The ongoing costs of global empire
America’s longest war is over, so we are told. But America continues to maintain a global military presence that would be the envy of history’s greatest imperial powers. As Cato’s…
The staggering cost of endless wars
While President Biden wrestles with the fallout from the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the task of calculating just how much money American taxpayers have spent on the two decade-old global…
Lee bill seeks to bring an end to ‘trillion-dollar defense slush funds’
One pricey consequence of the nation’s more than 20 year-long war against terrorism has been the rapid growth of ill-defined, catch-all programs. While items like the “Overseas Contingency Operations” fund…
Giving the Pentagon billions of additional dollars it never requested
Congress can’t help itself when it comes to spending, and that’s long been true of spending on the Department of Defense. The DoD was initially scheduled for a very modest…
The foreign aid ‘cornucopia of corruption’ in Afghanistan
The fallout from America’s two decade war in Afghanistan continues to fall, this time on the foreign aid establishment that eagerly spent tens of billions of dollars to achieve…next to…
There’s plenty of blame to go around for Afghanistan
With America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan (mostly) complete, one might think the diplomatic and military establishments that were so deeply involved in the 20 year-long conflict would take a moment to…
Twenty years on, the war on terror has made the state larger and stronger than ever
One of the biggest changes in America during the 20 year-long fight against global terrorism has been the rapid change, and accelerated growth, of the security state. Once designed to…
Fighting the gender wars in Afghanistan
The Special Inspector General’s summary report on Afghanistan reconstruction is loaded with examples of how the U.S. wasted billions on trying to build a modern democracy on medieval foundations. But…
Worse than the fall of Saigon
The popular pushback against comparisons of the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul with that of Saigon in 1975 is that they are entirely different, and can’t be compared in any way,…
State Department drops $2,000 fee for evacuation flights
The State Department has decided it will drop the usual $2,000 fee it charges people to take evacuation flights from war-torn or disaster areas like Afghanistan: People evacuated from Afghanistan…