War costs for Afghanistan; Helmand dam project halted; CIA “black sites” in Lithuania
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When you break down the cost of fighting the war in Afghanistan by US spending per American soldier on the ground, turns out it’s more than twice as expensive as the Iraq war. That’s what Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments discovered. For this episode of the American Influence podcast, I talked with Harrison about some numbers, including the 30 billion dollar figure that Barack Obama used in his much-awaited speech on Afghanistan early this month.
The story of the Kajakai dam project offers the long view of US involvement in Afghanistan. It’s actually a relic of the Cold War, an American effort to blunt Soviet influence in the region. But in recent years, the dam has also been a huge reconstruction priority for the US and its allies. Problem is, the dam is located in Helmand province, where the Taliban insurgency is raging. And the road to the dam has been too dangerous to continue work there.
Finally, the podcast wraps up with a great interview with Scott Horton. He’s an international and human rights law expert in New York. Horton’s been following the story of CIA “black sites” closely – and writing about it at his blog, here. (Some great background reading on the issue in this post.) I talked with Horton about those two secret CIA detention facilities in Lithuania, just confirmed by an investigation there.
That’s all for now. Write me with ideas, comments, suggestions: theworldpolitics at gmail.com.
Happy holidays everybody, and thanks for listening!
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