SHUT DOWN AFGHAN WAR-IT'S A MONEY PIT: USE THAT MONEY HERE AT HOME.

THE KUHNS REPORT

LAS VEGAS - Hello America,and how is the world treating you?

Tonight, August 21, 2017, president Trump  is supposed to give a speech regarding the  Afghanistan conflict. I will be anxious to see what the president has in plan for this corrupt, money hole of a country.

My view is that president Trump should pull the plug on this never, ending war. Why do I say that?

Before we, the USA, went into  Afghanistan the Russian government had their military fighting in that God forsaken country for  ELEVEN YEARS. Fact is, we were arming different war lords and Afghan fighters to combat the Russians. Afghanistan  wound up being Russia's graveyard.They finally pulled out and left the country to fend for itself. After the Russians left the Taliban took over and they had a strict policy of  making certain their  countryman did not grow, cultivate and sell opium, under penalty of death, Opium cultivation, use and sale, was strictly prohibited. And people in Afghanistan, under the rule of the Taliban did not get involved in opium.

Then thinks changed.  The United States  went into the country,  cleared out many of the Taliban, and guess what? Once the U.S arrived, the  drug and opium trade flourished. The sale and trafficking from the of the poppy fields grew by a staggering two-thousand (2000%) percent.  And now it is the major cash crop in the country for all of the Afghanistan government officials, the various war lords, and warring tribes to feed off of.. Poppy field cultivation and opium sales and trafficking is now one-half of the Afghan economy. Our troops are also protecting the drug crops for  the people of Afghanistan.  Our military also closes a blind eye to Afghanistan's worldwide drug trafficking.. That's wrong, but we continue to allow it to happen. I have always said that the poppy fields should be destroyed. It is an easy task but our feckless, spineless government officials will not take action. Result: That poison is killing our men and women and children here in  Americas every day.

I once said that if the U.S.  would overthrow the Taliban, we would be causing serious  "unintended consequences", and the revival of the poppy fields and drug trade and trafficking is a glaring example of those unintended consequences.  Various factions we are fighting against in Afghanistan are now using the tens of millions of dollars in profits from their illicit drug trade to supply their war with weapons while at the same time they are still using weapons we gave them against our military. That's another example of "unintended consequences."

I predicted years ago that if we didn't end the Afghan  fight once we captured or killed Bin Laden (which was  our  original and sole purpose of entering Afghan), we would  be involved in a quagmire for years, like the Russians were. Now sixteen-and-a half years later --- we are in that quagmire. It's a swamp of quicksand and we are sinking deeper and deeper each and every year into this hole.

I submit, it would have been so  simple to wrap up the Bin Laden operation once he was killed.That is what Americans were expecting---hunt down Bin Laden, capture or kill him, and come home. Mission Accomplished. If that occurred we wouldn't be in Afghan today.

But because of our military and congressional blunders, along with the lack of will to say we had accomplished what we went to Afghanistan for (capture or kill Bin Laden), then return home , we are where we are today/. When Bin Laden was killed we should have exited Afghanistan then and there.

Allowing the drug trade to occur is one of my major complaints. with the Afghanistan situation. But let me  explain even further why I think we should leave these ignorant. corrupt tribes, to fight it out among themselves.

People, we have been fighting this war for a whopping SIXTEEN AND A HALF years, and it is still going on,  It is the longest war in history,with no end in sight. Now Afghanistan is our graveyard. Since our Afghanistan  military action began we, the taxpayers here in America  have already spent at least  $800 BILLION dollars in appropriations alone. Wow!  If we figure in and include the monies paid out for such thing as veterans care, for those who fought in Afghanistan, we are looking at a figure which exceeds $1 TRILLION dollars.

Folks, could you imagine what that money could do for us here in the United States? Roads; schools; infrastructure; repairs on our shabby electric grid; funding the southern border wall; paying down our debt. I could go on and on as to how that obscene amount of money could be used here in the good ol' USA. And, it has been reported that  our government actually handed out tens of millions of dollars IN CASH, to  corrupt Afghan government officials and Afghan warring tribe leaders. Our country gave these millions away like it was monopoly money, but--it was our tax money.It's evident that our politicians and military love to spend other peoples money.

And let's  not forgot the human toll that this  senseless war has taken. From my last  report check it looks like we have lost at least 2,258 American troops. That's out blood and treasure that has been squandered. And for what? Let's not forget our allies who fought along of us. They lost at least 1000. There were also 3500 military contractors killed so far.

Now, lets talk civilian  losses. Since we have been fighting in this hellhole and suffering our own losses, there were TENS OF THOUSANDS of Afghan men, women and children sacrificed.

My suggestion to president Trump: Pull out of this money pit which  is not only taking our taxpayer money, but our young men and women's lives. It's sad that our military generals are pushing for additional troops.

I fear that president Trump will capitulate and sell out to the  General's. I remember candidate Trump telling us Americans that one of his first moves would be to get us out of Afghanistan. America believed  him. But now as president, the chances are he might buckle to the military machine and stay in this quagmire. I also remember when two previous presidents told us that they were going to draw down and leave Afghanistan? But they didn't do that. I hope the president thinks  hard and fast about staying in this war.

I disagree with the General's views.  Fact is, we  have been fighting a conventional war led by these same General's for close to two decades. They have used the same  conventional war plan, over and over again.  I feel that doing what these General's suggest to fight this war is based on old and tired war plans. Come on! Sixteen years of repeating the same ol', same ol' war plans is stupid, If president Trump heeds  the General's advice all he will be doing is continuing Obama's war plans.

Why do  these military leaders in Washington insist on continuing the same policies used by the last two presidents? The policy DOES NOT work. For example, the  military policy we have been using for the past sixteen and a half years is well known to the Taliban and ISIS. These bad guys  know exactly how the  General's and the military are going to react and respond. The enemy can predict most every move the military makes against them. If you saw the same person doing the same dance move for sixteen years it's obvious you would know what steps to take to match those steps.

I have said for years that we have been losing this war.  And now General Mattis recently came out and told  those in Washington, "We are not winning in Afghanistan right now."  This was has been open-ended for  sixteen, plus, years. And if our military honchos keep repeating  and using the same old conventional war plans, we will never succeed in Afghanistan. We could fight this war in Afghanistan for another SIXTEEN AND A HALF years and we would be no further along than we are now.  We clearly are not winning this war. Hell, at one point we had 100,000 U.S. troops  fighting in Afghanistan and we couldn't win it then. Now it looks as through these war hawks in the military and congress  want to possibly add 3000 to 5000 more troops  to the approximately 8400 we now have there. I think that is a bad, bad decision. That small amount of additional troops will not change the  situation. All it is doing is placing  three to five thousand more American lives in harms way.

Finally, our General's tell the president, congress and the American people that we need to add the troops so we can train the Afghan military to fight on their own, Are you kidding me? Folks, it doesn't take 16 plus years to train soldiers to fight.  I, like many other  men and women  here in the USA served in the military. I was a Marine and  we were trained within only a matter of weeks, a couple months.  From first day of boot camp, through about 16 weeks, we were made combat ready, and capable to fight in any war and/or conflict, in any  theater around the world.

I would say, that if the Afghan men and women really wanted to serve in their military and protect their own country from invaders they could have, and should have, been trained for  total action within  a matter of weeks,  Especially when they were being trained to fight by the best military force on the planet. Good old American  personnel.

I suspect that the Afghan people  DO NOT want to fight for their country. They want us to protect them and also fight their battles for them.  I do  not think the Afghan government and their officials want the gravy train to stop. Once this corrupt, backward country and their officials saw the U.S. step up and offer help, they made the decision to play us for decades.

I know it doesn't take  16 years, plus, to get  a military force ready for combat. We should give their military  about 16 weeks to shape  their men and women into fighters. Not 16 years. Our military can train one of our men or women to be one  of our elite  SEALS in three, seven (7) week, phases. All three phases take only 21 weeks to have one of the best trained military people in the world.  So please, don't tell me a basic soldier cannot be molded into a fighting man or woman in much less time.

We should pull out every last American military person and let the Afghan military fight to protect their own country.They should act on their own.  We shouldn't have to continue to enable these people. I would think after sixteen years of  us Americans helping this corrupt, useless nation by training their military and rebuilding their country for  them, they should have enough smarts to organize their own government by now.

We Americans cannot stay in Afghanistan into perpetuity. I say we have no reason to be there and dumping about 50 BILLION dollars a year , or more, into this rat hole  is a waste. All of the money the USA is currently squandering on this "never, never. win war certainly can be put to better use, here in America. What is Afghanistan worth? Let the Afghan people fight their own battles,--then what ever faction survives and comes out on top, that is the government we deal with.  -- And, that's my opinion. Make your own decisions. You decide.


BRADLEY W. KUHNS, Ph.D., O.M.D.
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Dr. Kuhns can be reached by email at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com