Afghan ‘Pentagon’ Being Built With U.S. Tax Dollars

Instead of worrying about your money going to the poor and needy, how about focusing on sending billions overseas to keep our presence in countries that don’t even like us.

The American government has already spent about $107 million — double the initial estimate — on the five-story Defense Ministry headquarters, which will include state-of-the-art bunkers and the second-largest auditorium in Kabul.

But now, four years after the groundbreaking, construction crews have had to effectively halt their work. The reason: The U.S. government has run out of money for the project.

For years, audits and inspector-general reports have documented waste and mismanagement in American aid projects in Afghanistan. But the Defense Ministry building is a dramatic example of how poor oversight continues to plague the massive U.S. investment here.

“Nobody was watching it like they should, and it’s just been an open checkbook,” said an American official involved in the management of the project, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. “We failed, big time.”

The 516,000-square-foot building is part of a multi-year, $9.3 billion construction spree aimed at providing hundreds of bases, outposts and hospitals for the Afghan military. Nearly all of it is financed by the U.S. government…

The American-led military coalition is appealing to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to authorize an additional $24 million for the Afghan defense headquarters, already one of the costliest U.S-financed buildings in the country.

At a time when we’re haggling about budgets, worried about deficits and debt, this is absolutely insane.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.