The insurgency in Afghanistan has expanded far beyond its stronghold in the south east. Transcending its traditional Pashtun base, the Taliban is bolstering its influence in the central-eastern provinces by installing shadow governments and tapping into the vulnerabilities of a central government crippled by corruption and deeply dependent on a corrosive war economy. Collusion between insurgents and corrupt government officials in Kabul and the nearby provinces has increased, leading to a profusion of criminal networks in the Afghan heartland.Afghanistan has been buffeted by recent tales of large scale fraud and corruption. The head of the Central Bank fled to the United States this week, fearing for his life after apparently putting the finger on a few of his cronies. Afghani officials have issued a warrant for his arrest.
...Nearly a decade after the U.S.-led military intervention began, little has been done to challenge the perverse incentives of continued conflict in Afghanistan. Insecurity and the inflow of billions of dollars in international assistance has failed to significantly strengthen the state’s capacity to provide security or basic services and has instead, by progressively fusing the interests of political gatekeepers and insurgent commanders, provided new opportunities for criminals and insurgents to expand their influence inside the government. The economy as a result is increasingly dominated by a criminal oligarchy of politically connected businessmen.
The two top officials of the Kabul Bank funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to themselves and their associates. Sherkhan Farnood, the bank’s former chairman, and Khaililullah Frouzi, the chief executive, helped to cover up a vast disbursal of funds to Afghanistan’s ruling elite by creating a maze of fictitious companies, fake names and forged documents. Other recipients included Mahmoud Karzai, the president’s brother, who allegedly received $22 million in loans; some parliament members, warlords and cabinet ministers, including Mohammed Fahim, Afghanistan’s first vice president.
Now there is a feeble attempt to regain approximate 900 million dollars of the purloined loot, which has caused an International Monetary Fund loss of credit.
A U.N. report issued in January and reported in Spiegel shows that bribes in the country last year equaled about 2.5 billion dollars or about a quarter of the nation's GDP.
The Wikileaks cables divulged in January gave a primer on how to run a corrupt country and skim American money:
One Afghan official helpfully explained to diplomats the “four stages” at which his colleagues skimmed money from American development projects: “When contractors bid on a project, at application for building permits, during construction, and at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.Mahmoud Karzai is not the only Karzai to have fleeced the country. Ahmed Wali, the president’s younger half-brother, reportedly possesses “shadow ownership” of the Kandahar local government. Along with exerting “considerable influence over business life” in the city, Ahmed Wali Karzai controls two private security forces, Watan Risk Management and Asia Security Group. The latter is run by the brothers’ cousin, Hashmat Karzai. Ahmed has been often linked to the lucrative opium trade.
Good article in the Global Post by Jean MacKenzie, "The myth of Afghan democracy."
Approximately 3 billion dollars are said to have been illegally funneled out of the country in the last three years. I assume that most of them are american. So far Hamid Karzai has not been irrevocably damaged by the corruption allegations but I am sure it is only a matter of time before the noose draws around his neck. I remember reading a quote from him a month ago blaming the Americans for not watching the government and banking sector closely enough. Like the duck and the scorpion.
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I think that we have waged the entire war clumsily and on the terrorists footing. You can not change an entire culture and impose a foreign ethos in a place where life has little value and where government is so corrupt. Sun Tzu or the Israelis might have instead used more hit and run, small scale guerilla tactics.
I honestly question whether these people are worth saving, or if we should be trying to help their internal struggle. Their ministers are corrupt, their army ineffectual and gutless.
We have one aim and objective, the way I see it. To keep America safe from terrorist attacks. Perhaps if we had set our sights on Afghanistan and Pakistan initially instead of Iraq after 9/11 we might have accomplished our goals sooner. Or ever. What have we gained by our protracted stay there? Are we or they any better off. Isn't there a point where we just say, you guys have at it, you get what you deserve.
We have poured so much money and blood into Afghanistan and we are rewarded with the ungrateful likes of Hamid Karzai.
Time to leave. Time to guard our own border. Have fun killing each other off.
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