Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Fill 'er up, Mr. and Mrs. American Taxpayer!

"Nearly $43 million of U.S. taxpayers' money was spent on building a gas station in Afghanistan — 140 times more than it should have cost, according to a government watchdog."

Hey, but if you happen to drop by on Mohammed's birthday, you can take advantage of the free Slurpee offer!

9 comments:

bruce said...

See here's the thing I never got: the most powerful country in the world usually is the richest because it can conquer and seize wealth. The British turned it into a polite gentleman's take and give but they still got rich off their Empire. You Americans are just too nice. With the world's most powerful army you should have no debt at all. I'm not ungrateful but I think this gentle giant thing causes an imbalance in the world. All this generosity is over the top.

I really thought you would seize Middle Eastern oil in 2003 and I hoped you would. I thought you would permanently colonise Iraq and make it at least like Puerto Rico. Like the British did. I've lived years in India and even many old Indians will tell you that colonialism was a good thing, on balance. I guess I'm just a bit odd with my old fashioned ideas. Yeah the UN and all that, but the French still have colonies.

Paco said...

There is much in what you say. Unfortunately, the U.S. has made something of a religion of other nations' sovereignty - for reasons that are understandable, considering our own historical and political "provenance", but, in practice, this (frequently non-mutual) respect has operated to the detriment of ourselves and others.

rinardman said...

Here's my question: In a case like this...who ended up with all that money? It obviously wasn't all spent on building the gas station. Where'd it go?

Is Achmed and a few of his buddies now living on the French Riviera?

Paco said...

You have hit the nail squarely on the head, brother. Where did the money go? And who approved paying the invoices?

Mike_W said...

Cloward/Piven.

All part of Obama's, your other domestic enemies' and your foreign enemies' plans to flush American wealth down the toilet, imo.
It's only U.S. taxpayer wealth, after all.

How could Obama, mentored by the likes of George Soros, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, behave in a way that is anything other than massively treasonous?

Paco said...

Mike: Obama's alienation from the great traditions of his own country does seem to have been tailor-made, doesn't it?

JeffS said...

To answer r-man:

The contractors ate it, hidden as cost over-runs, materials, designs, local "permitting" (pronounced "baksheesh"), and countless other ways of sucking up cash.

This was aided by corrupt contracting officers, naive fools ... ... and the Cloward-Piven Fan Club.

RebeccaH said...

Chances are, this $43 million dollar gas station will be an abandoned ruin in three years' time.

rinardman said...

The contractors ate it...

In other words, it ended up in Achmed the contractor's pocket; and he's either passing it along to the Taliban, or living large in Kabul.