Talk about doublethink & doublespeak: Wow!

How long till Kabul signs up for the Missile Shield to guard against attack from North Korea and Iran, d'ya reckon? :-D

Gee, I thought only Poland was threatened by those two! (http://www.defencetalk.com/polish-us-missile-defense-agreement-in-force-37093/)

The top US diplomat arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul late Wednesday and plans to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul as well as civil society leaders of the country on Thursday, Reuters reported.

The meetings will focus on finding a political solution to substitute the -- now-ten-year-old -- United States-led war in Afghanistan.

The military operations have been denounced as fruitless in the light of the continued high level and vast spread of militancy in the violence-scarred country, especially over the past few months.

Estimates put the number of the war-related deaths in Afghanistan at around 5.6 million. The fatalities have reportedly been caused, besides violence, by hunger, deprivation, and other instances of adversity generated by the US-led invasion and occupation of the country.

Efforts to materialize peace talks with the Taliban sustained a heavy blow last month, when the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council and the chief negotiator with the militant group, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was assassinated in an attack.

See the source for the rest of the article:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/205541.html

In short, the US/ISAF will leave Afghanistan by handing it right back to the very Taliban it spent a full ten years trying to oust.

That's because we have almost won in Afghanistan and if the you-know-which complex were allowed a few more decades to complete this job, they could even win completely.

"Fully 60 percent of Afghans fear that the country will descend into civil war once NATO forces leave, but over half see the Western alliance as occupiers. A new survey carried out be the Konrad Adenauer Foundation has found that the mood in Afghanistan is worsening." more...

You mean the "Terror-Industrial Complex", coming out of Iran and Pakistan ? 

I'll leave you with this observation from Andrew Sullivan:

The facts have persuaded me that this war needs to come to an end. But the most persuasive arguments I have heard have come from my friends who have served there. Every single one described "nation-building" there to be about as insane as, well, a 51st state on the moon. All of them wanted to find and kill the men who attacked the US a decade ago—and go home. Since Obama took office, they have been granted their wish: almost all the al Qaeda leadership dead, and bin Laden's bones being picked dry by fishes. (http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/nation-building-vs-al-qaeda-crushing-afghanistan) 

Boys, just letting rot all the collateral damage, that was one expensive manhunt for the US taxpayer, considering that there was no other logical rationale behind it!

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Pentagon’s monthly spending in Afghanistan dipped to $5.3 billion in October and November, down from an average of $7.8 billion a month in the fiscal year that ended in September, according to data compiled by the Defense Department comptroller’s office. (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-03/pentagon-says-afghanistan-war-costs-dip)

So Jacek, in your view, spending US taxpayer money on: 

- R&D that can only be developed in the US, by US companies

- training young men and women, often from poorer cities and counties, and giving them critical skills

- and also defeating the enemies of the country

.... is a waste of taxpayer money. 

I just wonder what a good use of that money would look like. 

Hillary Clinton is in Munich today for the big security conference. I will have to ask her if she shares your view. ;-D

You and I as businessmen know very well that every benefit gets weighed against its costs.

Say hello to Hillary from me! I once met her at the US Ambassador's over here during an Independence Day reception. While I doubt she would remember that, I am confident she will confirm what I said at the beginning.

I think that Hillary is pretty smart and realistic. I also think that she knows that the USA cannot attain all of its goals by dropping bombs from drones. Sometimes you need to do things other than that, like take a village, provide aid, etc. The Clinton administration was pretty good at that.