DAY 85: "Mother of all bombs" is a financial disaster

Donald Trump and the right-wing media saw the failed air strike in Syria boosted Donald Trump's in the polls, so Trump now dropped a big bomb in Afghanistan known as the "Mother of all Bombs" (MOAB) that's the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal. The bomb was dropped on a series of tunnels that were used by the US-sponsred Mujahideen in the 1980s, but now supposedly are being used by ISIS.

Well, today, a day after the MOAB was dropped, we know now the financial numbers from that bomb and it is a disaster for the United States.

First of all, that bomb cost $16 million dollars. And it only killed 36 people, allegedly ISIS militants. But according to The Daily Mail, there are between 600 and 800 ISIS militants in Afghanistan. That means you would need at least 16.66 MOABs to kill all ISIS militants in Afghanistan. Times $16 million that means over $266 million. More than a quarter of a billion dollars.

(UPDATE: According to the Afghan government, 94 members of ISIS were killed. That still is a financial disaster. Over $102 million dollars while not changing anything, as you will see next.)

Even worse; The main ISIS militants are not even in Afghanistan, but in Iraq and Syria. So the MOAB in Afghanistan didn't change anything.

Why drop the MOAB then? As I said before, it was just for show. Trump was sinking in the polls and he realized sensless bombing boosted his poll numbers after the botched air strike in Syria. Now he wants another boost.

Well, that's too bad, because according to Gallup, between April 12 and April 13 Trump's disapproval increased from 54% to 55%, while his approval got stuck at 40%.

And by the way: When Trump bombed Syria, his approval went to 42%. Then it dropped to 40%.

In short, these bombings are a waste of taxpayer money, they don't change anything since ISIS in Iraq and Syria remains untouched, and they don't even boost Trump's approval numbers. They merely boost Trump's ego, since Fox News keeps on brown-nosing him because of the bombings. But you pay for that ego boost with your taxpayer dollars.

Curious, though, as the Trump admnistration said they could not afford to keep on paying for Meals on Wheels. Such hypocrisy...

UPDATE: According to the Associated Press, Trump didn't even ordered nor authorized the use of the MOAB. From the AP article:

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan who ordered use of the "mother of all bombs" to attack an Islamic State stronghold near the Pakistani border didn't need and didn't request President Donald Trump's approval, Pentagon officials said Friday.

The officials said that even before Trump took office in January, Gen. John Nicholson had standing authority to use the bomb, which is officially called the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, the largest non-nuclear bomb ever dropped in combat. The bomb, dropped by a special operations MC-130 aircraft, had been in Afghanistan since January.

In other words, Trump is taking credit for something he didn't authorize. And yet, it is a financial disaster that Trump should be preventing, not letting it happen without even his authorization.