President Obama is said to be debating calls by officials to add another 73,000 troops to the long-term size of the Afghan military, sparking concerns that the US will be spending upwards of $12 billion annually just on the Afghan military.
The US spending alone would put Afghanistan roughly in the top 20 nations in the world in military expenditure, meaning the US will be spending more money on the Afghan military than Iran spends on its entire military, and nearly as much as the world spends keeping Israel the dominant power in the Middle East.
This has led to questions of whether the US can afford these enormous outlays of money on someone else’s military in perpetuity. The short answer is no, and the long answer is that with the deficits as high as they are the US should be looking at a military budget this size for itself instead of as a gift to some occupied nation.
At the same time, if officials want Afghanistan to have this ridiculous large (albeit woefully incompetent) military, they will have to use US taxpayer dollars to do so, because the entire Afghan economy is only about as large as what the US is envisioning as their long-term military budget.
Another reason to quit this misguided adventure. I wonder why the USG never talks about how much $$$ they are spending to create and maintain the Afghan army. They sometimes talk about how much they are spending on US troops and support but never the $$ spent on the Afghan forces. That would be like asking the German government to pay for the US troops (salaries and support) stationed in Germany. That is a poor example but there really isn't a good example – it's globally unique. Why would we pay another sovereign nations' military – one who has made no oath of fealty – and probably never will. Seriously?
Florida's Gov Scott canceled a light rail program between Orlando and Tampa, as Florida Taxpayers would have to spend $200,000,000 to get $2 billion in Federal funds. Gov. Scott didn't like the idea of increasing the USG budget, as it means borrowing more money. Well how about killing this 12 billion dollar program to fun Afghan soldiers instead?