Alibi for Ignorance: Doing Business With al-Qaeda -- Where's Our Outrage?

The US Army is doing business with al-Qaeda. Literally.

Their guys:

Think about that for a moment. Americans are killing, and being killed by, these a-Qs but we're doing business with those a-Qs, who are using the profits to fund the first a-Qs. The mind reels.

According to a published report: "Special Inspector General John Sopko said his office has urged the Army to suspend or debar 43 contractors over concerns about ties to the Afghanistan insurgency, "including supporters of the Taliban, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda." (Thank you, FoxNews.com.)

Our guys:

The Army's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has strongly recommended that the Army stop doing that business. Makes sense to me. You? But noooo! (Thank you, John Belushi.) The Army is going to keep doing business with the enemy, thank you very much. SIGAR writes, and I'm embarrassed to quote this:

"In other words, they may be enemies of the United States, but that is not enough to keep them from getting government contracts.

Then WTF WOULD be enough to keep them from getting US government contracts?! Regicide? They'd like to. Nukes? They're trying. Baby barbeques? They're already doing that, so clearly that's not enough. Killing our best and brightest young men and women? They're doing that, too, yet we continue to do business with them. Ramming loaded passenger jets into tall office buildings? Yep.

The result? We are co-sponsoring this:

And this:

Congress has taken note and at least one Representative has spoken out but, no surprise, Congress hasn't done anything about it. They're on vacation now, don'cha know?

"The fact that U.S. taxpayer money has ended up in the hands of terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan is totally inexcusable. It's sickening to think that we've been giving money to the very people who are killing our brave service men and women," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, one of the co-sponsors, said in a statement.

In the report, Sopko's office noted that the U.S. has suspended 59 contractors and debarred 68 contractors following allegations that they were engaged in fraud and other misconduct.
But the report said the refusal to send the same message to companies allegedly supporting terror and militant organizations is a "continuing problem."

The report challenges the Army's claim that there was not enough evidence. The report said in each of the 43 recommendations, the office provided "detailed supporting information demonstrating that these individuals and entities are providing material support to the insurgency in Afghanistan." All were turned down.

I wish I could vote for Rep.Chaffetz.

And where is the Prez in all this? Voting present, apparently. He's in charge, f'God's sake, and we're at war. One order, like, say, "Stop doing that, you idiots!" would be enough. You can't be in a war and be afraid of confronting the enemy. It's mutually exclusive.

* * * * *

"When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use." Did Joseph Stalin say that? Well, no, but it's a good story. Supposedly said to his very close comrade Grigori Zinoviev in the '20s. They were such close comrades that Stalin had him imprisoned and shot. Fast forward to today: "When we blow up the American imperialists they will sell us the explosives." Same thing.

What's the point here? The ultimate point, I suppose, is that some of our tax dollars are buying the bullets and bombs that are killing some of our soldiers... and there is no outrage. Is that what you want? What's wrong with us? Where's YOUR outrage?

I get it about war. A lot of good young men and women die but aren't they supposed to die for something? If we can boycott Iran, why can't we stop doing business with al-Qaeda? At the very least, don't sponsor their killers.

The prez, like his predecessor, can't stop the war and he won't escalate it, either. There is NOTHING in this war for America.

Here's the Alibi for Ignorance proposal: Have John Kerry meet with a-Q reps in Geneva, just like HenryK did in the '60s and'70s. Escrow $50Bil in a Swiss bank for 120 days, at the end of which the US will be entirely out of Afghanistan. No troops, no aid, no embassy, no USAID, no CIA, no NOTHING. If the withdrawal was reasonably peaceful, a-Q gets to keep the money

Costs us the $50Bil plus the cost to depart. After the $50Bil+, no more current costs and no more battlefield casualties. We lick our wounds again, treat our damaged veterans and try to figure out how best to use our military next time. God knows, we blew it this time. Again.

And we remember this: