In America, we have millions in need of charitable help. We have the hopelessly poor, the sick, the elderly, the mentally ill all suffering from the changes in social structure/order and the ravages of this recession. The welfare umbrella that once existed to keep Americans above the poverty line has long since disappeared. There are millions of American children who need corrective surgery and today go without. Yet some Afghan child, a victim of the civil war, if the volunteers can’t repair them on site arrive in this country courtesy of Uncle Sam, to take up a hospital bed that an American child should have, and $millions will be spent on that Afghan’s rehabilitation. It just doesn’t seem fair or right that the influence of do-gooders should be that strong.

As much as I feel for the families of the ten lost ones in Afghanistan, I am having real difficulty in understanding why they exposed themselves to so much risk, when in every third world corner of the globe the fruits of their expertise would be so appreciated. How about starting in the thousands of third world towns we now have in America. A small ex coal mining town in Kentucky with 80% unemployment and in need of doctors and dentists would put out the red carpet and fete the arrival of volunteers to help them out. They would not be murdered in cold blood in the main street in return for their generosity of spirit. I have said it many times before; charity begins at home. I feel sorry for all people on this earth worse off than me, but I am sick and tired of reading the losses of civilians who are hell bent on going into war torn regions, where at the end of the day they actually make nuisances of themselves with the local warring factions virtually to the point they can lose their own lives. What a waste.

A couple of weeks back it was reported $billions of cash has been couriered back to the Middle East from Kabul airport over the past year. Granted some of it may belong to the warlords controlling Afghanistan’s largest export, pure heroin, but it is fact the bulk of it was money originally handed over to corrupt officials to build infrastructure that obviously never got built. As soon as a four star General opens the safe and hands over a truckload of newly printed greenbacks, the contractor is racing to Kabul airport to ship it to Dubai. No diplomatic officials representing the American people in either Iraq or Afghanistan give two hoots about the waste so why should the military? There is not a dime in DC’s coffers to maintain the parks and monuments around our capital (some of which look like they could be in downtown Kandahar) yet money by the shipload is fed into Iraq and Afghanistan for it to literally disappear into the hands of crooks.

One project that did actually benefit from $100 million investment was a hydropower plant in South Afghanistan. A new turbine was installed and the plant upgraded. It could now supply half the power for the troubled Helmand province, that is if the military leadership hadn’t handed literally it straight over to the Taliban. The Helmand provincial government is controlled by the Taliban, which is a major reason why President Obama approved the “surge” a year back. Taliban collect the “fees” from users and it goes straight into their coffers so they can buy more guns and ammunition from Pakistan to kill more American troops. Water from the dam is diverted directly to the poppy fields controlled by the Taliban and any small farmer trying to grow food crops has to rely upon the Gods for rain because the tap is turned off for him as far as the Taliban is concerned. In summary, we Americans fear being hit by a “double dip” recession which could devastate our economy for years to come yet from President Obama down, staying the course in Iraq and Afghanistan is the right thing to do for America. How sick is this policy?

By contrast there is nothing but lose/lose courting Karzai and his bunch corrupt thugs. For me all this war has done has cost us valuable lives of brave young soldiers and lowered the street price of heroin to compete against crack as the drug of choice for addicts. We don’t really know who our enemy in Afghanistan is, as experts now tell us Al Qaeda jumped across the border to reside in Pakistan. At the beginning of the war it was all about flushing out bin Laden and his fellow cave dwellers. With this as the goal I was under the impression the Taliban came over to our side because the equal disdain for this mutual enemy. Today the Taliban is claiming responsibility for all sorts of acts of violence against our soldiers in Afghanistan.

The reason for Karzai’s visit was nothing short of a mission of blackmail. The sole purpose of his trip was to demand more cash and if he didn’t get it then he would be “forced” to surrender to the Taliban. This man is the best friend of the war lords who control Afghanistan’s only industry; black tar. Some knowledgeable individuals say Karzai and his family are the biggest traders of the drug to the western world and have been for decades. My argument is who cares about the Taliban? They are not international terrorists and it appears few Muslims outside of Afghanistan have ever supported their cause. Karzai, sorry mate, if I were the President of USA, I would immediately order the troops back home, let the civil war begin and may the best man win. Afghanistan is of no value whatsoever and as much as I hate the human rights that exist there, let the Europeans (Europe is all but a close neighbor) become advisors/policemen. I then would redirect all the drones into blowing the Pakistani border into oblivion so every last vestige of Al Qaeda is eradicated. Immediately after that I would quit and let that other arch enemy of ours, Pakistan pick up the pieces. Without Al Qaeda, Pakistan is no threat because they are so pre-occupied with the possibility of an attack from India.

I’ve said it before; America has to sort out who are our real enemies. It certainly is not North Korea or Iran; they are China, Russia and India in that order. They want to see an economically weak and universally unpopular America so they can wield their own influence upon the world. We are slowly being sucked into that web. It is called globalization. The sad thing is it is the American multinational corporations who are effectively sponsoring it. Unfortunately we do have traitors in our camp.