AF Catch up 092214

In July the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko gave and interview shattering rose colored views of Afghan assistance programs.

According to Sopko, American aid was used to buy speedboats for a country with no coast and little navigable water, planted crops with no markets and over Afghan objections. Sent more money on reconstruction than the Marshall Plan for all of Europe.

Sopko points out rampant corruption among Afghan and U.S. officials as well as just plain incompetence in program management, leading to billions of assistance dollars wasted.  His litany goes on: building schools that fall down, clinics with no doctors, roads with built in potholes and that the Afghans can't afford the government and infrastructure America "knows best" has force on them.  No one asked the Afghans and there was little independent oversight provided.  According to Sopko some $20 billion is still in the pipeline with and an expected $6-8 billion annually for the foreseeable future.

Another concern is the counter narcotics aid resulting in more acres under poppies than before the U.S. invasion. Opium production is up as well and a new Afghan addiction problem. Sopko states his job is not to be "a cheerleader" of U.S. programs but to protect taxpayer dollars, the Afghans already know where the money was wasted.

Sopko didn't mention the millions spent over 12 years to retrain a warrior culture that now can't fight.  The U.S. is pushing ahead on a $500 million refurbishment of the Kajaki dam, already ten years behind schedule but touted to be an Afghan cure-all.  America built the dam in the 1950s but it produced little electricity, even that trickle ended 2001when the U.S. bombed its power lines. After 10 years of failure to bring the dam on line many Afghans have given up and even President Karzai said that the Dam is money wasted. Expectations are that once the military withdraws the last of the construction workers will flee.  Even if the project is completed, Sopko reported in December that $12.8 million in sophisticated electricity distribution equipment is unused because the Afghan staff "lacks the technical and operational capacity to install and manage it."  Just how much of the total foreign aid was wasted will probably never be known.

Without bean counters on the ground it is probable that future aid will disappear at an even greater rate. Without foreign aid it is probable that Afghanistan will fall back into chaos.  With aid and oversight but without "America knows best" direction the Afghans just might be able to recover if given enough time.  There are many smart and skilled Afghans; if they had been encouraged to produce needed products in native light industries, rather than soybeans, they might be ahead of the coming power curve.  Poppy farmers could have been lured from the fields by higher wages for less labor. The Taliban might have been incorporated into government and moderated without the early U.S. opposition. What ifs of the past are non-productive but of great value in future planning.  The question, is it too late for Afghanistan, can it be saved?  China may step in but has it learned from America's missteps? 

The clock is ticking, the model is Syria, was it all really Allah's will?