Official: 2 more US troops killed in Afghanistan

Pentagon press secretary George Little says in a written statement that Panetta believes Saturday's killings in Kabul are unacceptable

Of course they are unacceptable but they are predictable. When you are standing in a pool of gas, quit throwing a match! Why is it not ingrained into those entering that country as to things that have in the past/and will again cause a reaction of death and violence?

With friends like these, as the old saying goes...

It is time to move up the date to remove all troops from Afghanistan. Like ASAP and leave them to there fate what ever that is.

The idea that we can change a country has again been debunked. We should have learned that in Vietnam Iraq and now Afghanistan.

The sad thing is that there are still people who want us to attack Iran. They have not learned a thing about our past miss adventures. To think we can change a country by Military Force has not worked in the past and is not going to work .....

Someone burns a Koran and the middle east wants to kill everyone and starts attacking US troops which causes our President to apologize. It is unfortunate the Koran was burned and the second they people started acting like barbarians our gov should have issued a statement saying the burning was regrettable and if the violence against US interest continues we will launch a scorched earth campaign.

My other thought is @!$%# these people. I am tired of going over there and rebuilding their country and trying to help them be free. If they want to live like animals...let them. Let's just withdraw and let the whole region go to @!$%#. If they come after us...we can bomb them back a couple decades (not that they are too far remved from the stone age).

This article is pure hogwash, uncritically accepting the premise that the US has been concerned about rebuilding Afghanistan. It's been ten years and now 60% of Afghan children are malnourished as opposed to 35% five years ago. The US is not and never has been concerned with rebuilding Afghanistan. 3/4 of the population still does not have clean water and it has the third highest infant mortality rate in the world. Unemployment is between 40-80 percent, higher in rural areas. Now the New York Times has reported that dozens of children have frozen to death in the last months due to lack of warm baby clothes, food, blankets and shelter. The reason is that the US has been strenuously ignoring and underfunding the only development program in the country which works, the Afghan National Solidarity Program (NSP) which is at arm's length from the Karzai government and which gets management help from the World Bank. Even the U.S. Special Inspector General for the Afghanistan Reconstruction has said of the NSP: "We found that [the controls instituted by the NSP] provided reasonable assurance that NSP funds were used as intended."

"US Special Inspector Gives Glowing Report on Afghan-Run Development Program"

The NSP focuses on many small, basic infrastructure projects like irrigation, clearing the canals, clean water projects, and improving dirt roads. This helps all other parts of the traditional economy of agriculture and small business. Labor is provided by Afghans wherever possible.

Instead the US has wasted billions on showcase projects that Afghans never asked for, using Washington-connected American contractors who take 40% or more in profit before the work ever begins. For this see:

OXFAM report "Aid Effectiveness in Afghanistan"

In the meantime $2 billion per WEEK in military hardware and supplies criss-crosses the country by truck convoy, and the Pentagon pays insurgents hundreds of millions of dollars a year to let it through unmolested, thus making the Taliban stronger and enabling it to buy more weapons. No wonder Afghans are mad.

When the Quran gets burned it's the straw which breaks the camel's back. If in ten years the rate of child malnutrition doubles, you are doing something wrong. Devote one month's worth of military spending to the National Solidarity Program, through the World Bank which manages donor nations' contributions, and stability in Afghanistan will follow as troops withdraw. Instead the NSP is chronically short of funds to complete projects, even though its minister has come to Congress begging for funds and to explain his strategy.

"US Shortchanging Afghan Development" Wired Magazine:

Best of all, in the middle of such misery, guess who is always hiring and paying the good wage of $10 a day? The Taliban!

"The Ten Dollar Taliban":

What the US is doing is a recipe for further war and instabilty. War is profitable. Nothing comes close to the rate you can bilk the taxpayers at than in war. Why things remain the same is obvious: this is exactly the way congress and the president want it, for their campaign contributors in the war business.

A CRASH COURSE IN AFGHANISTAN:

"Afghans are bitterly disappointed by broken promises"

"$2 Billion a week in war costs (not civilian aid), most expensive war in history"

Department of Defense Funding the Taliban - CBS News:

Children freezing to death, New York Times:

NBC News: 60% of Afghan Children Malnourished:

Video on the Afghan National Solidarity Program

"The Road to Taliban Land" by Ann Jones:

For more information: