. Am I angry? You bet.

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njglea

 is a trusted commenter Seattle 9 hours ago

Another $14.6 billion a year of OUR hard-earned taxpayer dollars wasted on military games in Afghanistan. Trillions of OUR hard-earned taxpayer dollars already spent in the middle east quagmire. And the Afghan troops are still running away. And republicans want to cut Social Security and education, take away food stamps, allow OUR infrastructure to deteriorate even further and generally turn America into a 3rd world country so the boys can have their war toys. It's ludicrous and it's time for it to stop. Get our PEOPLE and MONEY OUT of the middle east hell hole and let them fight it out. 

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