McCain: Money in Afghanistan 'has gone to Taliban' (McCain says nation building a "noble effort")

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said misspent and wasted U.S. funds to both Iraq and Afghanistan, where some taxpayer dollars have gone to the Taliban, are "disturbing."

"What is disturbing was the recent inspector general's report that some 20 to 30 billion dollars both in Iraq and Afghanistan have been wasted and misspent, and in the case of Afghanistan in some cases the money has actually gone to the Taliban. Now that is not an acceptable use of the taxpayer's dollar," said McCain on Fox News's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" Thursday.

McCain clarified that he was unsure of the exact amount of money, but that there has been a lot of waste in both countries.

"There has been a lot of waste over the years in both Afghanistan and Iraq in a noble effort to try help them rebuild their countries, but clearly there has been a lack of oversight and accountability," said McCain.

Well, nation-building is indeed a “noble effort” and in many cases also the right thing to do if done right, e.g., Japan and Germany (and some other parts of Europe and Asia) after WWII.

Germany and Japan are generally the staunch American allies and democratic and economic bulwarks in Europe and Asia, respectively, even as they compete with the U.S. economically. It took seven years to let them govern themselves pretty much with autonomy.

Even Iraq and Afghanistan, which haven’t been “civilized” - by any measure, compared with pre-war Germany and Japan - before their old anti-US regimes were toppled are not wasted efforts, even though a lot of nation-building and military things could’ve been done better. In part, possibly, because of the establishment of the autonomous democratic government too early, before their populations “democratically matured” and, in part, because of internecine religious warfare and tribal score-settling, as well as Islamic nature of the countries. Iraq and Afghanistan populations are not as homogenous as Germany and Japan were.

On the other hand, let’s compare “nation-built” Iraq and Afghanistan to [”no boots on the ground”] man-made disasters of Libya, Egypt or Kosovo / Serbia (former Yugoslavian region bombed by Clinton) which are more likely to be anti-American and a long-term problem, not help to the U.S. and Western interests.

Who will “build” the nations on the ruins of generally benign towards America and the West former governments? Answer - let’s not forget the earlier example of “Islamic Spring” that was Iran (with Jimmy Carter’s help).

You can’t “teach” democracy in a few years, especially in some regions that have never experienced it or have too many scores to settle. Democracy sometimes needs to be “managed” by those with experience and who have mutual (even if only regional) interests in minds and hearts.

The private army you talk about, doesn’t cost nearly as much as it does one of the troops. Who I work with and around every day and support whole heartedly. There is a thing known as the tooth to tail ratio. Translated, how many support personnel does it take to get one combat troop on the ground, cared for and supplied. You’ll find that it takes about $1million for each combat troop. Where as you get about 3-5 private security. Both of whom, are doing completely different missions. Now, throw in health care, insurance and pensions. All of which are provided to the troops. The private security that get it, get it through their companies. Time and time again, folks want to bash the private security guys without knowing the real story.

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