ANOTHER LOOK AT THE “MILITARY SERVICE” OF SOUTH CAROLINA’S FIRST GENTLEMAN
By FITSNEWS || One of the most important myths this website shreds on a daily basis is the one about American soldiers “fighting for our freedoms.” These days, nothing could be further from the truth.
Take Michael Haley – a “diversity officer” with the S.C. National Guard. Haley spent his 2013 in Afghanistan – a military deployment breathlessly promoted by his wife, S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley.
So what was the governor’s “hero hubby” doing in Afghanistan? Well, he sure as hell wasn’t fighting the Taliban. In fact he wasn’t fighting anyone. Haley was part of an irrigation effort aimed at “providing for the sustainability of Afghanistan’s water resources,” specifically “strengthening the capacity of the provincial level agriculture ministry’s ability to develop, execute, monitor and assess water management projects.”
Wait … what? Yeah … this program (which reportedly cost U.S. taxpayers $10 billion) was all about trying to suppress poppy production (i.e. opium production). It was a “War on Drugs,” in other words – an effort to force Afghan farmers to plant other crops.
Did it work? Um, no. Not even a little bit.
Now there’s fresh data from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) showing just how colossally this effort continues to fail.
“Despite spending over $7 billion to combat opium poppy cultivation and to develop the Afghan government’s counternarcotics capacity, opium poppy cultivation levels in Afghanistan hit an all-time high in 2013,” a new SIGAR report reveals.
Actually the figure quoted by the SIGAR report is $7.6 billion – although it’s not immediately clear whether this is part of (or in addition to) the $10 billion figure referenced earlier.
Either way it’s a ton of money that has been totally wasted … not unlike the $4-6 trillion America has spent on its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.
“Afghan farmers grew an unprecedented 209,000 hectares of opium poppy in 2013, surpassing the previous peak of 193,000 hectares in 2007,” the report continued. “With deteriorating security in many parts of rural Afghanistan and low levels of eradication of poppy fields, further increases in cultivation are likely in 2014.”
Great … job well done, guys.
Of course according to SIGAR, it’s not the fault of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) – or of fine upstanding “heroes” like Michael Haley.
“The failure to reduce poppy cultivation and increase eradication is due to the lack of Afghan government support for the effort,” the report concluded.
Really?
Last time we checked, the failure was due to the free market explicitly rejecting these totalitarian efforts to force it into a counter-profitable direction.
Seriously … it’s ridiculous we’re fighting an anti-free market “War on Drugs” here in America, but do we really need to be fighting one in Afghanistan too?
Because both are expensive, abject failures …
Oh well, at least Nikki Haley got a ton of positive press out of the deal … that makes it all worth it, right?
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106 comments
FITS has really sunk to TRASH. If this is the only way you can keep this site up, you need to find something you can actually do, to make a living. Think of your children, and DIGNITY, if nothing else…
Bidding for filthy Democrat politicians is about as low as you can get.
SC Political Digest isn’t quite Pulitzer material… well far from it.
OK. Moving along.
Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize and AlGore was given an Academy Award….so I hope you are choking on Pulitzer’s D!*k as a source of value or substance. ….but I bet you are.
Careful, your gay fantasies are showing.
So it’s an insult, according to you, to be gay? I thought it was noble, based yours’, and the gay lobby’s, other dogma. You seem really confused over sexuality…can you get a special dispensation from the Obama gov’t based on that?
Thanks for pointing that out Big T, and for getting past your fears and standing up for the gay people of SC. Many of us have known you were in the closet for a long time, and no one should hold that against you. It is your right to come out when you want to, or not at all. Shame on you guys.
They are never far from the surface, Smirks.
Boz told us yesterday he was a former “coke head” and Will apparently has a history of domestic abuse and yet they slander those that serve our country and the public while spewing falsehoods for political gain.
What a pair.
See a post by me on this wall about Will’s criticism of Michael Haley’s service to this nation, pogo. I don’t like to see anyone’s military service disrespected in this way. Don’t know how I could make it any clearer.
His service is used as a political ploy for the queens re-election, get it now ?
Maybe so. But just as another example, all the political mileage JFK and John McCain got from their military service does not negate and important fact: They served. That’s my whole point. Politics be damned. Honor those who served.
Never was a full-on “coke head.” I indulged from time to time. That’s all. But I stopped before I got to the point where stopping was difficult. It wasn’t. It was just a choice I made, because I saw the posibility for total self-destruction. How could I not? Friends were dying behind that shit, and behind smack and crank (meth, now called “tweek”).
But why do I bother to explain these things to you, pogo? Facts mean zip to you. You and GT are sick peas in a bad pod.
Easy Sic, failures in our Mid East policies are not any soldiers fault. And while I’m not a Haley supporter, and I don’t know what his duties were, his ass was in the sand, gun in hand or not. I won’t ridicule anyone that went there. It’s not like he went to a travel agent and paid for vacation there.
I think Sic is more attacking the cult of military service where anyone who ever did anything in the military is considered some sort of hero and anything they do is considered a success.
I disagree, Sic has disdain for the Military.
We need a military, of that there is no doubt. We need a military to protect our country and our borders. Stories like this highlight the MASSIVE waste in our current military and how much room there is to trim that fat and still leave what should be its mission, protection of our nation and its borders, intact. It is nothing short of shameful that veterans have been sent to war which our politicians had no intention of letting them win (pretty much every conflict since WWII) and they struggle to get help from an underfunded and inept VA for their injuries, both mental and physical, while this kind of crap goes on, and on, and on.
I applaud Fits for having the guts to expose this kind of useless, shameful, waste. Can you imagine if this kind of money were put into well-deserved benefits for our veterans instead of wasted on garbage feel-good projects like this? How much more sense it would all make under such circumstances is off the chart.
Well damn it what are you going to do when you can’t even get the Libs to join the Peace Corp?! TeeHee
You know my friend, I do believe I know better than you about the waste in the Military, I’ve lived it. Civilians control everything the Military does from bogus operations to spending and that is as it should be. We in uniform salute say Yes Sir and try to complete the mission in spite of the Civilians. Do you really think those same Civilians would take money saved and increase benefits to veterans?
Applaud Fits all you want, as would I, if he did not attack those that wear the uniform. Sorry my friend, Sic has a disdain for those that have and are wearing the uniform.
I do understand and appreciate you perspective on that issue. I do feel if anyone (I think we all do to an extent) has a right to an opinion on this kind of thing, it is people like you who served, and have been and done.
In fairness though, some institutions and their practices are deserving of criticism as are occasionally some who worked in those institutions. FWIW, I am critical of useless and often detrimental and harmful operations of some LE agencies. A good “for instance” (harmful more than just useless) would be the cops who went door-to-door in the New Orleans area after hurricane Katrina, brutalizing residents in some cases and unlawfully confiscating firearms. I feel no kinship to those thugs and would not have felt any sorrow if some of them had been removed from the gene pool for their wrongful actions.
I use this particularly harsh criticism just to underscore that I would not take offense from anyone who criticized those persons, whether they were a cop or not, for their actions in that particular incident.
“I use this particularly harsh criticism just to underscore that I would not take offense from anyone who criticized those persons,”…those persons not all of LE…Do you think Michael Haley and the others on that mission deserve to be criticized personally for doing what the CinC sent them to do?
I too have criticized those in the Military that have been thugs and will continue to do so but I will not use a broad brush as Sic does. Sic has disdain for the Military.
Agreed. I do see his military service being played up more than a little as part of her political opportunism, but your point is well taken, Sir!
Just as Fits is playing it up for his opportunism behind his computer screen never having been to the sands of Afghanistan.
Add all those Marines AND THEIR FAMILIES poisoned for decades by solvents in their drinking water–contamination ignored by the base authorities–at that base in NC
Yes, thank you! I know there are many more examples and those were just a few that came to mind. Thank you for bringing that one back to memory. It is indeed, another atrocity committed against our fighting men and women (and their families) by our military institution.
Have a Headgear check asap ?
You would think he would have appreciation for the Military keeping Michael busy thus opening opportunity for him to shag Nikki. Some guys are just ungrateful.
same as you, idiot !
Yep,
He’s just one of those “I would’ve,could’ve,shoulda joined but I had other fish to fry back then and now that I’m approaching middle-age and see how unfilled my life is I’m bitter inside and take it out on the ones I am secretly jealous of”
That being said, it is kinda like when Waylon Jennings sung “This Outlaw Shit is Gettin Out of Hand”. I’m kind of feeling the same way about the military,cops,firemen,EMS, etc.
As retired military myself, i sure don’t consider myself a hero. I know some cops that are anything BUT heroes and EMT’s who almost too damn fat to get out of the ambulance.
For me the final straw was when “The Military Channel” was retitled to the “AHC” (American Hero Channel) and The History Channel is anything but about history.
It’s almost becoming jingoistic.
Sorry bro, it’s rare that I do this but I have to disagree with you on this one. Will has a weird hard-on for the military, and it infects his thinking in some equally weird ways. No one (especially vets) likes the incessant fawning over every single vet, but that’s not the FITS-centric problem. The FITS-centric worldview says that because Will, TR, and Ron Paul disagree with US foreign policy, it follows that service in the military is a dishonorable endeavor. I swear I believe that if this was 1970, Will would be at the airport holding up a “Baby Killer!” sign and spitting on GI’s.
The FITS ilk just can’t seem to grasp the deeper (and important) philosophical underpinnings of military service, like the fact that these folks volunteer to protect the country in advance- they don’t get to pick and choose missions, and no one calls them for advice. If the mission is whacked out (like Iraq was), you go and do the best you can. If some rogue nation-state attacks us for real tomorrow, you do the same. Plus, service in a strong military provides the deterrent under which we all live peacefully every day. The TR / FITS crowd doesn’t get serving something bigger than themselves, or sacrificing for the greater good. That actually cuts against true, hard corps libertarian (every-man-for-himself) idealism.
OK…rant complete. Sorry…
On time, on target. Thanks Mike
pretty close, check the facts.
Meanwhile Fits was over here whoring himself out to any politician with a checkbook. It takes a sorry piece of shit to attack those that went over there.
I’ve got some friends who were there in non-combat roles. JAG Corp, motor pool mechanic, logistics, etc. I’d not mock any of them regardless of mis-directed or failing policy. Poor tone and choices in this one.
Thank you for your service Michael Haley.
Your definition of service ?
Nobody here, including Will Folks, knows what Michael Haley did during his service. Take a deep breath, remember you don’t know the facts, and thank the U.S. military for ensuring that our enemies don’t attempt to invade us every day. If you ever wonder why this guy has to work with disgraced politicians, look no further than this opinionated pile of crap.
Haleys are trash pure and simple. A disgrace to everyone who’s put on the uniform.
Retired, white dude? Welcome. You’ll feed right at home.
God help us if she/they are reelected!
4 more years of lies, exaggerations, corrupt dealing, ethical malfeasance, abuse of position and total disregard for the people of SC!
Haley 51%-Sheheen 31%
Latest poll on RCP
Thank you “traitor” tommy!
Sandi you still lose.
If he’s a disgrace to you that is fine, you served you have that right but he’s not a disgrace to everyone that’s put on the uniform. You are one “Retired Marine” I would not want to share a cup of coffee with.
used in a political way as Nikki puts it, I don’t like it. You may find it as a positive for the Nikki campaign. Brave, ” BRAVE ” men fought the enemy, get it ?
I don’t like that she uses it either any more than the way Fits uses it.
If Fits wants to go after Haley fine but not “So what was the governor’s “hero hubby” doing in Afghanistan?”…get it?
Check the timing of YOUR HERO and report back. IDIOTCAM.
Where you EVER in the military ?
Is this the same Deo Vindice SC that said a while back he disproved my Military service or something stupid to that affect?
The one and only dirtbag, remember WIS ?
So why did you ask, shit bird.
As a former Marine, I would not use my service to promote my wife. Plain and simple. Nikki is the worst Governor in SC history. If my wife did her job, I would be behind her 100%. Nikki Haley should not be the Governor of SC and you know it. Your military service had common sense, right ? This state votes republican no matter what, You, Nikki, Mike, are not my kind of people. The Governor is for the PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GET IT ???
I thank God I am not your kind of people, Deo Vindice SC.
You got it. Common sense and responsibility is not your or Nikki’s trait. Keep screwing people all your life dirtbag. Look up my handle.
I know what your handle means, Reb.
Then get back to your back stabbing dirtbags, GET IT ?
Tell me Deo Vindice SC, do you have a swastika on wall next to your confederate flag?
You do not know me very well. I do love history, civil war, WW2, but I believe in people. We must stand together. Long ago, I was the person you think I am. Age has it’s affects. I admit I do not like Haley and never will. She has made so many mistakes, but to remove Darla was the worst. Along with the GA sellout. Hire her daughter when no-one has a job ? You and Nikki can SUCK MY DICK. Fucker !!!
It was good up to the last sentence but the fact that you think I’m a Nikki Haley fan, well you can SUCK YOUR OWN DICK.
I choked on that one. Good job.
Yes, he most definitely was. He is honorably retired.
Semper Fi Marine !
Very interesting. Anyone even minimally aware knows the CIA has been importing drugs on CIA and air force planes and in other ways during and since the Vietnam war. Check out the “Golden Triangle” and the Mena, Arkansas airport drug connection during the Clinton years or google Gary Webb to see just how pervasive this corruption is. The Taliban was actually succeeding in reducing the poppy production before we stepped in and restored the CIA profits that heroin provides for our shadow government. The war on drugs is a fraud that allows the CIA to make outsized profits on this “illegal” substance. Make something people want illegal, then monopolize all the profits for those above the law….
/// Arkansas airport drug connection during the Clinton years ///
I know people who knew the Clintons in Little Rock, when he was state AG. Said he “went out whoring and doing coke” every night. Around the time of the alleged Kathleen Willy rape.
That being said, the post is a bit too “INFO-WARS” for me. Meaning highly suspect as to truth.
See Kill the Messenger and JFK and Zero and Loose Change and Four Horsemen – then Counter Intelligence, Buz.
“alleged Kathleen Willy rape”…you might better put down the bong, and do a little research before you open your mouth. For one who peddles himself as being so all-knowing, you sure made a BIG F*#k up on that one…
OK, so it was Juanita Broderick. He only groped Kathleen Willie, and that happened in the White House. Also a form of sexual assault. Dipshit, you agree with me that Clinton is an immoral piece of shit, but quibble about the details of how this is so.
10:1 he (US) was building irrigation pro forma for poppy cultivation – just “calling” it “agricultural”. Catch 22 like deception.
Disappointing. He served. Don’t go all MAL on us, will.
(Obscure reference for many. Left-wing cartoonist, has done work for Village Voice, etc., did a stint with MAD magazine for a while. Love his style, and he’s sometimes funny, but he is a motherfucker for the way he maligns our troops.)
WOW…Village Voice and MAD…you are so well-read….I bet you really mesmerize the klatch down at the coffee house, and woo the throngs at Peace-Knick..w/ a sage Timothy Leary-esque delivery……
What the hell is “Peace-Knink”? Doesn’t sound like my scene. Show me where I have ever been totally anti-war in this century, you dildo. I fully support our troops. Point of my comment.
Leary was a misguided, burnt-out feeb. (You should relate.) I knew that even in my “hippie days.”
And, um … “coffee house” … be more specific. We have many of them around here. At least 4, at any given time, are Christian “missions.” Several Starbucks we got, aplenty, but they’re not really all that boho, ya know. Have not seen the truly counter-cultural “movement” kind of coffee house in a long time, outside of Asheville and Chapel Hill in NC, and a few spots in Atlanta, Miami, etc. As usual, so off-base you need a pass and three photo IDs to get back on it.
+10 “…As usual, so off-base you need a pass and three photo IDs to get back on it…”
Yep, that is quite the visual……….
Why don’t you find a good venue in Fort Mott to do your impersonation of Emily Peterkin singing love songs to Nikki Haley? That should bring in a house that would number in the single digits.
Michael is a volunteer, who goes to a hot battle zone. Fits has to call the cops when a 50-something man-child sends him mean texts. Shut the fuck up all ready, you little pussy!
Whoa! Good one! Zing!!!! Can’t stand Nikki’s politics but kudos to Mr. Haley for going.
Nikki is Hillary II. Nikki has taken many pages from Hillary’s book and used the political maneuverings Hillary perfected into a real national and state persona for higher offices. To parse Hillary, Nikki demures, “at this point what does it matter”.
I just keep thinking the guy is either very passive or possibly a pussy because he should kicked Folks ass a long time ago.
He and his kids benefit from Nikki’s sharing of favors with people of power and prestige.
You are a disgrace.
Nikki is
Truth hurts?
“cuckold”
That’s right, I agree, every time he kisses her must taste like Will.
It’s funny that there are still people that believes Will’s bullshit. Didn’t he also tell you a book was being written about it? Have you seen that book yet? Useful idiots, that’s what people like you are called. Go look in the mirror if you need a visual example.
he takes it for sure, she is the gov !
Will hides like the little bitch he is whenever Mike is around.
I’m no fan of the Haleys, but go spend a year with the military in Afghanistan and then criticize his service.
So according to Will’s headline, this failure falls on one NG officer.
From what I recall, the only fighting Will Folks has done typically consists of him beating up a woman.
I love Nikki’s advertisement, Mike was a ” Flower Planter ” in Afghanistan, or ” In the rear with the gear ” please do not associate him with American Heroes that fought the enemy, I cringe at the thought of him with a weapon. More Nikki fodder as usual.
Really poor taste to publish this.
Why ?
It’s not approved opinion. Those in the military “deserve” more commendation than the secretary slaving away to feed her family while also paying the soldiers salary via taxes.
Military people sprout halo’s and become untouchable in “acceptable” circles. They are “selfless”, no longer humans.
If one did not serve they also seemingly have no right to an opinion, given the tone of some posts on here.
I think anyone who goes over there is risking his life directly or indirectly from the enemy. There is a lot of collateral damage. His efforts are worthy even thought the ultimate result was a total failure. He did his part, amen.
Interestingly enough. The Taliban shut down Poppy Production and the Drug trade in Afghanistan before they were removed. It’s against their religious beliefs, they said. But, after the invasion, the Taliban now support Poppy and Drug production. They use the proceeds to fund their Jihad. Hypocrisy, typical: Yep!
Well where do I buy ?
the first dude always looks baked
As I have said your hate for Haley far outweighs anything else in you reporting and that is sad!
I will never understand this marriage. Is it open, is he oblivious, does he like being a cuckhold, can he not get the job done?
Thanks for your service to your nation Michael. thanks!
I disagree with all of you, Sic knows what a military is. And it’s not Haley !
He is pig shit personified.
This is hilarious.
He goes to Afghanistan to help with water resources planning or management when there is virtually no organized concern or evaluation–to say nothing of management–of South Carolina’s threatened water resources!
Just plain too funny.
See Mega Farm article in State last Saturday. DHEC is way corrupt to the hilt.
Researchers are trying to get other, genetically altered, organisms to produce opiates because of the risk in having so much legal production of poppies in one place (New Zealand) where a disease or bug outbreak or weather disaster may halt too much of the world’s production of this medically essential crop.
Why don’t we just buy the opium from Afghanistan and divert it to medicine. I’ll bet the price the farmers get is pretty low.
See Gary Webb for your answer.