just drop the money on the afghanis directly

[Fresh_Start]

instead of converting it into armaments....

like a winter storm of dollars piled 2 feet high over the countryside

[subsuelo]

1. war profiteers might object

[eleny]

2. The problem is that you want the dollars to pile high on the Afghans

In the war business, the money piles up on the corporations. War is big for business.

[Fresh_Start]

4. I'm not trying to solve the unemployment or economic problems

I'm trying to solve an unwinnable war

[eleny]

14. I understand but it's not about getting the Afghans to do anything

An unwinnable-forever war is perfect for the war machine cash register.

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

[MichiganVote]

5. No silly. It has to go to the pig shit drug lords who fuck the women over.

[Fresh_Start]

6. just to be clear

are you talking about the pig shit drug lords in afghanistan or the local pig shit variety?

[MichiganVote]

7. Well if we drop money on the ones here will it stimulate our economy?

[Fumesucker]

19. We already do that by keeping drugs illegal..

Legalize and regulate drugs and the drug lords will be out of business in mere days.

[K8-EEE]

8. I remember reading that money does not even motivate the Afghans

Coming from such a culture as ours it is hard to understand but they have had so many decades of war and destruction it's like, there's almost nothing to buy. The undercover people found that out and so did the soviets -- a little money gets you some cooperation from somebody with absolutely none and that's as far as it goes, if a billion dollars fell on the street they'd be l like "oh give us something useful."

I will try to find that article about the ineffective bribery etc there. I always felt that would have been a good strategy in Iraq. Here, have some cash! Look it's 30,000 pairs of shoes, here ya go! That would have worked better than Abu Graib etc.

[Fresh_Start]

10. I dont think its bribery

I think its a moderately better use of our (US) resources which may affect the behavior of the afghanis in a more positive manner than anything else we could do

[dflprincess]

12. It is bribery

and it's better to use our money on projects that might benefit us.. Like infrastructure or real health care.

[Fresh_Start]

16. its not bribery because we aren't asking them to do anything

on our behalf.

[dflprincess]

18. We're bribing them to behave the way we want them to

I've known parents who sometimes resort to that with their kids.

[Fresh_Start]

22. so we are sending them brainwaves with the money?

or does merely touching money which might have been in contact with some human (or more probably is fresh off the mint) provide the instructions for how we want them to behave.

I have not spoken, written, emailed or even formulated any opinion on how the Afghanis should behave. I just think that they should be in control of their own destiny.

[dflprincess]

23. That's why the 1.3 billion that's being set aside for bribes for Taliban and other local warlords

is foolish.

Sure, they'll take the money and tell the U.S. they'll cooperate and as soon as they can they'll do what they want to do anyway. But our government doesn't seem to get that and is going to throw away money we don't have on this.

[jgraz]

9. Sorry, we can only use money to kill brown people or enrich white people

[walldude]

20. Brutal but true....

Damn dude you are on a roll today...

[xiamiam]

11. perfect..no middle man..no mercenaries..private contractors..or dead young men and women..

[Octafish]

13. Best idea, ever.

No one dies and it results in peace.

The money was going to be wasted anyway.

[Canuckistanian]

15. I beg to differ

The sheer weight of all that money would crush Afghanis and leave the soil unfit for growing poppies.

[mmonk]

17. May as well. Bet the results would be better.

[Fresh_Start]

21. exactly my point

its more likely to succeed than our current plan because the people themselves will have more control over their destiny than they currently have or will have under our expanding the war strategy