War and Sequester at Home and Abroad

Dear Mr. President, 
Yesterday I met someone related by marriage to an auditor for the CIA. Recently, she told me, he went to Afghanistan to audit projects funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars. She said he went from one site to another and found in most places nothing: no construction, no new buildings, nothing. Much of the money we pour into Karzai’s coffers goes directly into the pockets of his gang of thieves. Administration officials—off the record—call it a vertically-integrated criminal enterprise. In yesterday’s NYT article about the Marine pullout from Helmand Province, Maj. Gen. Gurganus, the departing commander of NATO forces there, said, “This is Chicago in the 1930s.” The 2010 Kabul Bank scandal, the steady accusations of corruption, the flow of gold and dollars in suitcases, crates and pallets out of the country, the villas and estates purchased by those connected to Karzai in Dubai, Qatar and elsewhere all confirm that Afghanistan is the 3^rd most corrupt country in the world. 11+ years after the start of a misguided and unnecessary war against one of the poorest countries on earth and what has been gained? In Afghanistan, government officials and friends with bank accounts bloated by U.S. dollars while the people remain impoverished; a government trusted by no one; a country ruled by gangs not laws; an unbowed and undefeated Taliban waiting for our departure so they can take over again; and tens of thousands of lives lost and destroyed in the wreckage, the aftermath of the American reign of terror that replaced the Taliban reign of terror that replaced the Russian reign of terror. Here at home, banks foreclose on service members deployed to war—thank you for your service—while we build new drone bases in Africa, housing assistance for the poor and disabled is cut while we pledge $450 million to Egypt, social services are sacrificed for a problem-plagued F-35 jet fighter, we train and equip Syrian rebels but not our unemployed, and we deploy more Special Forces assassins while we furlough federal employees providing critical services. America is consumed by fear and impoverished morally, psychically and financially. Austerity and budget cuts pay for senseless wars and protect us from phantom enemies. There is no end to enemies, no end to threats, no end to the madness. So much for the Hope of 2008, the expectation of an end to war. You have learned nothing. Mr. President. Afghanistan is your Vietnam and the War of Terror is your war now, your legacy.