...half of the world has tried to bring a better future and, most of all, peace to this new country, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. As part of the NATO military operation known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), 40 nations have 60,000 soldiers deployed in the country. There are 26 United Nations organizations in Afghanistan, and hundreds of private and government agencies are pumping money, materials and know-how into the country's 34 provinces.
gosh, you would think, given that the u.s. came galloping in to afghanistan right after 9/11 followed by a bunch of other countries, that, yes, things SHOULD have gotten better... and, yes, anyone who reads stuff like that spiegel article (and many more like it), handily reinforced by meteor blades, could be forgiven for thinking the same thing... however, until i arrived here in kabul in late march and saw things with my own eyes, i might have been just one of the many swallowing such bologna, hook, line and sinker... trouble is, it's just not true...
for all the billions of dollars that have been sunk into afghanistan (certainly billions LESS than are disappearing into iraq, to be sure), let me tell you what i experience every time i travel the streets of kabul, SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE TALIBAN...
- incredibly bad roads, much less than half of which are paved
- stratospheric unemployment
- abject poverty
- abysmal health care
- a virtually non-existent water and sanitation system
- schools - when they exist at all - still in tents
- electrical power in many parts of the city available only 3 nights a week for four hours a night
- soaring food prices and dwindling supplies of basic foodstuffs
- no land-line phone system which, were it not for the 4 national cell phone providers, would make voice communication around the country impossible
- pollution from cars, electrical generators, cooking and heating over wood fires and with kerosene stoves, peaking well above serious health risk levels and exacerbated by the ever-present dust from the unpaved streets
where has all the money gone you may ask...? the lion's share comes in to the country and goes right back out again in the pockets of those who hold the massive, billion-dollar contracts: kbr, dyncorp, louis berger, etc., etc... the rest goes into the numbered bank accounts of the horde of returned afghan-canadians, afghan-germans, afghan-british, and afghan-americans who swooped back into the country like vultures after the taliban fell to make their swag and who, if things turn bad, simply pull out the passports from their respective countries, drive to the airport, and fly away again... and some of it, yes, will leave the country in the pockets of those like me, independent contractors working for development projects or in the fatigue jackets of u.s. military...
everybody has heard of hamid karzai, the afghan president, but NOBODY bothers to write about the karzai BROTHERS, who, among them, have tied up all of the most lucrative supply contracts for the coalition forces and, according to virtually everyone, MOST of the much MORE lucrative drug trade...
i'm not a pundit, nor am i a front-page diarist on daily kos, but, from talking with any number of my afghan friends and colleagues, i can tell you one thing, and i believe it to be true... if the basic, fundamental human needs that i spelled out above were taken care of, the violence would stop in a new york minute, and the taliban would fade into the morning mist...
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