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By Joel Brinkley
If you were to read two new government reports on American aid to Afghanistan, you would come away first astounded and then utterly furious, just as I did. Ten years into the Afghan war, our government still heedlessly throws many billions of dollars at Afghan organizations that steal some of it and pass the rest off to militants who use it to kill American troops.
Oh, the department complained, it's all so complicated.
The Afghan war now costs the U.S. about $120 billion a year.
A small portion of that is devoted to developmental aid -- $17.2 billion in 2009 and 2010. Now, as American and NATO leaders look toward 2014, when Western forces are supposed to leave, they must prepare the ground "in a way that allows our efforts to be replaced over time by efficient local governments, thriving civil societies and vibrant private sectors," as Dr. Raj Shah, administrator of the
Could he possibly be any more naive?
Let's stipulate some facts about the nation we are trying to help. Afghanistan is arguably the most primitive nation on earth. Twenty of every 100 children die before they reach age 5 -- which may be the world's worst rate. Almost two-thirds of those who survive suffer from stunting, for lack of nutrition during infancy. The average per capita income is about $370, making Afghanistan considerably less prosperous than Haiti, Bangladesh, Ghana or Senegal. Illiteracy is nearly universal, and the average life span is 44, among the world's lowest.
At the same time, Afghanistan may be the world's most corrupt nation.
So, given these facts, how exactly does Mr. Shah intend to bring about "thriving civil societies and vibrant private sectors," in a nation where we have been at work for 10 years and have not achieved even a scintilla of progress toward those goals? One of the reports, by the
In fact, the two government reports make the inarguable point that Western aid is so distorting the Afghan economy -- 97 percent of the state's GDP comes from foreign-government spending -- that the economy will likely collapse as soon as we pull out.
So here's the American plan. It's called the "Afghan First" policy. Among other precepts, it calls for donor nations to give more and more of their aid money directly to the Afghan government. Perhaps the government will then deposit it in the successor to
So how will the United States assure that the increasing direct aid is not misspent? The other report, by the
Are you angry yet?
Well, USAID wanted to open a similar office, so it sent a single test case to the
All of this is so disheartening.
As the
Joel Brinkley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former foreign correspondent for the
Available at Amazon.com:
Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World
Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East (The Contemporary Middle East)
The End of History and the Last Man
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?
Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource
Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water
Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century
Dining With al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East
Uprising: Will Emerging Markets Shape or Shake the World Economy
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World - The Afghan Money Pit | Global Viewpoint