Add in decades of interest payments and care for wounded vets and the total bill could top $6.5 trillion.
The Taliban, in a shocking blitzkrieg, have swept through Afghanistan in less than a month, the 300,000-man Afghan army all but melting away in their path. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, as he fled to Tajikistan over the weekend, conceded in a statement that the Taliban had won, “with the judgment of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honor, property and self-preservation of their countrymen.” And what of the honor and property of Afghanistan’s erstwhile occupiers, the United States of America? Today, thousands of interpreters and their families await visas to the U.S., while Taliban fighters parade triumphantly in captured tanks and humvees paid for by Uncle Sam. In the 20 years since September 11,2001, the United States has spent more than $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan. That’s $300 million dollars per day, every day, for two decades. Or $50,000 for each of Afghanistan’s 40 million people. In baser terms, Uncle Sam has spent more keeping the Taliban at bay than the net worths of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and the 30 richest billionaires in America, combined.
