Article Image

IPFS News Link • Military

Tomgram: Nick Turse, How to Succeed at Failing, Pentagon-Style

• http://www.tomdispatch.com, Nick Turse

Since then, they've had quite a bit in common, including vast infusions of U.S. funds and the massive levels of corruption that accompany them, as well as the way refugees from both countries have been joining the same flow of the desperate and dispossessed heading for Europe.  These days, with the spread of an Islamic State franchise to Afghanistan, even their insurgents are becoming part of the same "brand." And there's one other thing they've had in common in these years: ghosts.

In both countries, the U.S. military has built, on paper, vast local security forces from scratch to the tune of at least $65 billion in Afghanistan and at least $25 billion in Iraq.  Their armies and police forces have, however, both turned out to be remarkably spectral in nature.  They are filled with "ghost soldiers" and "ghost policemen" who are being paid salaries but don't exist.


thelibertyadvisor.com/declare