Even As We Fund Ukraine, Our Money’s Going To Putin

Less than half of American families paid any income tax last year. But those who did have a right to expect the money we fork over to Uncle Fed will do at least some good for us. Of course, we all realize a trillion or two disappears into the DC swamp. But learning we sent more than a billion dollars to Taliban-run Afghanistan, whose favorite song on the radio is “Death to America, Cha, Cha, Cha,” does raise the hackles somewhat. Even worse, the Biden government has illegally decreed that we poor American working stiffs should never know where that money went once it arrived in Kabul.

It may surprise you to know there is actually a government agency tasked with tracking where our money goes after we give it to our sworn enemies, such as the Taliban. That agency is called SIGAR. (No, that’s not a misspelling of Bill Clinton’s favorite toy.) SIGAR is the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. SIGAR is tasked under the law to conduct and supervise audits and investigations of programs that you and I pay for to help rebuild Afghanistan.

As you might expect, this Inspector General has been about as successful as other American generals were in Afghanistan over the past twenty years. But this time, the enemy is not AK 47-bearing bearded men in man dresses. This time, high-level Biden administration bureaucrats ensure this Inspector General fails in his mission to account for your money.

One quick caveat. This $1.1 billion is not part of the $7-plus billion in high-tech military equipment we left behind when we fled Kabul airport with our tails between our legs. This is an additional $1 billion in cold, hard cash we gave them after our cut-and-run evacuation!

Image: Life under the Taliban. YouTube screen grab (cropped).

The $1.1 billion was a partial payment on useless virtue-signaling programs to help reconstruct Afghanistan after the war. How you reconstruct a country whose first acts included blowing up the schools we built for them during the war escapes me.

Unfortunately, we will never know where the money went. It’s not that the Taliban won’t tell us. This time it’s our government doing it to us. Specifically, the Biden-appointed heads of the US Agency for International Development and the Treasury Department, won’t tell us where your cash went.

Both departments “refused to cooperate with SIGAR in any capacity” in tracking your money shipped to Afghanistan. That is not an overstatement. That “refused to cooperate…” phrase is an exact quote from SIGAR head John Sopko’s report to Congress. Sopko did not mince any words in his report. He reminded Congress that hiding any information about this billion-dollar boondoggle is “in direct violation of Section 1229(h)(5)(A) of the NDAA for FY 2008 (requiring the agencies to provide information and assistance upon request) and Section 6(c)(1) of the Inspector General Act of 1978.”

Steve Bannon was just sentenced to 4 months in the Crossbar Hotel for refusing to wallow before Nancy Pelosi’s January 6th Congressional Kangaroo Court. Does anyone want to bet the Biden acolytes who broke the law and refused to tell us where our money went will ever receive anything more than a quiet “attaboy” from the White House? SIGAR’s report mentions that these violations have been reported to Congress. I wonder how much overtime one of Nancy Pelosi’s staffers earned working late to shred the report?

There should be more to this story. Crusading reporters from the MSM should be digging into this like the FBI dug into Melania Trump’s undies drawer. I’ll give you great odds if you want to wager that this will ever happen.

Government accountants should dig into overseas accounts to see whose wallet grew fat.

Fat chance.

Some might argue that, regardless of where the money goes in radical-ruled Afghanistan, it helps build a future bond between our country and the militant extremists. They think we can play nice with men who only want to return their country to the 14th Century, with the ability to enjoy Baywatch reruns while they take a break from shooting women who don’t cover enough of their hair. All the Super Glue in the world would not create such a bond.

As proof of our government’s continued idiocy, the Biden administration announced yet another $3.5 billion in Afghan aid on September 14. Less than two weeks later, the Taliban leaders demonstrated the type of links they want with our country by committing to buy one million tons of Russian gasoline, another million tons of Russian diesel, 500 tons of LP gas, and two million tons of Russian wheat. These purchases give Moscow a vast infusion of American-supplied cash, just when Putin’s war on the Ukrainians is straining the Kremlin budget.

Why did the Taliban wait 13 days to rub this into our faces? They probably wanted to ensure the U.S. government check cleared the bank before they announced they are shafting us yet again.

Needless to say, these are not the failure facts Team Biden wants to be broadcast on the evening news. When someone, especially when that someone is a government employee, chooses to keep something secret, always ask yourself, “Why?” The law authorizing this Afghan aid specifically prohibits your money from going to the Taliban itself. But since the Taliban runs everything in Afghanistan, and Uncle Fed won’t tell us where our money went, I think we know who got it. I wonder how deep the pockets are in those man dresses?

Finally, the worst part of this fiasco; SIGAR’s report of this billion-dollar debacle only covers three months of 2022. As proven by the September 14th foolishness, the cash handouts and DC coverup have not stopped.

The money secretly slipping out of Washington’s piggy bank continues every day. Think about that when you cough up $5-plus per gallon for gasoline soon after Election Day. Think about that when you file your income tax return. Think about it when you see Biden and Harris, better known inside the Beltway as “Mumbles and Giggles,” tell you everything is just peachy keen in “all 54 states,” especially when you ride in a big, yellow, electric school bus.

Try not to think about it as you attempt to go to sleep tonight.

Ed Sherdlu is a pseudonym.

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