Times 2

Winning the war in Afghanistan at $50 million per kill

By Nicholas C. Arguimbau

Michael Nasuti of Kabul Press recently published an article in which he calculated that killing each Taliban soldier in Afghanistan costs on an average $50 million to the US. The article, seemingly carefully. researched with all assumptions laid out so that anyone can examine them, is well worth reading.

Nasuti, "Killing Each Taliban Soldier Costs $50 million." He points out that at this rate, killing the entire Taliban forces (only 35,000) would cost $1.7 trillion, not a small amount for a country suffering from a severe economic downturn to spend on a war with no apparent purpose. And Nasuti's number, of course, assumes that they coud not be replaced faster than they are killed, but it appears that they can, easily.

Members of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines Alpha Company prepare to head out on a night patrol from their remote outpost near Kunjak in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, October 27. REUTERS

Nasuti, who actually uses a "conservative" number (assuming that he has undercounted the number of Taliban casualties by one half), states that he had previously served "at a senior level" in the United States Air Force.

The reason for these exorbitant costs is that United States has the world's most mechanized, computerized, weaponized and synchronized military, not to mention the most pampered (at least at Forward Operating Bases). An estimated 150,000 civilian contractors support, protect, feed and cater to the American personnel in Afghanistan . . . The ponderous American war machine is a logistics nightmare and a maintenance train wreck.

He concludes: The Taliban's best ally within the United States may be the Pentagon, whose contempt for fiscal responsibility and accountability may force a premature U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as the Americans cannot continue to fund these Pentagon excesses.

But Nasuti's cost estimates are only the beginning. Afghanistan had until recently the highest fertility rate in the world (7.5. now down to 7.1) and its population doubles roughly every 20 years even under the stress of war.. At a current population of 34 million, gaining by 800,000/yr, it can lose in order of magnnitude 400,000 men per year more than it is presently losing to war without net population loss.

That, using Nasuti's figures, would be at a cost to the US of $20 trillion/yr. to stay even , when we have a GDP of about $12 trillion. And there is no apparent reason why the Taliban could not go on in perpetuity suffering losses of 2000/yr (Nasuti's estimate of the true numbers), or many times that, because 2000 is only approximately half of one percent of the numbers of available men each year without population loss.

Courtesy counterpunch

Top to the page  |  E-mail  |  views[1]
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
 
Other Times 2 Articles
US tightens security, seeks source of bombs
Chaotic evacuation: Indonesian volcano erupts again
Body of Argentine ex-president Kirchner returns home to rest
China and Japan PMs hold informal talks at summit
The house that Ambani built
Shark attacks Australian woman
Russia denies island visit politically charged
No survivors from French helicopter crash in Antarctica
Thirty dead as ISAF repels Taliban attack on combat post
Who will rescue the rest of us?
I love life and women: Berlusconi tells critics
Tiny Pacific island in world-first personal pollution scheme
Moscow Muslims pray on sidewalks for want of mosques
'Military regime' in battle for Venezuela's beautiful prize
VIP check-in for dead Singaporeans
Winning the war in Afghanistan at $50 million per kill
British food no longer a turn-off for tourists: Survey
Libido problems 'brain not mind'
Obama's passage to India
Indian doctors, foreign patients play down 'superbug' fears
Myanmar's Tiger Girls roar despite junta's tight grip
Nepal's former king hits comeback trail

 

 
Reproduction of articles permitted when used without any alterations to contents and a link to the source page.
© Copyright 2010 | Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka. All Rights Reserved.| Site best viewed in IE ver 6.0 @ 1024 x 768 resolution