Fort Drum soldiers return from Afghanistan, one proposes to his girlfriend
About 150 Fort Drum soldiers returned Saturday night following about 10 months in Afghanistan. The group represented the final one for the 10th Mountain Division headquarters, along with soldiers...
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Fort Drum soldiers return from Afghanistan, one proposes to his girlfriend - Video
"Time and again, I am running into people from USAID, State and the Pentagon who think they are in Kansas [not Afghanistan]," he said. "My auditors tell me things [about spending plans] and I say, 'you have to be making this up, this is Alice in Wonderland'."
The Nato military operation in Afghanistan, which started shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and which has been spearheaded by the US, will come to a melancholy close at the end of December with the Taliban insurgency still strong, although it does not hold any major cities.
Under current plans, about 10,000 US troops will remain in the country until 2016, although the administration is under growing pressure to extend their presence because of worries about a Taliban resurgence once the US departs.
Since 2001, the government has appropriated $765bn for the war in Afghanistan, the vast bulk for the defence department but also including some spending at the state department.
Read MoreSenate OKs defense policy bill
The money to finance both the Iraq and Afghan wars was borrowed and, according to Ryan Edwards at City University of New York, the US has already paid interest of $260bn on that war debt. Under FT calculations based on funds appropriated, $125bn of those interest costs have been allocated to the Afghan conflict.
On top of that there are medical costs already incurred for soldiers who have left the military. Linda Bilmes, a Harvard economist who has done extensive research on the war costs, estimates that medical spending on veterans from both Iraq and Afghanistan has so far reached $134bn.
However, she said it was impossible to assess how much of that spending was related only to Afghanistan because a third of soldiers served in both conflicts and because medical issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder were usually the cumulative result of a series of events rather than one incident.
More from the FT:'This is not over yet' Costly missteps mark US road to war Cost of the Afghanistan war
The Afghan conflict has led to other increases in public spending that are significant but difficult to isolate. As well as the separate war funding it has received since 2001, the Pentagon's "base" budget, which covers all its other costs, has also seen a dramatic increase, with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq one of the main factors.
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Afghan war costs US $1 trillion
Fort Dix, New Jersey President BarackObamaon Monday saluted troops returning from Afghanistan and declared the United States is moving past the time for large deployments aimed at nation building, marking what he called a "turning point" for the U.S. military.
Obamanoted that nearly 180,000 troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan when he took office, and that number will be down to less than 15,000 at the end of the month.
"The time of deploying large ground forces with big military footprints to engage in nation building overseas, that's coming to an end," the commander in chief said in a speech to 3,000 atNewJersey'sJoint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a launching point for deployments to Afghanistan.
U.S. and NATO troops closed their operational command in Afghanistan last week after 13 years of war. Some troops will remain, however, to carry out operations against Taliban and al-Qaida targets.
"Going forward our military will be leaner,"Obamasaid. "But as your commander in chief, I'm going to make sure we keep you ready for the range of missions that we ask of you. We are going to keep you the best trained, the best led, the best equipped military in the history of the world because the world will still be calling."
The base also has been used to send service members to West Africa to help confront the Ebola crisis.
Obamawas greeted upon arrival by Republican Gov. Chris Christie.Obamaand the potential 2016 presidential candidate shared a laugh and a long handshake before heading to the event to express gratitude to the troops ahead of the holidays.
At a time when Republicans are fightingObama'saction to offer reprieve from deportations, the president singled out one immigrant working on the base.Obamasaid the airman, who fled civil war in his native Congo and joined the U.S. military, has "that same patriotism, that same sense of what we're about as Americans; that same creed that we can all pledge allegiance to regardless of what we look like or where we come from."
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Obama touts 'turning point' for US military
KABUL, Afghanistan - A bullet from a PKM machine gun ripped through the right hand of a Special Forces team sergeant within seconds after he scrambled from a helicopter in northern Afghanistan.
The soldier moved his weapon to his left hand, deftly returning fire to allow his teammates to get off the hot landing zone.
The commander of that A-team, speaking from Kabul weeks after the fight, detailed how his team's top noncommissioned officer refused medical aid for nearly eight hours while the battle raged.
"He was shot in the first 30 seconds we hit the ground," the captain, a team leader with the 3rd Special Forces Group, said. (For security reasons, the names of Special Forces operators cannot be used in news reports.) "He stayed out there the entire time, refusing all medication, all pain meds, so he could be coherent."
The soldier, a veteran of multiple deployments and a recipient of at least two previous Purple Hearts for combat wounds, did his job as a medic tended to him.
He spoke with his team leader on the radio, instructed Afghan commandos and gave guidance to Air Force combat controllers.
Even now, with the soldier home and recovering, he's not happy being away from the fight.
"He is hell bent on coming back, probably in the next 30 days," the Special Forces captain said.
That drive, that commitment to team, is not limited to Special Forces soldiers, but it is clearly common among the Green Berets. Over more than a dozen years, many have deployed to Afghanistan multiple times, developing deep ties not only with their American comrades, but also with the Afghan commandos who work with them so closely.
"Yeah, we had maybe nine Green Berets on the ground that day, but we had 160 commandos," the Special Forces captain said. All of them matter, he said.
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Special Forces leaders say building friendships key in Afghanistan
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