You got that right. It costs the US 100 million a day to bomb----and then we have to pony up another 100 million a day to rebuild. Iraq still can't get its Army together---as long as the US money is flowing in for training. Here in the US, we draft them from the farm; three weeks in boot camp, and they're battle-ready.
BTW, did you hear about the Bank of Kabul scam?
THE WAR PROFITEERING MACHINE "Officially" it costs the US $120 billion a year to finance our military presence in Afghanistan and all the other related functions to keep "our friend" Hamid Karzai in power. Probably the figure is higher, much higher ...lots of CIA and other covert funds don’t get reported........$150 billion is probably far too low. Think trillions.
Karzai was pulled out of obscurity some years ago, thought to be an Afghan hack who could be manipulated. Prodded by the duplicitous neocons with hidden agendas, the US government orchestrated Karzai into a world-recognized power. And ever since US taxpayers, and our military, have been paying the price.
Heck, the US taxpayer got to subsidize one of the three most corrupt governments on the face of the Earth. The Karzai Klan is stealing billions---and were actually seen shamelessly loading billions on trucks to transport out of their godforsaken country...so that they could enjoy life far, far away from that hellhole.
US taxpayers have enriched Hamid, his corrupt brother (now dead), the rest of the crooked Karzai Klan and countless members of their extended family..........a nauseating assortment of cut throats, drug traffickers, embezzlers, money launderers, extortionists, thieves.....
One of the biggest scams is located at the Bank of Kabul where the definition of a “loan” for the well-connected is "all the money you can take with no intention of ever paying it back." So far, the known bank “losses” are something like a billion dollars PLUS......."withdrawn" from US money deposited there by the military, the CIA, the State Dept. and all the other US agencies that were duped into financing this colossal foreign policy failure.
Of course....the war-profiteering neocons got their cut. Neocon Richard Perle is starting an oil business in the Mideast. And if he ever dares sells even one barrel of oil, he should be charged with treason.
Remember, Bush got elected being against nation building. Then 911 happened and he drank the neocon koolaid. I trusted W and also drank the koolaid and defended the man against my own beliefs... most of us did. The Bush administration was a big lesson on the importance of standing on principles and intellectual honesty. Nation building was bad policy before 911 and has been bad policy since 911. I will be listening when Perry starts outlining his foreign policy. I am a long way off from making a decision.
If that ever happened, or Perle charged even with one Federal Crime, he'd pull a Marc Rich and be out of the USA in a nanosecond. He'd scoot to his (other) 'home country' and granted asylum for being a 'Philanthropist' (gag).
As such, we'd never be able to get at him, (cough) 'legally'. 