"The United States is spending more than $6 billion a month in the conflict." Reuters
12/5/11, "U.S. commits to another dozen years of financial aid to Afghanistan at Bonn," Washington Times, Sara A. Carter
"Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned Monday that his nation would spiral into civil war and see a resurgence of the Taliban if the U.S. led coalition fails to deliver billions of dollars in aid to his country each year well after a scheduled U.S. withdrawal in 2014.
At the opening of the Bonn II conference in Germany, Monday, Karzai said, "The people of Afghanistan are looking to this conference for clear affirmation of commitment to make security transition and economic progress irreversible." American officials who heard the comments said there was no doubt that "commitment" meant a steady gusher of U.S. dollars. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised that flow of cash would continue for at least a decade after the United States departs Afghanistan.
The conference was supposed to be a critical moment in evolving relations among the U.S., Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it was doomed before it started when Pakistan boycotted in protest over the U.S. airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani Army soldiers last month.
As a result, an opportunity to reach some accord for dealing with the Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan will be missed, experts said."...
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6/26/11, "Among The Costs Of War: Billions A Year In A.C.?" NPR
"When you have this many people in a country that doesn't want you there — that has no economy, no infrastructure and a corrupt government — and you're trying to stabilize it and build them into a viable nation? I'm not sure we have enough time, and I definitely know we don't have enough money."
- Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va.
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9/19/10, "U.S. contractor accused of fraud still winning big Afghan projects," McClatchy, Marisa Taylor and Warren P. Stroebel
US under great "political pressure to pump billions into Afghanistan," 'subcontractors are impossible to trace.' Louis Berger Co. was a big democrat donor.
- (Above article won a 2011 Nat. Press Club award).
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"Subcontractors are impossible to trace."...
7/25/11, "U.S. trucking funds end up in Taliban hands," Reuters
"Cash from part of a $2.16 billion U.S. transportation contract in Afghanistan has ended up in the hands of Taliban insurgents, the Pentagon said on Monday."...
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10/13/10, "Afghan firms "pay off Taliban with foreign [American] cash," Reuters
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9/25/11, "Government by crime syndicate," LA Times, Op-ed, Sarah Chayes,
"In Afghanistan and elsewhere, rampant corruption threatens security and the rule of law."
"Afghanistan is controlled by a structured, mafiaesque system, in which money flows upward via purchase of office, kickbacks or "sweets" in return for permission to extract resources (of which more varieties exist in impoverished Afghanistan than one might think) and protection in case of legal or international scrutiny. Those foolish enough to raise objections are punished. The result is a system that
- selects for criminality,
excluding and marginalizing the very men and women of probity most needed to build a sustainable state."...
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April 21, 2011, Karzai incited anti-US riots in Afghanistan in which torture and death resulted:
4/2/11, "More violence over Koran burning," Reuters, Ismael Sameem, Montreal Gazette
"Afghan and UN officials said insurgents had incited violence at peaceful protests. Marches in Kabul, the western city of Herat and northern Tahar province ended without unrest."...
Some were beaten and stoned to death, one's throat was slit."...via Lucianne
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