You might recall a report from last September regarding the first batch of rebel soldiers to graduate from a U.S.-led training program in Turkey. President Obama’s ISIS strategy long included the condition that he would not put American boots on the ground in Syria, so instead, the United States reportedly trained 9 rebels at a cost of $500 million to set their boots on the ground.
The Telegraph then reported that the first group of soldiers to enter Syria immediately surrendered its weapons to al-Qaeda forces. That plan was very quickly put on pause while a new one was worked out.
Why bring this up now? It just reminds us of another U.S. Pentagon initiative — to introduce rare Italian goats into Afghanistan as a means of boosting the local cashmere industry, reports the U.K. Independent. Much like our trained rebel forces, the goats have since gone missing.
The cost of the program? Six million dollars.
Can't make this up: Pentagon's $6m project to introduce rare goats to Afghanistan failed; goats went missing https://t.co/Y3sQZFgawY
— Andrew Bossone (@abossone) January 23, 2016
US spent millions of dollars on bringing stability to Afghanistan included introducing rare blond Italian goats to boost cashmere industry
— Eleanor Montague (@EleanorMontague) January 20, 2016
DoD task force spent $millions on goats, ice cream, carpets, jewelry in #Afghanistan
— Neil Gordon (@NEGordon) January 20, 2016
Sen. Kelly Ayotte: "There is no accounting for Italian goats sent to Afghanistan, ice cream, a jewelry business." #Corruption #Greta
— Paulo Loreto Lim (@paulolim) January 21, 2016
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1/2 Senators at a hearing keep mocking idea of importing goats for cashmere industry and trying to build carpet business in Afghanistan.
— Nahal Toosi (@nahaltoosi) January 20, 2016
2/2 You have to wonder what the senators know about Afghanistan's small business and general strengths at this stage of its development.
— Nahal Toosi (@nahaltoosi) January 20, 2016
A US watchdog attacks a Pentagon agency for "ill-conceived" reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, including an attempt to import goats.
— pointerlu (@pointerlu) January 21, 2016
Quit goating around: US military loses $6 billion on cashmere goat project in Afghanistan due to poor managerment https://t.co/NdbASPnIxK
— Lila Randall (@Lila__Randall) January 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/RuairiV/status/689983196486828033
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