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Manlio Dinucci
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In the London Declaration (3 December) I 29 NATO countries reaffirmed "their commitment to Afghanistan’s long-term security and stability".
One week later, under the "Freedom of Information Act" (used to empty some skeletal cabinets after years according to political convenience), TheWashington Post ha desecretato 2.000 pages of documents which "reveal that US officials deceived the public about the war in Afghanistan". In essence, they concealed the disastrous effects, also cheap, of a war going on since 18 years. The most interesting data that emerge are those of economic costs.
They were spent on war operations 1.500 billions of dollars, figure that "remains opaque", in other words, underestimated: no one knows how much the secret services have spent on the war or how much the contractors actually cost, mercenaries recruited for war (currently approx 6 thousand).
Since "the war was financed with borrowed money", interest has accrued for 500 billions that lead to spending 2.000 billions of dollars.
Other items are added to it: 87 billions to train Afghan forces, 54 billions for "reconstruction", most of which have been "lost to corruption and failed projects".
At least others 10 billions were spent on the "fight against drug trafficking", with the good result that opium production has greatly increased: today Afghanistan supplies 80% of heroin to the world drug trade.
With the interests that keep piling up (in 2023 will rise to 600 billions) and the cost of ongoing operations, the expenditure largely exceeds i 2.000 billions.
There is also the cost of medical assistance to veterans who have emerged from the war with serious injuries or disabilities. Till now, for those who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, have been spent 350 billions, than in the next 40 years will rise to 1.400 billions of dollars. Since more than half is spent on Afghanistan veterans, the cost of war rises for the US to about 3.000 billions of dollars.
ON AFGHANISTAN
After 18 years of war and an unspeakable number of civilian casualties, the military result is that "the Taliban control a large part of the country and Afghanistan remains one of the major areas of origin of refugees and migrants". TheWashington Post he therefore concludes that from the declassified documents emerges "the harsh reality of missteps and failures in the American effort to pacify and rebuild Afghanistan".
Thus the prestigious newspaper, which shows how US officials have "deceived the public", in turn deceives the public by presenting the war as an "American effort to pacify and rebuild Afghanistan".
The real purpose of the US-led war in Afghanistan, in which it has participated since 2003 born as such, is the control of this area of primary strategic importance at the crossroads of the Middle East, Central Asia, southern and eastern, especially against Russia and China.
Italy has participated in this war under US command since Parliament authorized it in October 2002 the dispatch of a first military contingent starting in March 2003. Italian shopping, stolen from public coffers like the US one, is estimated at approx 8 billion euros, to which are added various indirect costs.
To convince citizens, hit by cuts in social spending, that more funds are needed for Afghanistan, it is said that they serve to bring better living conditions to the Afghan people. And the Friars of the Sacred Convent of Assisi have given President Mattarella the "Lamp of Peace of St. Francis", thus recognizing that "Italy, with the missions of its military, actively collaborates to promote peace in every part of the world ".
(the poster, 17 December 2019)