Pentagon officials testified on Wednesday before a House Armed Services Committee hearing, where they were poked, prodded, and begged by militaristic lawmakers to detail the alleged detrimental effects that sequestration is having on the nation’s military.
But one dovish conservative, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), broke ranks with colleagues to admonish Pentagon brass about wasteful spending—particularly in Afghanistan—while arguing that critics of defense spending cuts are leaning on tortured logic and scaremongering tactics in debates.
“Are you going to bring in John Sopko to tell you about the absolute waste of money in Afghanistan that is taking away from us rebuilding our military?” Rep. Jones asked Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, referring to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
In recent months, SIGAR published multiple reports warning that the Pentagon and the State Department are wasting enormous amounts of money in their efforts to rebuild Afghanistan and bolster its military.
“Here we are in a almost desperate situation to fund our military so we will have an adequate and strong military,” Rep. Jones continued. “How in the world can we continue to spend millions and billions of dollars in a country that we have very little accountability?”
Overall, the US has dumped more than $100 billion in putting the war-torn country back together. As much as $20 billion more is likely to be spent over the next decade, despite worrisome results. In report after report, Sopko’s team has documented a complete failure on behalf of American officials to rein in Afghan opium production and root out corruption in Kabul.
Sopko has warned that the billions of dollars that the US continues to funnel into Afghanistan threaten to make the country a “client state for years to come,” with the Afghan government currently unable to oversee and maintain the major projects being enabled by Washington.
“We will continue to put money down the rat hole and never say that its time to stop putting money down the rat hole,” Rep. Jones pressed the Defense Secretary. “Why can’t people like yourself, sir, be honest with the American people?”
Secretary Carter conceded some ground to Jones, touching upon contracting procedures in Afghanistan, which, he said, aren’t up to snuff.
“It’s not perfect yet by any means, and its not where it should be,” he said.
“I want to associate myself with your argument,” Carter also added, “We’ve got some work to do.”
But the Pentagon chief took exception with Rep. Jones’ broader analysis.
“To me, rat hole doesn’t quite capture where we are in Afghanistan,” he said. Carter did admit, however, that the US effort “to increasingly turn the basic security for that place over to the Afghan security forces” will be a “difficult task.”
The latest SIGAR report, from earlier this month, illustrates the difficulty of Secretary Carter’s task. Despite the more than $30 billion spent by the Pentagon to build up the Afghan National Army, the force size is dramatically declining due to attrition.
More than 40,000 Afghan soldiers were dropped from the military rolls last year.
As The Sentinel has noted, A top US military commander also said late last year that all Afghan security forces suffered over 9,000 fatal casualties in 2013 and 2014, and described the killed-in-action rate as “unsustainable.”
